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The War Amps has just wrapped up its 2008 WEBMASTERS Seminar in Ottawa. This is a dynamic program I introduced that provides training for Super Champs and focuses on improving and maintaining their computer skills, as well as helping them attain new computer skills in the field of Web development. On Saturday, July 26th, I chatted in the studio with Nick Vandergragt of CFRA Radio’s Nick at Night Show about why this program was launched and how it will put multiple amputee children on the road to independence.

Please find excerpts from the interview here.

Copy of the transcript can be found here.

Lili Marlene was the song the British Army ‘borrowed’ from the Germans in Italy (or maybe it was earlier, in North Africa). In any event, it became the song which was beloved by the combat troops in World War II. There was a brilliant parody written by some piano player – a sergeant from the ranks of the 51st Highland Battalion, or so I am told – who wrote this version.

We are the D-Day Dodgers, way out in Italy,
Always on the vino, and always on the spree.
Eighth Army scroungers and their tanks,
We live and rove among the Yanks,
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy. 

We fought into Agira, a holiday with pay;
Jerry brought his bands out, to cheer us on our way,
Showed us the sights and gave us tea,
We all sang songs, the beer was free,
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy.

The Moro and Ortona were taken in our stride,
We didn’t really fight there, we went there for the ride.
Sleeping till noon and playing games,
We live in Rome with lots of dames.
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy.

On our way to Florence, we had a lovely time,
We drove a bus from Rimini, right through the Gothic Line.
Then to Bologna we did go,
We all went swimming in the Po,
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy.

Look around the mountains in the mud and rain,
See the scattered crosses, there’s some that have no name.
Heartbreak and toil, and suffering gone,
The boys beneath and slumber on.
They are the D-Day Dodgers, who stay in Italy.
They are the D-Day Dodgers, who stay in Italy.

This year is the 65th anniversary of that sometimes forgotten battle.

My memory of Italy goes back to the time I met Major Alex Campbell at a carrier course in Barnard Castle. I believe he had already had some combat experience with the British Army in North Africa. In any event, he became a role model to me and many other younger officers.

The other day, I ran across a comment about Alex Campbell and I repeat it herewith:

The Hasty Ps lost a cherished veteran on Christmas Day [that would have been 1943]. Major Alex Campbell, the company commander whose hatred for Germans was matched only by his courage, had returned on the 24th from a stay in hospital. Campbell’s company was ordered Christmas morning to drive out a party of paratroops that had infiltrated the Italians’ front-line, and the Major led the attack himself. When one platoon was pinned down by machine-gun fire, he should have deployed some of his men to outflank it. Instead, inexplicably, he seized a Tommy [Thompson] gun and with “an inarticulate bellow” charged it alone. Riddled with bullets, Alex Campbell died in the cold mud of an anonymous field near Ortona.

Like a good many other younger officers who came under his tutelage, I formed a picture of Alex carrying out a lone charge against the German pillbox. Alex Campbell – What a soldier!