The 9th of September marked the 80th anniversary of Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings in Italy near Salerno.
My father, Christopher Oldfield (1921-81), fought in the Italian Campaign. He had two years at Oxford before joining the Grenadier Guards in 1942. In 1943, he was sent with his battalion, the Sixth, to North Africa and thereafter to Italy. He was wounded twice, once in North Africa and once in Italy.
During lockdown, I found in tin boxes half a dozen exercise books full
