mowing machine

while in italy, the 1st canadian infantry division was part of the british 8th army. as a demolitions expert, grampa and other like sappers often were lent out and worked with other commonwealth troops. on one mission four canadian engineers (grampa included) were sent to do a job for the british. they were to go behind enemy lines and blow up a bridge and were given a security team of six gurka riflemen. the gurkas were world class soldiers who had a long history of serving in the british army. they set out through the mountains and made it safeley through german lines. finding the bridge ungaurded the sappers set their charges and blew it up. they new now that getting back to thier own lines would not be as easy as the trip out. there would be the enemy hunting them and also the enemy line on the alert for thier return. after a pow-wow the ten men decided that thier best chance of getting back was to split up and go in ones or twos; grampa was on his own. he would move slowly at night and hide during the day. just before light on the day after they blew the bridge grampa found a good hiding place in some thick brush on the edge of a hayfield and settled in to get some sleep. at about noon after the dew had lifted, an italian farmer showed up at the hayfield with an ox and an ox drawn mowing machine, grampa kept an eye on the farmer but wasn't worried about being discovered; he had a good hiding place. the farmer cut his hay and grampa tryed to get some sleep. during the afternoon the mowing machine broke down; grampa watched the old farmer trying to fix it for about an hour. grampa had a similar mower on the farm in ireland and thought "what the hell"; he walked out of the bush and went to work fixing the mower for the old farmer; he soon had it working fine. the farmer was very happy and although they did not share a langauge it became clear that grampa was coming home for supper. after food and vino, when it was dark, the farmer guided grampa to another italian farm house; here, he was hidden and fed all the next day. then at night that farmer guided him through german and back to british lines. a bit of kindness payed off; grampa had a great love for the italian people.