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Front Cover of Ron's Army Album created 1946

Page 1 Inside front cover

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Blank page due to re-bind

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Peter Ghiringhelli was good enough to translate the Italian text on the Piccolo Italiana membership card and part of his e-mail now follows:

Thank you Ron for letting me have a scan of this most interesting document. It is the membership card of a 'Piccola Italiana' (Little Italian Girl), part of the
Ballila movement, for girls aged between 8 and 12.
They then went on to the 'Giovane Italiane' (Young Italian Girls) from 13 to 18.
The left sets out the duties of the 'Piccolo Italiane':

"A Piccola Italiana must prepare herself to be the Fascist woman of tomorrow.
Here are her tasks:
1. To fulfill her obligations as daughter, as sister, as schoolgirl, and as a friend, with kindness and joy even when such duties are sometimes tedious.
2. To serve the motherland as a greater mother, the mother of all Italians.
3. To love 'il Duce' who has made the motherland stronger and greater still.
4. To cheerfully obey all superiors.
5. To have the courage to oppose those who council evil and who mock honesty.
6. To train her body to overcome physical strain and her mind not to fear pain.
7. To shun stupid vanity and to love things of beauty.
8. To love work, which is life and harmony.

Augusto Turati"

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The reverse of this leaflet reads:

Charlie tells the truth!

Say, chums, here's a new voice! Of course, it's not your master's voice, but here come the thoughts of a soldier just like you! I'm no more than one of the millions of suffering soldiers in the world. I'm an Allied soldier !
I'm, so to say, the blank file in all your parades. I know what's what and I want to put your thoughts into words for you.
In short, I'm Charlie the Gunner!
Just now I want you to keep your brains clear, for in the coming weeks, the Big Show is timed to start on the Italian front. What do I mean? Hell, our officers are talking about large scale attacks against Jerry! Isn't that the limit?. Listen, in the East, the Red Army is about 40 miles from Berlin. In the West our Armies are
going forward along the Rhine. And we here in Italy? What are WE doing? We could of course wait till the bloody thing was. over, but no, we must get ready for new attacks!
That means heavy losses again and, for many pals, a single ticket to the devil !
The mountains here are not friendly and the Po is wide, deep, and very, very wet!
There can be only two possibilities.
You and I know that the battlefront here is of secondary importance. So either our Generals are taking a last chance to snatch a victory and make fame in military history, or our dear Winnie and Franklin Delano must have some victories to put up in San Francisco against "Good Old Joe"
At the last moment we must end our lives in Italian mud and dust. We could win this war without any great attacks in Italy! But our Commanders and our Government say: No! Ten thousand dead heroes more or less make no difference to us and we need them to balance our bill with Stalin's, when the “Golden Gate of Sail Francisco” is opened for the great Peace Conference on the first of April.

Sorry, boys, I made a slight slip about the date, it's the 2nd of April, not the first!

But what can WE do? We can't even raise our voices, against these Hero-makers!
So, come along boys, be quick about it and kick the bucket for them!
While the Golden Gate of San Francisco is opening to receive Winnie F.D.R. and St. Joe to the Great Conference which is to bring Peace on Earth to Men of Goodwill, the “Golden Gate of Heaven” will be opened for many of you by Good Old St. Peter, saying: “Come inside and choose your harp, You've had your share of Hell”
So, till next time! Yours
Charlie

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The reverse side shows a skeleton hovering over a British Cemetery with the words: BUT DID YOU EXPECT TO FIND IT LIKE THIS ?

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The reverse side of this leaflet graphically portrays British troops being blown out of the water whilst attempting a river crossing.

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The reverse of this leaflet reads:

He also had been told
that the Germans are a horde of Huns and barbarians, posing as supermen and with only one idea, to bring all Europe under their tyranny of terror.

He also had been told
that it was the sacred duty of all liberty-loving men to free Europe from the bestial cruelty of these Nazis.

He also had been told
that in fighting against these Huns it was necessary to hold out to the last, as the Germans illtreat and even kill their prisoners.

The day came when he was taken prisoner.
The "Hun" who had captured him pulled out his first-aid kit, bandaged his wounded hand and gave him a cigarette.
The "Hun" who brought him to the dressing station gave him a drink from his own flask
and saw to it that hat he came under the doctor's care at once.
The "Hun" doctor who skilfully and gently extracted the splinter from his hand, gave him another cigarette and sent him off with a friendly pat on the back.
The "Hun" who brought him to the prisoners' camp knew a little English and told him and some of his pals all about his home and his family.

Then he understood

that all these German soldiers were neither Huns nor wild beasts nor did they pose as supermen. Thev were boys like his friends Bill, Fred and George, boys with the same claims on life as the English soldiers and, like them they were also fed up with war.
And so everything was quite different
from what his newspapers and wireless, full of hate-propaganda, had been dinning into his ears. He had been the victim of a swindle, for he knew well enough now from all the German soldiers he had met and learned to know, that they were incapable of committing the atrocities recounted daily by his papers. They wanted to live in peace and attend to their work, and for this it was necessary that the world should allow them the same rights as any other nation. They were fighting for these rights and would not cease fighting until they obtained them. But nothing was further from their thoughts than to wish to dominate Europe. On the contrary, OR their Eastern Front they were fighting the battle of this very Europe against the Asiatic hordes of the steppes beyond the Urals and the Caucasus, who, stirred up by Bolshevism, had attacked Europe with murder, violence and robbery. They would not be satisfied with the conquest of Germany alone, their goal was the revolutionising of the whole world. And while the Germans were fighting desperately against this onslaught,they were defending' not only their own lives but were fighting for Europe and also for England, for him. Bill, Fred, George, and for everyting that made life worth living.
And so he began to reflect!
If everything that the anti-German hate-propaganda was saying was untrue, if the truth was something quite different, then there must be someone with an interest in this senseless Slaughter, among the nations of Europe. There must be someone who profits by all the suffering and misery of war.
Who is it?
This is a question worth thinking over.

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The reverse of this leaflet reads:

His way leads safe home

True, it passes through a prison camp and no true soldier likes to be taken prisoner, a Briton as little as any other.

And, Bill was a good soldier and naturally he was fed up like all of us, but he was no coward.

But, Bill was also an intelligent soldier and as his reconnaissance party was spotted by Jerry and he and his pals were wounded by spandau fire, he saw that the situation was hopeless,and further resistance meant senseless suicide.
So, Bill did the only sensible thing he said “Goodbye to Arms” and gave himself up.

Then, Bill got to know Jerry.
Naturally he was not pleased to be falling into the hands of men whom his own leaders had always described as “beasts in human shape” but he would have to take his chance. The first Jerry whom he got know was one of the paratroops called Walter who promptly produced his field-dressing kit and bandaged his head, then gave him a drink out of his bottle and a cigarette, and finally putting Bill's arm around his shoulder brought him out of the front tines to the dressing station.
Bill felt he had found a pal in this quiet boy and he .was sorry when they had to part. He soon realised, however, that Walter was one of many, all helpful, friendly, decent chaps - young men with the same sorrows and joys and the same feelings as his own pals.
At last. Bill understood that his capture was a piece of good luck for him He got the chance to see behind the scenes and learn to know the^ much-abused Germans.
Besides, in many talks with English speaking captors, now friends, he very soon realised that German “Nazism” was hailed by the London war- mongers merely because they feared it might open the eyes of the English workers to their own plight under the old system, and lastly, and most important of all Bill knew that he was safe on the road to Home, sweet Home,

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The German Propaganda leaflet entitled "Churchill without Roosevelt" was shelled over our Senio sector the day after Roosevelt died. On the front of the leaflet is a cartoon of Stalin 'usurping' the chair formerly held by Roosevelt and now due to be occupied by Stalin.