short tale
Intro.
Some Liberties may have been taken with the degree of
accuracy when relaying this tale but on a whole the story is
based on My old man's original version of the tale.
During world war two when the yanks had the Germans and
Italians on the run. My father who at the time, would have
been about seventeen, was supposedly driving a tank bringing
up the rear with the Brits. The
story goes the yanks were rapidly advancing but had come
under severe sniper fire from the leading tower of Pisa.
They had requested Armour support to take out the monument
and were waiting for it to arrive. The yanks had took
several casualties as the group held up in the Tower were
Waffen SS crack German die hard types. The old man implied
that the krauts had been told to fight to the last man in
order to give the retreating infantry time to re-group. Anyway
when the old man's tank comes rumbling up the road, the
yanks decide to requisition it and blow up the leaning tower
of Pisa because by this time they were pissed off. As the
yank commander order the Old man to turn his tank on the
tower, the Mayor and half the Italian population appeared
from out of their homes howling and crying about the fate of
the wondrous monument. Some even threw themselves in front
of the tank in a vain attempt to stop it, none were hurt
said the old man. After a lengthy discussion with the Mayor
and yanky commander it was decided that the tank would
proceed up to the monument under a flag of truce. The
Mayor was addressing the Germans in their native tongue has
the tank slowly approach flying the white flag. At the
entrance to the tower a rather large German raised his
machine gun and made a gesture for the mayor and old man to
approach. Inside the mayor who was quite upset started
threatening the krauts for their callous behavior on the
type of building to hold up in. There then followed ten or fifteen minutes of heated
argument between the German officer in charge and the mayor. The
mayor and the old man returned the side of the tank. He
told the old man that the Germans would be willing to
withdraw via the back of the building but only if the
Americans would give them enough time to clear out. The
tank then reversed away with all on board to the line of
defense held by the Americans. The proposal was put to the
American officer and although he was furious with the old
man he didn't not want to alienate the Italians, so he
agreed.
Taking the Pissa
Is this a tale or did it really happen? We have a picture of
my dad sitting on a tank in a foreign country, the back of
the picture says ' Pisa Italy 1944' and I've got a Mona Lisa
in the shed.When our Carol said the old man was wounded in
the war at his funeral, I felt like dying myself - of shame.
The old man's tales, he had more up his sleeve than Billy
'Bloody' liar. Now I know where JTB gets it from,It's got to
be a fucking old gypsy curse
or something. Now click on the picture to hear tunes .
the End
GnashWank
productions Ltd a division of Bell End Plc.
