A thin smile creased Major Giuntoli"s face, and he bowed.
“We"ve a stiffening of soldiers, and the young volunteers learn fast. I rely on Sergeant Forte, and I"m fortunate in having an old-timer from the Arditi, an NCO. He fought on the Izonso in the Great War.”
“He"s a good man,” Jim McGregor said. “We"ve had a natter. Ma half-arsed Italian and his broken English. He"d like to have been down south with the Co-Belligerent Army. Ah told him they"d done well at Monte Cassino. We got along fine.”
Hetherington scowled at Jim McGregor. Fred and the major exchanged a look. Jim McGregor grinned.
“Thank you for that, sergeant-major,” the major said.
In the north of Italy, the partisans operated in high mountains where few people lived—ideal terrain for guerrilla war, but the several bands lac
