Audio unearthed of former Black Watch soldier recounting the horrors of Monte Cassino

A previously unpublished audio recording of a Second World War veteran recounting his time fighting in one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign has been uncovered. 

During World War Two, Arthur Helps was an infantry signaller in the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) when his battalion took part in the battle to capture Monte Cassino.

Two years prior to his death in 2000, Mr Helps visited a school in York, where he lived, and spoke to the children about his time in Italy.

Audio recorded by one of his daughters who was at the school has finally been uncovered.

The recording, which was found in his daughter's CD collection, provides an incredible first-hand account of war in general and Monte Cassino in particular.

Mr Helps said: "It was not always suffering and death. There was a time when we were pinned down in a cherry orchard for three nights and days, unable to receive food supplies, our sole diet cherries. You can imagine the state we were in after such a diet!

"Another time I was alone - or so I thought - in a shell-damaged farmhouse manning a telephone exchange by candlelight and reading a forces' newspaper when I became aware of another presence.

"Slowly turning my head to the right I found, sitting on my shoulder reading the paper with me, a mouse.

"But wars have far more horrendous moments than amusing ones.

"I particularly remember when the Gurkha Regiment [9th Gurkha Rifles], the bravest soldiers I ever met, launched an assault on the high hill at Monte Cassino in an attempt to capture the heavily defended German position at the monastery on the top of the hill.

"They were within about 20m of the top when they had to retreat. They had run out of ammunition and supplies could not be got to them. Tears were in their eyes as they retreated through our lines.

"When my battalion of 1,001 men advanced onto Monte Cassino village, three days of fighting had reduced it to 97 men. Imagine how I felt talking to a comrade then turning round to see him wounded or worse."

Having joined up in 1942, Mr Helps said he was grateful to have had disciplined, trained comrades by his side.

Listen to Arthur Helps' recording in full

Mr Helps' surviving daughter, Christine Robinson, told Forces News: "My dad was a very strong man, a very strong man. My dad would only talk about things that would not upset his children.

"He did not have PTSD, he did not have shell shock, as his own father did. But he just didn't talk about it."

The Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of four frontal assaults by Allied forces against the German Winter Line, which formed part of the Allied plan to break through to Rome and hasten the end of the long-drawn out Italian campaign.

The battle for Monte Cassino resulted in a victory for the Allied forces, but at a cost of 55,000 Allied casualties and 2,000 civilian dead.

After the war, Mr Helps went on to serve for 30 years in the police.