“ORSOGNA”              

2007

Acrylic on canvas

44.5cm  X  121cm

Inv # 266

I visited the War Cemetery near the Sangro river and by coincidence I came upon the grave of an old schoolmate of my mother.  Amongst those rows upon rows of white headstones, each signifying a young man killed in action, I chanced on the grave of Reg Romans. All the more coincidental, as I well remember playing around his father’s butcher shop in Arrowtown, just before he left to go into active service.

 “………………the New Zealand line was within artillery range of Orsogna, and the New Zealanders were living ---as Kippenberger put it ‘cheek by jowl’ with almost ‘destitute Italians’…….”   IN  Italian Odyssey ,Mathew Wright.

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