But there the similarity ended. One half of every couple or threesome was an elderly person (82 – 93) who had been in that very same place when they were in their twenties or thirties. Their generation don’t talk about the war a lot but finding themselves with lots of others they naturally said "where were you?" to each other. And so it began.

We went to Monte Cassino, which is the monastery that St Benedict founded. It’s still a monastery and is still perched on the very top of a hill. It’s an impressive sight today but the veterans were chatting about when they were here before. And being at the actual place, it had a reality and immediacy that ordinary conversations don’t. When you see the "taking of the monastery at Monte Cassino" on television, you get no idea of the enormous scale of the place. The Germans held it and could see every square yard of the surrounding area. Our young men had the task of taking it.

They chatted so casually. Just one story for you (out of dozens):-

One of the veterans said to me "Old Ray was a runner". Not having heard of runners I asked what they did and he said they used to run to the men out in the field with food and water. Sounds fun.

I asked Ray about it and he laughed. "We were the mad milers," he said. This is what they did:

The soldiers were holding the land to the south of the monastery but because of the geography, if they showed themselves they were shot. So they had to stay behind rock outcrops all day and most of the night. Every night, for several weeks, Ray and the other runners would report to a command post a mile or so away and collect a 60-pound pack that contained food, water and letters from home.

He said, "Then you said to yourself, ‘Go!’ and you started to run, straight along the road. It was exactly a mile and almost dead straight. The Germans had a couple of Spandaus lined up across the road and they would fire a burst into the dark from time to time. You just had to hope you weren’t in line when they did.

"At the end of the road there was a bridge that had been blown up but the girders were still there, all bent, so you had to work your way across them. If it was dark you could barely see them but if there was a moon the Germans might well be able to see you and pick you off. The river was way below you.

"There was a forward command post in a small crypt and you jumped down into it. They would point to where your group of soldiers were and you had to climb across the rough ground to where they were in a dip behind a rock.

"Then you gave them their stuff and collected the empties and had to run all the way back."

Other veterans told me about the Spandau. It was a fast firing machine gun. If it hit you it was like a circular saw, it just cut you in half !

One thing I never worked out was how their generation remained sane and went on to become fathers and grandfathers almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened to them.