EMOTIONAL times of serving in Italy during the Second World War have come flooding back for one Gainsborough man.

Geoff Layne, recently returned to the country to relive the two and a half years he spent on the food camps serving 5,000 hungry soldiers every day.

The 81-year-old spent nine days touring the cemeteries in the regions he was posted to including; Rimini, Anzio, Monte Cassino, and Oudrey.

Geoff was a land sargeant for the 198 Transit Camp regiment and was responsible for feeding the army troops who were coming out to fight or going home on leave.

This is the first time since returning home from his national service stint back in 1947 that the father-of-one has gone back to Italy where he spent a good part of his early adult years.

“Going back to Italy was a very emotional journey for me but some places hadn’t changed one bit,” said Geoff, of Gordon Street. ”It is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

“I can remember one dinnertime I was sorting out the hotplate in the camp feeding the men and I heard someone shout “does a Gainsborough man get any extra helpings,” and I turned round and it was fellow townsman the late Ken Redhead.”

“So I took him into the back and fed him up a bit.”

Geoff joined the army in 1943 when he was just 16 after working as a baker for Smiths on King Street in the town. Because of his culinary skills he trained at the Army Catering Corp in preparation for his role.

Another job Geoff carried out was to sort and distribute invoices for soldiers’ daily allowance of seven cigarettes and sweets.

“My service was a long time ago and some things I can’t remember, but one thing which has stayed clear in my mind is that I couldn’t come home on leave in 1947 because of the bad floods in Gainsborough.”

“And the bonus I got from the Army paid for my 21st birthday party when I eventually arrived back home in November ’47,” he said.

Geoff’s trip around the war cemeteries also saw him visit the hospital in Oudrey, which the British forces shared with American soldiers during the war.

“I was treated like a VIP at the hospital when the staff saw me wearing my medals,” recalled Geoff. “And when I visited the cemeteries at Monte Cassino and Oudrey it was very emotional for me. I also placed some wreaths on the various memorials out there.”

“Each of the wreaths I laid I wrote on the card: ‘When you walk along a peaceful lane so green - remember us - and think what might have been - we do remember them’,” said Geoff.

After leaving the Army, Geoff set-up his own retail businesses and has been the chairman of the Gainsborough Learning Disabled Social and Leisure Club, for the past 30 years.