He was shipped to Italy’s east coast where his unit was halfway between the front lines and transport headquarters. Hutchings’ unit had the crucial job of feeding the supply chain with petrol and servicing trucks coming and going from the front. He said he was in the thick of the action, but came out unscathed. Hutchings remembers the German navy coming down the coast at Senigallia trying to blow up the Allied fuel lines and torpedo Allied ships. While waiting to be collected by ships he had to trade items for fresh food. When he was in Rome he saw “a huge cloud” of American B-24 bombers.