大象传媒

The difference between being alive today and able to pass on memories of the war and not making it back often depended on so little.

In 1940, there was a shortage of signallers in the Middle East. As a result, Jack and I were transferred from the Bolton Artillery Regiment to the 97th Field Regiment of the Kent Yeomanry and sent to Almazo camp on the outskirts of Cairo.

We were linesmen, our job being to lie out the signal lines between artillery batteries and OP's (Observation Posts) and to maintain them, repairing breaks in the wires.
This job was not without its dangers for OP's were in full view of the enemy so that British officers could let the artillery know where their shells were landing.
We served throughout the Desert campaign, including the eventual capture of Tobruk.

At one time, volunteers were called for to lay a line to an OP behind enemy lines.
Jack volunteered and set off with a gunnery sergeant, an OP Officer and a platoon of Indian infantry.
But the patrol was ambushed and met a hail of gunfire.
The Indian officer was killed and the OP officer took command.

He soon decided the patrol was a failure and ordered a withdrawal.
On the way back, he stepped on a mine that blew off his foot.

Despite being partially blinded by the same explosion, I carried Jack for miles until I was exhausted.
Jack then persuaded us to leave him and to send out a well-armed patrol for him later.

However, two days later, Jack was found by a patrol with three German stretcher-bearers.
All were dead, killed by a British artillery barrage.

"It was the war,"

Jack was my best mate for a time and I'll never forget him, but that's how it happened.
Some lived and some died."

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