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StanEllis3
Northern Ireland and preparation for the desert.

Hello, my name is Ellis Stanley, Army Service number 2092841. I have written my memoirs of World War Two as I lived it. I served through the war from first day to last, and served as a vehicle mechanic, reaching the rank of Corporal. I was a soldier in the Army firstly in the UK, then in North Africa, and finally in Italy and Greece. After Victory in Europe, I was posted to Italy again until I was returned to Aldershot and demobbed in 1946. These memoirs have been edited to conform to People’s War standards, and are spread over 12 title pages, and cover my service in locations as listed below. They have been transcribed by Andrew Voyce, an Open University graduate.

StanEllis1 UK- The Phoney War part 1
StanEllis2 UK- The Phoney War part 2
StanEllis3 UK- Northern Ireland and preparations for the desert
StanEllis4 North Africa- The journey by troopship and the Battle of El-Alamein
StanEllis5 North Africa- Active service with the Eighth Army
StanEllis6 North Africa- The final defeat of the Afrika Korps
StanEllis7 Italy and Greece- Arrival in Italy and joining the Battle of Monte Cassino
StanEllis8 Italy and Greece- Monte Cassino
StanEllis9 Italy and Greece- Some matters of everyday soldiering
StanEllis10 Italy and Greece- The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe
StanEllis11 Demob- Time after the cessation of hostilities
StanEllis12 Demob- Postscript

Northern Ireland and preparations for the desert

Service in Northern Ireland and clearing up after the Belfast bombing
While I was at Sheerness, it came up on the orders that anybody, whose training had been interrupted, apprenticeship been interrupted, could apply to complete it. So I’d done that, and I’d forgotten all about it, actually, and when I got to Northern Ireland it came up on orders that I’d got to go back, have a course and complete my training. There again I was separated from all the colleagues I knew, and had another fresh start. This course was run at Enfield Technical College, north London, and part of it was at Streatham Common in a big civvy garage. Massive, with all modern equipment, which I’d never seen before, so it was a very good learning curve for me! My apprenticeship was initially scheduled to be for four years, and I’d done about two and a half to three years. ‘Course you don’t get any qualifications for doing just a bit of it. They got all the rest of my training in during my war service. Rather than a City and Guilds, I acquired the Army training qualification. Fitter Mk 2 or something similar. Whilst we were at Enfield we did fire watching, because the raids were on. Enfield College had a very high tower. That’s where the fire watchers had to be- on top of that tower all through the night. During that time I was transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Because, my trade being a vehicle mechanic, or motor mechanic as they call it, you couldn’t have that trade in the Royal Engineers. It suited me to work at my trade, because I was gaining all this experience. The training the Army gave me was excellent, very good, probably better than I’d have got in civvy street. Particularly this stint at Enfield Technical College. During that time we lived in civvy billets. I went to school every day, as it were. So that was something different! I was beginning to see a bit of the country. Before that, we didn’t have any money much, so we never went far. The only outings we went on were choir outings. I was in the choir at St Peter’s Church, Bexhill, as a boy, and we used to have an annual outing. We usually went to Brighton. That’s as far as we went, really. Sunday School outings were the other thing, we to places like Wannock Glen, places like that. I don’t think it exists now, but an older person would know that name. ‘Course once you’re in the Army, you go where you’re sent. I started getting about a bit then. Like to HMS Wildfire at Sheerness. All these dockyards have got a name, like HMS Wildfire at Sheerness, there was another one for Chatham, which name I’ve forgotten. There weren’t any facilities to go to church at Enfield. But whenever there was the chance of a Church Parade, I usually went. If conditions permitted it. Those that wanted, went. There would be a notice: Church parade at ten o’clock, or something like that, and you formed up and went up. Marched up- you got marched up there. That’s how it was. The garrison church at Sheerness- very nice church it was too- it was obviously used in peacetime, for years and years. They decided to post us to Northern Ireland. We did some training there, then we went to Belfast and cleared up after the Germans bombed it. That wasn’t very pleasant, I must admit. I didn’t like that at all, because you were unearthing whatever was underneath, whether it was bodies or anything. And it was also very dangerous. There was the danger of unexploded bombs, and also a lot of these big houses had basements, and there had been so much water pumped in that the water level was up to the pavement. And if you stepped off that, you dropped about ten feet down into the basement. That was a bit of a surprise to say the least! We didn’t have earthmoving equipment, we had mainly only our Army stuff, a pick and shovel, it was all done by hand. If you were looking for bodies, you didn’t want to be moving too much stuff, we had to move it gently. Quite a lot of Belfast was affected. I thought it was very badly damaged, as I can remember it. Lots of streets. There was a big printing works, with all these big rolls of paper- there were some of them all over the place. But we worked in with the ARP (Air Raid Patrol) people, the fire services and people recovering bits and sorting the damage out. In fact, they told us what to do. Some of the stuff was still burning when we got there, some of it was still hot, because it was only the day after. The morning after the night they’d been bombed. You try and get there to save anybody who was still alive, in the wreckage. That was a quick incident in Belfast. We were in camps just outside Belfast when we got to Ireland. We were miles down the road from the bombing. We used to drive in there daily. Must have been ten to twenty miles outside, so we missed being hit. Belfast had docks, a big target. They built big ships in Belfast. We were in Northern Ireland to provide a presence, and we were training all the time. There was so much Army about, that some had to go over there to find somewhere to go. Space was being taken up. The training was done outside, as it were. Of course, if the bombers came, you got this job of clearing up after as well. We observed the border quite strictly, I don’t recall that being any problem at all. Then I left there to complete my training as a vehicle mechanic at Enfield. The main training in Ireland was Army training, and we had to clear up after the bombing, being as we were there at the time. That was all shovels and spades, it was hard work, all manual.

Completion of mechanics’ training at Enfield College
I went to Enfield to complete my mechanic’s training. Another part of the training was, we had a big workshops at Sevenoaks, just by the garage- there’s still a garage there now, I think. The Army took that over and they used that for servicemen. There was a massive amount of vehicles in the area, though, that had to be looked after, even though nobody went very far. Then went back to the garage in Sevenoaks, when we qualified, to gain experience. It was small Army vehicles, but some big Army vehicles, mainly the small Army vehicles that were used locally in the UK. At Sevenoaks I was still a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. When I went to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps I was either a private or a Craftsman. We had instructions on motorcycles, motor vehicles of course, Lister diesels- the generators that created the power for all the searchlights, whether it was ack-ack or Coastal Defence. There was a national electricity grid at the time, but these searchlights, they were all over the place, out in the fields and all that, so they couldn’t plug into that. I don’t suppose they wanted to, but that was one of the targets for the bombers, to take the grids out. So we had quite a few of these trailers to tow them where they wanted them. They (Lister diesel generators) were hand started, too. It usually needed two men, but if you were strong enough, you could get it off on your own. But you had to know the knack of it. You had to halve the pressure #####, then get the thing spinning over, then slam this lever down, and it came on full compression, with a bit of luck it started. If not you’ve got to do it all again. But we got it off to a fine art, we could always get them going. After Northern Ireland, I came back and completed my training for motor mechanic, and by this time I was in the Ordnance Corps. I’ve got a date of 16.8.41. From there, we were preparing the workshops for North Africa.

Forming a desert unit at Nottingham
We were posted to a unit that was getting together at Nottingham. All the trades were being got together there. The workshops would be in base, for example at Cairo. The vehicles were specially equipped with extra filters so they could motor in the sand. Out there, you couldn’t put your hand on the bonnet, it was so hot. Conditions were quite different to the UK. When we first went out there we had special hats, like the Marines wear, the white pith helmets. And much to my surprise, after we’d been out there about three months, they took them in. I said: what are we supposed to wear now, then? They said: your tin hats. Actually I did get some sun damage out there, but I didn’t know it. I had some skin problems with my head. They said: ah, you’ve had too much sun. I said: I always cover my head. He said: sometime in your life you haven’t. And that’s when it was- North Africa. It used to burn the skin, and could set up a cancer in later life. I’ve still got it now, they can’t cure it, it’s something you’ve just got to bear with it. So, we went to Nottingham to form up this workshops. I was still a private, hadn’t got very far, but I’d seen plenty of action in the UK. I don’t know about being sanguine towards things, but I got frightened sometimes. I suppose you do accept war, because you accept the routines. Discipline was quite severe in all these locations, but mostly you were left to get on with your job. If you were a vehicle mechanic there was usually something you had to do. The main thing was to keep the transport moving. First line repairs- that’s what I was in, attached to the units we were in, like the forward units. Keeping their vehicles going. If something went wrong, you had to try and mend them if you could, do what you could. If you couldn’t, it would have to go back to the main workshops to be repaired. And that was known as First Line Repair. There was more discipline than camaraderie at this stage. At Nottingham, there was a lot of what we called bull****, but it also kept you fit, that was the main thing. As for camaraderie at later stages, in Italy and elsewhere, thing is: when I joined the Royal Sussex in the desert, they had already been out there six years. Can you imagine that! They’d been in Eritrea and places like that. There again, we were there to do our job. Three mechanics, and one armourer, to deal with all their rifles and small arms. So it was informal in so far as- you did your job, but they did keep you busy. But no, there wasn’t any squarebashing out there. You can only have one or the other. As First Line Repair mechanic, it was work all the time. Seven days a week. Perhaps you didn’t even know what day it was. If they were using the transport, you were moving, and kept it going as best you could. Being an Indian Div, the Sussex had fitters like myself, but the Indians had their own fitters, and they spoke their own language. So in the Indian Division, there was the British part, the Sussex Regiment, and a mixture from the Empire, from the old Raj. It was an Indian Div, and the Indians outnumbered all the Brits, one battalion of Brits and three or four of Indians. There were nearly a thousand men in a battalion. We had quite a big camp, we spread ourselves out a bit. We had air raids, even in the desert. You didn’t want to be in a big heap. Open Lager it was called. Where the nearest lorry would be several hundred yards away, so that there wasn’t a big target of vehicles for them to drop something onto. We were all under canvas, if you wanted to. We just used to sleep straight on the sand, actually. Because it didn’t rain. The only trouble with doing that was, there were a lot of crawlies about. What we did about the crawlies was: you just shook ‘em out of your boots in the morning. You always looked in your boots before you put them on! In case there was a scorpion or something there. It was just that you acquired the habit of doing that. The story was that if you put a ring of petrol around a scorpion and set light to it, it would sting itself to death. That was the story, but I never witnessed that myself.

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