大象传媒

My father told me little of his war experiences, unfortunately, but this is what I can recount.

He signed up at the beginning of the war (aged 24), and due to his background in electronics was posted with the RAF Radar units.

After initial training, he was put on a troop ship that sailed to America, he saw New York from the ship, and his love of skyscrapers was frustrated, as the ship didn鈥檛 dock. From there they sailed down the coast of the US and then back across the Atlantic through the Straights of Gibraltar and on to Malta, where he was stationed until the war was more or less over.

Keeping the Radar functioning in Malta, gave the British valuable strategic information on the movements of the enemy, and was a priority in those years of Desert warfare, and then the invasion of Italy.

One time he was up a Radar mast doing some repairs, when two ME109鈥檚 came suddenly upon him, and shot at him just missing as they sped past.

Another time he was in his billet when some ME109鈥檚 came down strafing the area, he saw his Sergeant diving in a ditch as he stood at the window watching. After the planes were gone, his sergeant came puffing up to him and gave him a good dressing down, for standing at the window during an attack. After that they went outside and removed the cannon shells from the wall surrounding the window that had just missed my dad by a matter of a few feet. He hadn鈥檛 even realized, he kept one in a little box for the rest of his life.

A further stroke of luck occurred when finally a Convoy docked, and they brought with them amongst all the military necessities and food, some entertainment. A copy of The Wizard of OZ. As this cinematic treat was on show in the cinema in town my father and a few other film lovers decided to go and see it. When they returned from the show, which had been interrupted by an air raid, they found that the air raid had razed their barracks to the ground, and those that had not decided to go and see the film would never have the chance to see it.

Malta was the most bombed place on Planet Earth in 1942, which is saying something, for that year was full of explosions, and the only way to bomb it was from the air. As a result of course, many German aircraft were shot down, and those crews that survived were taken prisoner. My father was stationed near a prisoner of war camp, and the men could converse through the wire.

Speaking a little German, my father befriended some of these prisoners and one man somehow carved a letter-opener in the shape of a wooden dagger, into which he etched a swastika, and gave to my father with great ceremony as a gift. This too he kept in his little box of war mementoes, alongside his George Cross that was awarded en masse to everybody involved in keeping Malta as a strategic Mediterranean base throughout the whole war.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.