大象传媒

I enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in December 1939 and completed my 8 weeks basic training at Budbrooke Barracks Warwick. At that time they were looking for volunteers to fill vacancies in other units so I volunteered for the RASC but unfortunately that was full, but there were vacancies as Bren-gun carrier drivers. So I went to the yeomanry Drill Hall, Warwick and spent three months learning to be a carrier driver. It was about this time that the Warwickshire Regiment had been at Dunkirk and after a spell at Lowestoft I was sent to Purley, Surrey, to make up the Second Royal Warwicks. After two years in England it was found that I had a hearing problem and so I left the Royal Warwicks and transferred to REME and this resulted in me having to travel around England and Wales and it was from Rhyll in North Wales that I was called to report to Mill Hill, London where I was warned for D-Day and subsequently went to Southend in Essex. At Southend there were masses of vehicles and the streets were closed off and once in you couldn鈥檛 get out! I boarded a ship and heard on the radio at 7.00 a.m. that the Invasion of Normandy had begun. Then the Officer in Charge called us altogether that there was no need to explain anything as we all knew what was going on and we were to be part of the Invasion.

So off we sailed and landed on D-Plus One. I was to be on beach recovery at Arromanche. There were so many ships, and so tightly packed you couldn鈥檛 get a Woodbine packet between them! I went off in a Dukw in the advanced party and, of course, we had to dig trenches to live in. When vehicles came off the ships some of them were what we called 鈥漝rowned鈥� and we had to recover them to the back of the beach to get them going again. Then after about a fortnight we got the Mulberry Harbour and vehicles could drive straight off and they didn鈥檛 need us there. So we began patrolling the roads looking out for any vehicles of our own that were broken down 鈥� things were moving so fast that we couldn鈥檛 have anything in the way 鈥� and we dragged them out of the way. We done that right up until the Rhine crossing and then we came back to Ostende. I remember one day being told to drive from Ostende to Brussells to pick up 5-tonnes of ammunition. I asked who was going to go with me and I was told 鈥渘o one, you are going on your own鈥�! The MT Corporal couldn鈥檛 go but I met up with this chap from London and he came with me. We didn鈥檛 know what to expect and had no maps. We were away for 5 days and slept in the wagon at nights.

Then after the war had finished we loaded the vehicles onto ships and sailed for Norway 鈥� we didn鈥檛 know what kind of reception we would get so we just hoped for the best. We sailed on a Sunday and when we arrived everywhere was quiet 鈥� no shouting or anything 鈥� the Germans had fled to the mountains but eventually they were rounded up. We went to Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo and with German prisoners we repaired the German vehicles so that the Norwegians could get back to normal life.

Then it was 1945 and I came back home to get demobbed but when we came back from leave from Norway my Sergeant said that I had to report to the Company Office as someone from the office was looking for somebody called Albert Harding, so I went to the office and they told me that I should have been demobbed 3 months earlier!!! I said 鈥渄idn鈥檛 you know there were troops in Norway鈥� and he said 鈥淚 never thought of that鈥�. Anyway in 3 days I was out.

Never once during my Army Service did I do 鈥渏ankers鈥� but I was once fined 3 shillings because I overstayed my leave. I came home to get married at Acocks Green but the Church had been bombed and I had to transfer the wedding to another Church. This meant that the day I got married I should have returned to barracks that night, but I didn鈥檛. I went back the next day and went in front of the Officer Commanding. I told him what had happened and he told me to wait outside. He must have spoken to somebody and then called me back in and fined me 3 shillings. I was expecting to get 7 days 鈥� so I suppose I was lucky!

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