´óÏó´«Ã½

This story is as told by my Father.

While serving with HQ Squadron 56th Recce Regiment 78th Div 1st Army on 29th November 1942 I was blown up. At the time we were being engaged by enemy patrols. We were making a recce in the Medjez el Bab sector, Tunisia. I was serving as a Driver/Mech and an Anti Tank Gunner and was sitting in the rear of the vehicle which is a Portee specially made for transporting a 2lb Anti Tank Gun and its crew.

Our CO decided to give the new blokes some experience at driving Portees. We were all on the same gun but instead of me driving I was in the back with the rest of the gun crew. If I were driving I wouldn’t be here as the driver died of his wounds when I got wounded. You’re in a confined bloody space in those vehicles; they were only made for a certain crew. It was made to tow an Anti Tank Gun a Portee was. There was only so much seating. I wasn’t the only driver changed to give the new guys night driving experience. There were 6 of us on the vehicle.

There were two Portee’s. One in front of us. How did we cop it and yet the one in front didn’t. That was another thing that was a talking point for a bloody long time. I can never understand how we copped it when there was another Portee in front of us doing the same as we were. This was a night-time job and the CO wanted the new blokes to get experience. In night-time convoy driving you were watching a light on the diff in front. The differential was painted white and the light was fixed on it. And that was how you used to follow the vehicle in front.

The gun plates were between me and the driver…gun plates ½ inch thick…that’s what saved me. They were too cumbersome to use so we used to sling them in the back of the truck behind the driver.
I remember it was night time and we had received orders to put the guns in position. We were in convoy moving down a track when we received a sudden blast killing 2 of our crew instantly, another died later.

When I jumped off Portee I was conscious of pain across neck and of a jarring feeling in my spine. I had sore lungs from the blast, I could hardly speak when I got picked up too, stuttering all over the place. Shells were exploding all around the bloody place so I had to lie behind a few rocks trying to avoid the exploding ammunition for an hour or more. I suffered from ringing noises in my ears for about 6 weeks after the explosion. After that I would have ringing noises in my head on and off for some years after the war.

There’s nothing worse than being blown up. When the American’s picked us up they took us into a farm stable and this bloke had a hurricane lamp and by the light I could see the driver’s burns. When they took his battledress off he had one big blister on his back…poor bugger and his face was burnt off…you could see his teeth...all you could see was his jaw… I think his name was Abraham…he suffered. He was lying along side of me…lying on this straw like I was. It was a terrible sight when they cut his tunic off… big blister on his back… poor bugger died.

I was admitted to a Casualty Station in an occupied school suffering severe blast affect on the neck and shoulder’s. I lay on a stretcher attended to mostly by NCO’s of the Medical Corps. At no time did I have an x-ray, very seldom did we see officers in attendance unless seriously wounded, they did their duty to the best of their ability under extremely difficult conditions. I certainly have great admiration for the Royal Medical Corps. Eventually I returned to my unit who were in battle positions 30 kilometres south west of Tunis. In the weeks to follow we suffered an estimated 65% casualties in our Recce unit, and we were long overdue for relief. Most of us being exhausted when relief did eventually arrive and for the second time I was admitted to hospital where I was diagnosed as suffering from anxiety state then was given two weeks at a rest camp. Afterwards I returned to my unit for the invasion of Sicily then onto Italy. A few weeks after arrival I was admitted to the 99th General Hospital under the command of the Royal Marines with pneumonia. When I was considered fit enough to travel I had a 2 week stay in Catania, Sicily. Then went to Algiers for several weeks, then returned to England

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