大象传媒

My fathers name was Albert Haylor, sadly now passed away, and after his death I found a diary he kept during 1942. He rarely spoke about his experiences in the war but this makes very interesting reading. At the beginning of 1942 he was stationed at Bullwell Nottingham, he managed to come home to Birmingham 50 miles or so for the occasional weekend. On February 13th he went by train to Glasgow, straight onto a boat, but the next morning everybody walked off in protest at the conditions, about 700 thereabouts. After promises to look into matters they returned back on board. The ship left the mouth of the Clyde on the 16th Feb. at 10pm and next stopped at Freetown on March ist but were not allowed on shore, they left Freetown on the 6th passing the equator down to Cape Town on the 18th where they were allowed off. He says he enjoyed it very much and the people there made them very welcome. They left on the 22nd and dropped anchor at Suez on the 12th April, getting off on the 13th, exactly two months since leaving Glasgow. They went by train then to Alexandria. He was in Eygpt and the desert with the 8th army, at Alemain etc. writing his diary most days but with gaps here and there, especially around the dates of the battle of El-Alamein. He left Suez to go to Sicily 19th July 1943, then went to Italy on the 26th August. He returned home in March 1944 before going over to Normandy in June 1944. The ship he went to Egypt on was called the Nea Hellas. My fathers army no was 7617726, he started in the RAOC and was transferred to REME with the 101st Motor Tank Ordinance Workshop, later 318 Armoured Brigade Workshop, redesignated to the 4th Armoured Brigade, he came out of the army in March 1946 after serving over 6 years. Before all of this, he had been in France in May and June, 1940. Although he rarely spoke about the war, I am very proud of him and wonder if their is is anyone still alive who knew him.

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