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I met my wife in Leiston and got engaged in summer of 1940, then I went to war and returned in 1945. I was serving for the royal artillery during the Second World War. We were given a mobile anti-tank gun when we were evacuated from Dunkirk. In the summer of 1940 we brought the gun to Leiston works, where we had the armour fitted to the gun. Men worked on the gun during day, we guarded gun at night. The men working on the gun were so pleased to work that they gave us 30 shillings.
An incident happened during the summer where we were under threat from invasion. The code word “Cromwell” was sent out, like Dad’s army. Every one stood too, with their guns, we loaded the anti-tank gun (12 pounder). Later on in evening it was discovered that the codeword “Cromwell” should not have been sent out. The gun should not have been loaded. I had to literally push the loaded shell out of the gun. A long cane rod with a cone on the end, dangerous job! The shell could have blown up if pushed into the wrong place.
I had to go to India, to be equipped with new guns. We left at Liverpool on the HMS Nelson; we were in the centre of the convoy traveling down to India. We stopped at South Africa where half of us called in at Cape Town. The others stayed at sea where one of the ships in the convoy The Johovanoldenbarveldt was captured and was later sank at sea after war when in possession of the Greeks. We eventually got to Bombay in India. But there was trouble in Iraq when we got there, Price Rasid Allah was in co-operation with the Germans, so we had to rush to Iraq to defend any possible threat. The Vichy French were in control of Syria, so we had to go there to fight them, they eventually surrendered and we went back to Iraq, to Mosul. The conditions there were so terrible that the regiment went down with heat exhaustion.
After Iraq we had to start to prepare positions in case of the Jerry’s. We were sent from Iraq to Egypt, unfortunately we lost a third of our men because of the German 88’s. Then General Montgomery took over and we got our new orders and were attached to 4th Indian division. We were at Blue Ruweisat Ridge, a famous spot, we marched up to Tunisia, and fought. Then we went to Casino and fought. The regiment was then attached to a Canadian Division. We reach Rimini, on the Adriatic Coast of Italy. At which point I then came home and got married. My wife is from Leiston so we decided to live there. Still in service at Leiston, we were called 115 battery, 32nd field Regiment, Royal Artillery. When stationed here, I was a dispatch rider on a motorbike and my job was to visit all the guns. We had four guns which were four inch naval guns, one was at Snape crossroads, one at halfway houses at Sizewell, one at Saxmundham, and one at Yoxford.
32nd regiment fought in 1991 Gulf War. With 7.72 , 155mm Long Tom’s.
Because I was a surveyor we had to climb up a pyramid and had to set up a surveying post. We only had 10 days leave in whole war, 7 days in Cairo, 3 days in Beirut, Syria.

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