大象传媒

I was born 29 March 1920 and was embodied into the army on Friday 1st September 1939. Two days later war was declared and I served until demobilisation in April 1946. Historically, Germany had, under Hitler, since 1933, been re-arming and training vast numbers of fighting personnel. This country seemed to be asleep until the realisation that Chamberlain had been conned by Hitler in Munich in 1938, and a decision was taken that youngsters like myself should be required, at age 20, to serve 6 months with a regular unit, followed by 3 1/2 years as a territorial. Later it was said that the 3 1/2 years could be shortened if service in the TA was done prior to age 20 years. Thus I joined the TA in the spring of 1939, partly swayed to a degree by altruism, but not entirely so. Our unit was posted to France as part of the British Expiditionary Force in October 1939. The balloon went up in May 1940 when we moved into Belgium. Our main function was to hamper and delay the very strong German forces: usually demolishing bridges to give the infantry boys time to dig in. We were 50 miles from Dunkirk when ordered to burn our transport, with the exception of a 15 cwt truck of explosives to facilitate more delaying tactics on the perimeter of Dunkirk. Shanks pony took us to Dunkirk in 16 hours. Sadly the 15 cwt truck did not turn up. Much has been recorded about the actions at Dunkirk. For myself, I got away off a mole onto a naval vessel, headed for Dover, which was full of troops, and eventually landed at Margate.

After helping in the construction of defences at and around Bridlington, I was posted to another unit, to make up the complement prior to embarkation for the Middle East. Sailing from Liverpool in Feb '41, we were 50 days on the troop-ship, calling at Capetown and disembarking at Suez. I was posted once again to a unit which was to go as relief to the beleaguered Tobruk. The town had been under seige for some time and the only way in was by sea, hence our unit was dispersed over five destroyers and a supply boat leaving Alexandria in Nov 1941. The plan was to leave port in darkness, sail in convoy during the following day, and arrive in Tobruck in darkness. An attack was made on the convoy during the day by low-flying aircraft, and the supply boat was torpedoed. We took on a proportion of survivors and landed at Tobruck in darkness to a fiery hot reception.

In a vast area like North Africa, lines of communication to armed forces are of paramount importance. Many ships were lost when en route to Tobruck, but those that made it had to be docked as urgently as possible, even though there were almost daily attacks from stukas and shelling from the perimeter. Life was no bed of roses when unloading supplies of petrol and ammunition. But Royal Engineers can put thier hands to anything. Six years in the war-time army highlighted numerous incidents. For example the sniper in a French wood who must have been disappointed at missing his target, which, thankfully, was me. Ah, happy days!

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