大象传媒

The Desert Rat 4th R.T.R. 1941-1946

1939

He was only 16 when the war started and at first it made no real difference to his way of life. He had started training as a dairy engineer 鈥� cycling to and from work on a bicycle that cost 拢3-19s-6d. With his friends he went to watch Arsenal play football on a Saturday, and they cycled out to the country and spent the weekend under canvas. They lived in Willesden, North London, and though occasionally the sirens went, nobody took much notice.

Then daytime warnings almost ceased and started again at night. It became more serious 鈥� high explosive and incendiary bombs destroyed factories, churches, houses and the unfortunate people sheltering in their homes. But it wasn鈥檛 until one of their friends and his family were killed that they took the war seriously.

1941

It was announced that men who volunteered, who didn鈥檛 wait to be called up, could choose which service to enter. The two 鈥済lamorous鈥� units at that time were the Royal Air force and the newly formed Royal Armoured Corps. He was just eighteen, and driving tanks seemed exciting, so he chose the latter. Within weeks he was training at Tidworth, and eight weeks later was sent on embarkation leave.

They sailed from Greenock on 鈥淭he Empress of Japan鈥� (changed to 鈥淭he Empress of Scotland鈥� after Pearl Harbour) and went, via Cape Town and Aden, to Port Taufic. They found they were not popular in Egypt, and became the target for pickpockets and beggars, pimps and touts.

Appalled by the way they were treated in Egypt, where they were reinforcing units keeping the Red Sea and the Suez canal open for British and Allied shipping, he and his friends volunteered to be placed with a service unit. Here they would have no contact with civilians.

It was 1943 and for the first time he was introduced to a real tank 鈥� a Matilda. They started training seriously and with purpose. He realised the weeks they had spent at Tidworth counted for little and had no relevance to what was happening now. After a few weeks they were put on American tanks 鈥� Grants and Shermans. Then things began to happen.

I don鈥檛 know what happened at El Alamein and beyond 鈥� he never spoke about it 鈥� or about his experiences in Europe, where he was sent a few weeks after returning from North Africa. His was a long, ACTIVE service 鈥� practically all the time he was in the army he was actually 鈥渁t war鈥� 鈥� except for the last few months in 1946 when he was on Salisbury Plain, training officers in the art of tank warfare.

His experiences did affect him for the rest of his life though, so they must have been pretty horrendous. He was traumatised by what he had seen and was still having nightmares up to when he died at the age of 74 years, nearly eight years ago.

I met him when his unit was sent to the Yorkshire Dales to recuperate and regroup after the North African campaign. It was April 1944. I was going to teacher training college in September and was an unqualified assistant in a local school. My brother was in Burma, and my parents, together with many others, invited young soldiers stationed in the villages into their homes. My friend had met a young soldier and he and his friends were invited for a meal. That was how I met Stan. He was 21 years old 鈥� a veteran.

These boys knew they were preparing to go to Europe 鈥� they didn鈥檛 know what their fate would be. Could they be as lucky as they had been in North Africa? They didn鈥檛 want serious relationships 鈥� they hadn鈥檛 time 鈥� they just wanted to have some contact with normal life 鈥� letters were their lifeline. I already had five or six pen friends 鈥� I got more.

Stan and I corresponded throughout my years at training college and his trek through Europe 鈥� from Normandy, a few days after D Day, to Weismar, on the Baltic.

In September 1946 I started my first job in Hertfordshire. On the 14th November Stan was demobbed. He came to visit me. He was very unsettled. He had spent nearly six years away from his family 鈥� he wasn鈥檛 comfortable at home any more. He had lost contact with the friends of his youth. Many had been killed, others had moved away. Although he had got his former job back 鈥� everything had changed. He was lost!

He had nothing to offer a girl and although he was obviously in love, he stopped coming to see me. I was busy at school. At the weekends I played hockey, women鈥檚 on a Saturday, mixed on Sunday. I had fun. I still thought about Stan and felt very sorry for him. Then about a year later he wrote and asked if he could come to see me. I wasn鈥檛 interested, but my friend persuaded me to let him visit. We went out as a threesome until I moved back to Yorkshire in July 1948.

He asked if he could stay with my parents and me on our farm. My mother invited him 鈥� I wasn鈥檛 sure. But she was proved right. Our relationship flourished, and a year later we were married. We had an extremely happy life with our two daughters. We were married for 48 years, and although his memories saddened him all his life 鈥� I鈥檓 glad I married him.

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