大象传媒

Early in 1940 whilst living in Dulwich, I received a railway ticket and a list of instructions as to what I needed to go off and fight for my Country. I remember my wife Gwen seein me off at Waterloo station en route to Reading where I would be "kitted out". I thought at the time that I had never had so many clothes!.

I was in the 9th.Battalion of the 1st.Fusiliers and was sent to Colchester around August 1940 where we were drilled and spent days on route marches to get us fit. We were then moved to the South Coast because of the invasion scare. All the machine guns we had were from the 1914-1918 war as was my rifle, but fortunately the expected invasion did not take place.

Following this we went to Norfolk, where we were given some leave. Nobody knew where our destination was to be after this. Our first port of call turned out to be Cape Town, then on to Delhi, then Egypt and finally the Desert in approximately March 1942. This was our first experience of action and seeing men getting killed or wounded. It was a shock, but we had to get used to it, and be thankful that we were still alive.

The invasion of Italy, which was on the 9th. September turned out to be very difficult. We fought our way in to a small town called Battipaglia, but we did not hold it for long as the Germans attacked us with heavy artillery and tanks. It was then that my luck ran out and I was wounded in the right arm and leg. The advancing Germans took me prisoner and I was taken to a forward dressing station. They could not do much, but at least they stopped the blood flowing from my wounds. We were then put onto trucks and after several days finished up at a very large camp where I was given a French coat and a Polish pair of trousers!.

Soon I was on the move again, this time to Camp 11A, fifty miles North of Berlin. We slept on the concrete floor an a palliase and pillow filled with straw. We washed under a cold outside tap which was used by dozens of men. Our toilet facilities consisted of a huge ditch in the ground.

We did start to get Red Cross parcels which were very welcome. They certainly gave us a little more to eat. Our troops relieved us in April 1945. We were put in a large shed where all our clothes were taken away and we had to walk naked under some showers before we were given a full kit of uniform.

I was even given some back pay and another rail ticket to get home. When I got to our front door, my mother in law Rose Ray did not recognise me. I weighed approximately six stone. This was my happiest day for several years.

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