大象传媒

In the early stages of the War the storyteller found himself posted to Eckington, ten miles from Sheffield. It was Christmas time 1939 and the training facility was experiencing cold and snowy conditions. He had previous experience of driving goods vehicles for the Co-op. He was given the standard driving tests and passed these successfully so was excused driver training and just required to complete basic military training and drill before being deployed.

After a month of this training he was posted to Bampton, near Witney, He arived by train and his kit was stowed in the back of the transport lorry and was taken to his new camp. The weather continued to be bad and cold. He was billeted in a wooden hut, next to the cookhouse. A period of more drill practice followed before he was sent to Slough to pick up a three tonne transport lorry which had been adapted to serve as a mobile headquaters vehicle. A boring maintenance course following the servicing manual and more training exercises followed.

The storyteller was pleased to be posted for action and found himself at Southampton Docks where he embarked with his lorry to sail to Cherbourg. The 1940 German offensive had just begun and within ten days the storyteller's unit had been ordered to St Nazaire for evacuation. Driving was dangerous as the unit could not use headlights at night. The vehicles were wrecked by their drivers so that they would be of no use to the enemy. The ship that the storyteller embarked upon was shelled during the eveacuation.It took two days to reach Plymouth as the ship had to zig-zag across the Bay of Biscay for safety. Once the unit had reached Plymouth each man was issued with a postcard to writye home indicating that they were safe.

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