大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Christine Wadsworth of Wakefield Libraries and Information Services on behalf of Bill and has been submitted with his permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

I enlisted with the 2nd Fife and Forfars, it was a smashing regiment. With them I was introduced for the first time to adding salt to porridge instead of sugar - not a bad taste!

I remember that the NAAFI sold rock buns, they were just like the top of a wooden stool! When we had a ten minute break we would put our cups in line and a big teapot full of tea was moved across the top of the cups in one big sweep.

After two years I joined the Gloucestors at El Alamein. When we got there we played football for 20 minutes, then it was action stations. We were the thin red line, there were tanks everywhere! The Aussies and New Zealanders had been knocked out by '88s and ambulances were flying about. When we got to them, of the five hundred soldiers in G Squadron who had been there before us, only seventy were left. They'd lost all their officers and taken a real bashing. When Montgomery came, they were pulled out.

The Gloucestors were disbanded at the beginning of 1943. It had been touch and go whether it was us or the London Yeomanry, but in the end the Yeomanry was built up and we were disbanded. We were shipped to Cairo, then to the Abbassia Barracks then back to Cairo and disbanded.

I joined the 4th Hussars and was sent to the Transport Section in Cyprus then back to Cairo. I was there when the allied leaders including Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt met at Mina.

In his younger days Mr Churchill had joined C Squadron so he came to inspect his old squadron and give us a pep talk before we went into action. He brought his daughter as his aide de camp, she was in WRAF uniform. Mr Churchill was a very jovial sort of person, you felt that you could talk to him. I saw him again, in Italy

After Italy we went to Egypt. Our barracks had been built by the Egyptians and it was there that I bumped into McLeish. McLeish, a Scotsman, had been with me when we saw Coventry burning from our base in Wellingborough after it had been bombed.

We went from Egypt back to Italy and then into action. At Canaria near San Merino, and Rimini, we were held up by the Hitler Line. I was a gunner in a Stewart Tank which didn鈥檛 have a turret, just two machine guns. We鈥檇 had only three hours sleep, chasing the Germans. I looked over a hedge and saw the Yorks and Lancs Regiment, wrapped up in blankets, a big hole was being dug to bury them in.

Later, I was sitting on my tank, on a triangle of grass, in a small village in Italy, reading the News of the World. It was a lovely summer's day - just like being in England!

Our Lieutenant came to us with glass in his eyes. Corporal Maurice Emmett's tank had gone up and I was told to take my first aid kit. Maurice's tank had pulled off the road onto a grass verge to let a squadron of tanks through, and hit a double tank mine. The driver was unconcious, the gunner was out of the tank and on his knees and down the road thirty yards away were Maurice and Burton, lying side by side on their backs. A sergeant from A Squadron was looking at them. The blast had gone between them. Burton had lost an eye and had a hole in his stomach and Maurice, who was a friend of mine, had lost an eye and broken his left arm. I did Burton's eye and then pulled his tunic and shirt apart and we washed and patched and bandaged him, using all that we'd got. The Sergeant shook his head. Maurice said to me "Is that you Bill?" and I told him to shut up and that I'd come and see him and that he would be going home.

The Canadians had taken a small village and we had been there a week. Half way down was a trench with Canadians in and a bridge going over a stream. We, C Squadron, had to go on a recce. Earlier, A Squadron had gone out on a recce, been pin pointed and killed 鈥� I saw it all on the bridge. Later they were all buried together, in a row, in the cemetery.

We got a message to say that we would be shelled at 10.30pm, so we were told to dig a trench. Mine fell in, so the driver told me to take his as he was going on guard. The shelling started spot on time and went on until 6am. I was sitting against my tank on the floor, when the first shell came. I got my tin hat and my overcoat and went into the trench. I heard the shell coming from start to finish - I put my hat to the back of my head and pulled my greatcoat over me. The shell landed just 12 inches away from me and I went up in the air, turned over 鈥� it was just like bonfire night 鈥� and landed on my back. I got out and felt as if I didn鈥檛 give a damn if I got shot or invited to tea! I went to a trench and said 鈥淕et out of that bloody trench鈥�, and I got in. When the bombing stopped, I got out of the trench and made a brew of tea. The sergeant, driver and operator came and at 8am I had a wash and a shave. As soon as I put my head down over the bowl of water I felt a horrible pain in my head and ears and I held my head in my hands. An officer came up to me and said 鈥淲ere you in that trench鈥�? I had a look and there was no trench, just a big hole where it had been. 鈥淭he hand of the Lord must be on your shoulder鈥�, he said! I looked at my tin hat, it had a massive bulge and my greatcoat had thirteen pieces of shrapnel in it, including the nose cone of the shell. I asked the MD if he would have a look at my ears, but the whistle went and he said he was sorry, but we were going back into battle. This happened in August.

In October, the tank tracks needed changing for winter, so they were sent in to the REME. We were billeted in a church and one morning a woman was kneeling in the pew behind me, praying, so I put my blanket up over my head. That morning as usual we cooked our own meal and brewed our own tea, then later at about 10am, Bill asked me what was wrong with my ears. I told him that I was alright, but when I put my hands to my ears, I could feel liquid coming out of them both and running down the sides of my face. My ears were painted purple by the doctor and the next thing, I鈥檓 in an ambulance!

Whilst at the hospital in Bari,Italy, I went into the canteen and the first person I saw was Burton. I said "Hello Bas", and we fetched some tea and sat down. He said "Look at my eye it's the spitting image of the other"! He told me that Maurice had gone home the day before. The next day, Bas went home as well.

The war had finished for me! I went from being A1 to B1. Although I continued serving, I didn鈥檛 fight again.

After the war I wrote to Lieutenant Hedley our troop leader and Once in York, on business I saw Burton. He seemed shy and reticent, but we stood and talked for five or ten minutes before I went back to my car. The next thing I heard a little while later, was that he had died. This was five or six years after the war. Maurice, who lived in Keighley, died of a heart attack ten or twelve years after the end of the war.

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