大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Website by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of John Clarke MBE and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Veterans will remember in the Autumn of 1944, the Eighth Army was fighting its way up the East Coast of Italy, when the weather took a turn for the worse and the campaign slowed down. In November my Division, the 4th British Infantry, was told it was to leave Italy and go to Palestine for a rest. We were just about to sail away from Bari Harbour when the Greek Revolution started; Communist against Royalists, both marching to Athens to form a government. We and the 4th Indian Division plus the 6th Airborne Division were diverted to Greece, to be followed by the 46th and 56th Infantry Divisions plus other units. At that time the only Britsh troops in Greece were the R.A.F. Regiment.

We arrived in Piraeus at the beginning of December 1944 and by the end of January 1945 the Civil War was over, but not before some bloody battles with a new kind of enemy - a civilian one that disappeared during the day, but came out at night - the first time that the British Army had met the fore-runners of the I.R.A.

By the end of April my battalion had been sent to Corfu for a long delayed rest, but my "D" Company had been located on the mainland at a former German Submarine Base in a small town called Arta on the West coast. The reason for this was to act as bodyguards for the newly formed United Nations Relief Agency (UNRA), who were to go into the mountains and find out the requirements of scattered Greek villages i.e. food, equipment, seeds etc. There were brigands roaming the montains, and it was our job to protect the UNRA personnel.

Back in Arta, because our brave and wonderful stretcher bearers had gone with the battalion to Corfu for a rest, I was I/C the MI Room, being the only one with a Red Cross Card and experience.

Then came news that the war was over, locals were dancing in the streets. The once distant ladies were hugging and kissing the lads, and our Company Commander decided to hold a display of, now unneeded, flares in the evening. Bottles of Retsina, Mavra Daphne and Ouso appeared, and the night became a real knees-up. I was in the MI Room, (where I slept) when a young boy, the young brother of an attractive girl, whom I had been treating for a boil on the bum, was brought into the room with what looked like severe burns all over his face. It appeared he had been hit by a descending flare full in the face. I had few medicines available, but remembered seeing some of the lads with burns from German flame-throwers. I removed the skin
and applied aquaflavine and then covered a mask of gauze with vaseline. It was all I had. I told his sister to leave the mask on for three days, then come back and see me. Three days later, with much trepidation, I removed the gauze to find all was well. My VE Day celebrations were well worthwhile!

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