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This story was submitted to the People's War website by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mrs Green and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

CORPORAL HARRY GREEN MM

In September, 1944, No. 2721 Field Squadron was acting in an infantry role on the Eighth Army鈥檚 front in Italy. On 28th September the Squadron withdrew from the line and concentrated at Citta di Castello to come under command of 鈥淲heeler Force鈥�, and to operate with Skinners Horse, along a road running northwards from San Piero in Bagno to San Sifia. On 2nd October the Squadron took over the commitments of the 8th Manchester Regiment and carried out patrols for the remainder of the month, with the Lovat Scouts on their right flank and Skinners Horse on their left flank.

The zest with which the Squadron performed its patrol duties can best be illustrated by quoting an entry from the Squadron Operations Record Book, dated 7th October, 1944, which states:
鈥淟t Col Wheeler stated that due to certain future developments it is not desirable to cause the enemy to increase his strength in this area. There was definite evidence that the enemy had started to thicken up in the area following upon the patrol activity of this Squadron and the adjacent Lovat Scouts. The Squadron was therefore asked to pursue a less dashing patrol activity.鈥�

A few days later, on 16th October, a patrol of No. 3 Flight ran into some excitement and only managed to extricate itself without casualty with an enormous amount of luck. The patrol report states:
鈥淭he patrol proceeded to Soviana where a civilian reported a party of enemy at Castellero.

Accordingly the patrol proceeded by a roundabout route and entered Collina Di Ponda from the north side. The first two houses to be encountered were inspected and palliasses and bedding showing signs of recent use were discovered. The patrol was divided into two parties to search the remaining houses. A grenade was then thrown at the pair searching the house on the left from a machine gun trench in front of them, and about twelve yards away. Fire was returned into the pit and the pair went round the rear of the house and across the open ground into the woods about one hundred yards away, but not before it was observed that four or five enemy were moving about inside the house. Hearing the firing and spotting this movement the other two, searching on the right, went round the back of another house and encountered a German sentry by a haystack, who was just reaching for his weapon. One LAC fired his automatic at point blank range, killing the enemy instantly. (It was later written: 鈥楥onsidering that fourteen rounds were put into him it is not surprising that the unfortunate sentry died instantly!鈥� But as the CO commented: 鈥榃hen one is killing one鈥檚 first Hun it is just as well to make sure.鈥�)

They then made their way back into the woods and observed several enemy rushing downstairs in an endeavour to get a machine gun into position in a rear window of the house. The complete patrol had first entered the woods when both machine guns and several automatics began firing, but despite the fire, one of the patrol returned into the open to retrieve a magazine he had dropped! The patrol returned to Montriole having killed one enemy and possibly killed or wounded another two.鈥�
Corporal Green led this patrol for which he was awarded the Military Medal. His own, rather modest account of the action is as follows:

鈥淥n Oct 16th, one partisan, two men and myself volunteered to reconnoitre a house and farm that we had so far left alone, knowing that Jerry occupied these buildings. On the 18th we were moving out and a Polish Division was taking over to put in a push for the hills overlooking Bologna, 10 miles in front of us. Our job was to find out if Jerry still occupied this house. We had left our position at 12.00 hours and had to be back by 15.00 hours; we had a return march of nearly 12 miles. We arrived within 2,000 yards of our objective at 13.00 hours and went down to observe the place for movement. After half an hour we had seen no movement so we decided to go right in. One man and one partisan on the left of the house, and one man and myself on the right. This we did and arrived in the farm yard without any challenge or trouble. As my two left men were approaching the door a grenade was thrown at them from a well concealed slit trench; neither were hit but both put in a burst of fire into the trench from their Tommy Guns, killing one and badly hitting another. Meanwhile, on our side we had surprised a sentry, asleep in a hay stack. He never knew what hit him; the third one I caught through a window, making three killed and one more injured. We had found out what we wanted, so away we went, arriving back at our base, no casualties, and only 10 minutes late.鈥�

His citation was published in the London Gazette, dated 27th March, 1945, which states:

Military Medal

1060048 Corporal Harry GREEN, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Royal Air Force Regiment. Corporal Green has led his section on patrols against the enemy and has at all times displayed outstanding courage and devotion to duty, qualities which have been reflected in the efficiency of those under his command. During the concentration of the 2nd Polcorps at San Sofia it became essential to discover the precise position of the enemy prior to an attack being made. On 16th October, 1944, Corporal Green led a patrol detailed to go to Collina Di Pondo. Leading his men in a wide detour, through enemy-held territory, Corporal Green approached his objective from the flank unobserved. As the first building entered showed signs of recent occupation Corporal Green went on to the next farm where the enemy were encountered in great strength. The patrol was attacked with grenades and automatics. During this attack a German sentry was killed and other casualties were inflicted on the enemy. Corporal Green, realising that at least one member of his patrol must get back and report the position, directed covering fire to be made on the farm and this enabled the remainder of the patrol to take cover in a nearby wood. Although an enemy machine gun was now in action Corporal Green succeeded in withdrawing his men and the patrol returned without a casualty.

Harry Green was born on 18th August, 1920, in Ossett, Yorkshire. He enlisted in the RAF on 19th July, 1940, initially as an Aircraft Hand/General Duties before remustering to become a Ground Gunner in October the same year. He then served at Honington, followed by Mildenhall, before joining No. 2721 Defence Squadron in August, 1941. Promoted to Corporal in November that year, Harry Green remained with No. 2721 Squadron for the remainder of the war, serving in North Africa, Italy and Palestine. He finally held with Nos. 4 and 2 RAE Regiment Sub Depots in the latter part of 1945 and the beginning of 1946, and then at Deenethorpe, prior to his release from the Service 30th June, 1946.

EXTRACT FROM THE OSSETT OBSERVER

OSSETT CORPORAL
OUTSTANDING COURAGE
MILITARY MEDAL AWARD

We have received an announcement from the Ministry of Information that Corporal Harry Green R.A.F.V.R. Regiment of Ossett has been awarded the Military Medal. We have not, so far, been able to trace his family in the town, but the official document states that he was born in 1920 and that his home is in Ossett, and that he was a grocer鈥檚 assistant before enlisting in 1940.

The citation is as follows: 鈥淐orporal Green has led his section on patrols against the enemy, and has at all times displayed outstanding courage and devotion to duty, qualities which have been reflected in the efficiency of those under his command.

During the concentration of the 2nd Polcorps at San Sofia, it became essential to discover the precise position of the enemy prior to an attack being made.

On 15th October Corporal Green led a patrol detailed to go to Collinadi Pondo. Leading his men on a wide detour through enemy-held territory, Corporal Green approached his objective from the flank unobserved. As the first building entered by the patrol showed signs of recent occupation Corporal Green went on to the next farm, where the enemy were encountered in great strength. During this attack a German sentry was killed and other casualties inflicted on the enemy. Corporal Green realising that at least one member of his patrol must get back and report the position directed covering fire to be made on the patrol to take cover in a nearby wood.

Although an enemy machine-gun was now in action, Corporal Green succeeded in withdrawing his men and the patrol returned without a casualty.鈥�

The Overseas Tour of 2721 Squadron R.A.F. Regiment

Chapter 1 Our Passage to India

On December the 12th 1942 we embarked on board the liner 鈥淪trathalan鈥� at Gourock docks in Scotland and set sail on the morning of 13th at 3.30, we came on deck the next day and found ourselves out at sea passing the north coast of Ireland. The third day out we ran into the worst storm for 50 years and actually was lost at sea only 150 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, this storm lasted for 5 days and only calmed down when we were only a day鈥檚 sailing away from Gibraltar when it turned out so calm and smooth as a duck pond. The storm was so bad it smashed the cantor on the top deck and it was constantly under water from the heavy seas.

We eventually sighted Gibraltar on the morning of December 20th and what a heavenly sight it was too the first sight of land since we left England, we sailed slowly through the strait and out into the blue Mediterranean and it certainly looked lovely. We sailed along all day nice and calm and at night we could see the lights of Spain and Tangier it really was a lovely sight to see after living in blackouts for nearly three years to see a country light up after all that time certainly did look good and very peaceful indeed. We retired to bed about 11.00 and so to sleep for a peaceful night at last, or so we thought, but it was not to be so, at 2.30 in the morning we were awakened by a terrific explosion quite near to our deck and everything was in darkness and we could hear water rushing about on the floor, the deck was tilted at an angle of nearly 45 degrees. After about half an hour the lights came on and we were told we had been hit by a torpedo but we were in no immediate danger, every one on deck when we got on deck minus all our kit except the clothes we had on and our small kit which consisted of, towel, shaving gear and a few cigarettes which we managed to salvage all the rest of our kit was swimming in water below decks, the water which we thought at first to be coming from the hole in the side of the ship, was actually coming from the ablutions on the bottom deck.

On arriving on deck we saw a wide expanse of smooth water with nothing but us and two destroyers going round in circles dropping depth charges hunting for the sub that hit us. The torpedo hit us in the centre of the ship in the engine room, two engineers were killed and the remainder were drowned through having to seal the engine room off to stop the water getting into the rest of the ship. After about an hour we were told there would be need to abandon ship, some of the men had already gone over board when the ship was hit and were floundering about in the oil on the water, one of the lifeboats containing 14 nurses had been lowered immediately but through some one鈥檚 negligence the stopper in the bottom of the boat had been removed and not replaced, consequently it filled with water and capsized, drowning all the 14 nurses. We had the job of hauling boys back on board with ropes out of the sea, some of them were in a bad state, we had a young ginger haired nurse on our deck and if anyone deserved a medal she did as fast as we were pulling them aboard she was stripping them lying down and wrapping them up in blankets then giving them a drink of rum then laying down in the remains of the canteen we were at that for two hours, one of our officers F/Lt Dodds received the CBE for work he did on rescue, also the ginger haired nurse we heard later also received the MBE and she certainly earned it too.

We lounged around the deck of the ship all the rest of the morning, around 10.00 five destroyers arrived as escort and they decided to try and tow us into Cran harbour only 60 miles away but unfortunately that had to be given up as a bad job as the bulkheads below were beginning to cave in and that was really dangerous so the next order was abandon ship, the destroyer pulled along side and started to take off the men, we were lucky to be the first off the boat onto the destroyer HMS Panther, which we learned was sunk near Malta a week later by dive bombers while on convoy duties.
We left the ship at 12.00 and headed for Cran. As we reached halfway from the ship to land we turned to look at the old boat and saw her burst into flames, all unknown to us she had been on fire below decks since 9.00 that morning and we just got off in time, we also learnt later that one of the destroyers left behind had to fire two torpedoes into her to sink her. We landed at Cran on the 21st of December at 2.00 and were then taken by transport to board the Duchess of Richmond which took us along with one destroyer the rest of our journey to Algiers where we landed at 10.00 on the 23rd two days before Xmas day and from there to Maskin Blanc our campaign site for the present and our first Camp in North Africa.

Chapter II

Our Exploits in North Africa

Part I Cape Serrat

Our first job in North Africa was a very simple one and one intended only to get us accustomed to the country, it was guarding the aerodrome at Maskin Blanc which in a way was a tedious job and a not very pleasant one either as we had arrived in the rainy season and it certainly did rain. We had our camp in a Eucalyptus wood about 2 miles from the drome and more often than not up to our ankles in water. While we were at this camp we had our first experience of air raids overseas and not a very pleasant one either. It happened one night at about 19.00 hours and it was a lovely moonlight night, when out of nowhere it started two JU 88 fighter bombers started to bomb and strafe the airdrome with very much energy but very little damage and no casualties it lasted for about15 minutes and the barrage was quite good but they both lived to bomb another day which they did about five days later with the same results.
We stayed at Maskin Blanc for over a month and on February 1st 1943 we left for further adventures at Letif an inland town of about 10,000 population of French and Arabs it was also a French Garrison town. This town was about 1500 feet above sea level and at that time of the year was very cold, so cold in fact we had to break the ice on the top of the bucket of water to wash with in the morning. At this place we again had the job of aerodrome guards, this time with 600 squadron Beaufighters and what a job, two and three times a week we had all night stand-tos for German paratrooper raids that never materialised, whether they were done as part of the training we were having during the day time or whether they were genuine sorties no one ever found out. We stayed in this place until March 4th 1943 and then the real job began. We were selected from the rest of the regiment in North Africa to take on a special job for the RAF under the command of Wing Commander Brown and Group Captain Althly, this job was to take and guard a radio location unit up to a place known as Cape Serrat about 5 miles North West of Lilyinade this the 1st Kings peak lance. This position was actually situated 1 mile in front of our lines and 1陆 miles from Jerry therefore we were in no mans land. To get there we had to pass along a road in no mans land in full view of Jerry and that was the information we received before we left, we were to stay there two weeks and then be replaced by 2788 squadron.
We left Letif on the morning of March 3rd and made for the rendezvous at a place called Louk-ell-Kemess about 250 miles away, the most advanced drome in North Africa. Arriving there we were told we should be held up for one or two days which we were. On March 6th we left there for our next place which was Tabbarrka 110 miles away and only 20 miles from our destination, this was the worst part of the journey, we travelled from 15.00 hours till 23.30 hours without light over mountain roads. I would have been scared to travel even in broad daylight, on these mountain roads was where we had our first casualties when one of our three ton wagons had brake trouble and the driver had to turn the wagon over on the road to stop them falling off the road down a 200 ft drop to rocks and a river, five men were taken to hospital with injuries no one was killed. We arrived in Tabbarrka, the Devil City we christened it, at 22.00 the same night and stayed till morning.
The next morning March 7th the convoy again set forth for the last and most dangerous part of the journey to the Cape itself. One section and myself were left behind to carry on later. We had just started top get dinners when we had orders to move, we left Tabbarrka at 11.30, 9 men, myself, and one 3 ton lorry. About 45 minutes ride brought us to a long straight road that forked over a bridge and across a flat open plain, on arriving at the bridge we were informed by an MP that no traffic used these two roads by daylight owing to enemy air activity, we then found that we were in the well-known Messerschmitt alley a bogey to transport drivers by day, but we had our orders and we just had to go on. At this point we were caught by two Messerschmitt fighters and strafed but owing to two large hills, the only two for miles, they were unable to hit us and so all was well. After this little excitement we set off for a ten mile dash against time and Jerry across the plain, we did it but on the way we found Group Cpt Althly鈥檚 staff car with a 20mm cannon shell in the radiator and no one in it. We arrived at Seilginend at 4.00 the same day and stayed there for the night ready for an early start next morning to the base only 5 miles away but all the way in front of our own lines and in full view of Jerry from a place named Green Hill.

Next morning we were up and away by the break of day, the convoy consisted of 3 ton, 15 cwt鈥檚, 10 ton Macks and 3 ton Bedford with box trailers this had to be taken through a track that only camels and mules had used before and part of which ran through a bog, it took us 10 hours to do 2 miles to our first point, a French outpost called Hunapole and 9 men with our 3 ton were detailed as a road repair gang it kep the road passable as long as it was humanly possible this with the aid of camels and Ldv鈥檚 loaned to us by the army, we did for ten days and nights when the last truck rolled past it took 17 lorries ten days to cover 5 miles. Then our lorry was last, we could not move it the battery had run down and the winding shaft had packed up. All this movement was done under the daily strafing attacks at 9.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 18.00 by no less than 6 Fokkerwolfs each time more by good luck and the grace of god no one was hit. I arrived on March 19th to find everything so well camouflaged that I couldn鈥檛 even find my own sleeping quarters, this part of our job was done extremely well and showed how well the men had taken in the art of camouflage. The camp was in a valley on the very coast surrounded on all sides by hills the distance was approximately 1陆 miles and the only cover were small bushes about 3ft high and a line of tall Poplars. Imagine the job of driving 10 and 12ft lorries and trailers and wireless aerials 15ft long, not an easy task but it had to be done and was done on one of the lulls on the very sea front was a lighthouse in which the radio location unit had their main equipment and HQ.

Our HQ was a recognisance car under some bushes. Our camp at last completed our job was then to guard and defend from any attack and to be doggo during the day from enemy aircraft which pestered us all day every day, bombed the lighthouse twice and mined and machine gunned it every day on their way back from Seilginend.

On our second day there three men were caught by surprise and hit by machine gun fire but not fatally wounded after that we had no more casualties, and I don鈥檛 think they ever suspected us of being there, the two men they did see they must have mistaken for Arabs as they used to roam around all day as though there was no war on at all and Jerry never made any distinction if he saw any one moving.

Our only means of communication with the outside world was by radio or runner who used to have to travel 10 miles either on donkey, camel or foot whichever was available, more often than not it was on foot, our supplies used to come up a track from Slib-hurdriy the only way and was brought up on a motley crew of donkeys and camels, got there by F/o Steel and LAC Deakin who were in charge of rations and supplies at Sich-Murey, this always caused a hustle in camp because they had to be controlled at the double and sent back before any prowling Jerry ME came over to attack this for six solid weeks, living like hermits in a dugout by day and on our feet by night, the promised relief did not come, which happened often in later dates.
During all this time the front was very quiet except for small raiding parties which never came our way, then one morning we heard MG and rifle fire pretty close our CC got us together and told us if any shell started coming this way not to get alarmed it was only the first army out on manoeuvres, of course we were too green at the game then to realise the stupidity of his remark, an army on manoeuvres in the line of fighting, any way the firing got louder and fiercer till the CC had to tell us that Jerry had put in an attack and was pushing the army back, our road was cut off and the only way out was through the small gap behind us along the coast to Sich-murey and we would have to walk that, lorries and radio equipment we had to destroy and blow up then leave all unnecessary kit and march out this we did on April 29th at 2.30 a.m.

We started a 14 mile march out we did not know if any form of transport was waiting for us if not then we would have a nice march of 32 miles along the coast of sand rocks and hills to our starting place at Tahhareen fortunately we hadn鈥檛 to do that trucks were waiting for us and at 9.00 April 30th we arrived safe and sound less about 拢500,000 worth of radio equipment at Tahhareen we started our long journey back to Letif and a good rest, we arrived there at 2.00 p.m. on May 3rd dead tired and five days beard and dirt it was like reaching heaven. That was our first time as an operational unit directly against the enemy, during that job, one DR was mentioned in dispatches and our CC got posted and promoted to Group Cpt and on arriving at Letif we got a new CO Sqd/Ld Ilaemukel who was with us all the way through.

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