大象传媒

On the invasion of Sicily from Tunisia, we took off in our Waco glider on the evening of 9th July 1943, towed by an American Air Force plane. This released us much too early and so we crash landed at about 10pm, much too far from Syracuse to be of any use to our company.

As we hit the water I was forced through the top of the glider and as I reached back inside I caught hold of Pte Arkwright and pulled him out onto the wing. Then a couple more as others were also emerging. It was not long before the glider started to break up and the only thing keeping the wrecked parts from drifting away was the wire attached to them all. We ditched much of our kit; I just had my shirt on and my wallet containing photographs in one of its pockets. I still have two of these, stained by the sea water.

During the night searchlights from the shore were scanning the sea for gliders. When one was found other lights joined in and we could hear machine guns open fire on the unfortunate lads in the water. We were lucky to be too far away for the searchlights to spot us. I lay on the wing of the glider and held on as best I could as I had no lifebelt, nor could I swim.

When daylight started to appear we saw a ship in the distance. I persuaded Pte Arkwright to take off the only thing he had on, a white vest, and stand up and wave it as we held his legs. I guess no one saw it. A while later we saw lots of landing craft approaching. I remember one naval seaman shouting to us, 'Sorry lads, can't stop'.

Later a naval gunboat came towards us. The underwater tow of its propellers sucked our wreckage beneath it. I fell off and started to sink. I saw a strip of canvas tearing off the wing so I grabbed it, pulling myself to the surface. Pte Mumford was holding onto it and helped me back on the wing. The gunboat lowered a rowing boat to pick us up. We shouted that one of our lads was in a bad way. Without hesitation a very large rating dived in to rescue him. He seemed to go through the water like a torpedo.

By 8am we were all on the gunboat after ten long hours in the sea. We were given a hot drink with some rum in it, while we stood on the deck. From there we were taken to a ship called 'Reno Del Pacifico'. One of the crew lived very near my home in Liverpool, so I gave him my watch to give to my mother and tell her I was safe. They took us to Algiers to a rest camp; then after ten days it was back to our battalion.

Five days after being rescued it was my 21st birthday. I was very lucky to have been picked up safely out of the Mediterranean.

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