´óÏó´«Ã½

StanEllis9
Italy and Greece:
Some matters of everyday soldiering.

Hello, my name is Ellis Stanley, Army Service number 2092841. I have written my memoirs of World War Two as I lived it. I served through the war from first day to last, and served as a vehicle mechanic, reaching the rank of Corporal. I was a soldier in the Army firstly in the UK, then in North Africa, and finally in Italy and Greece. After Victory in Europe, I was posted to Italy again until I was returned to Aldershot and demobbed in 1946. These memoirs have been edited to conform to People’s War standards, and are spread over 12 title pages, and cover my service in locations as listed below. They have been transcribed by Andrew Voyce, an Open University graduate.

StanEllis1 UK- The Phoney War part 1
StanEllis2 UK- The Phoney War part 2
StanEllis3 UK- Northern Ireland and preparations for the desert
StanEllis4 North Africa- The journey by troopship and the Battle of El-Alamein
StanEllis5 North Africa- Active service with the Eighth Army
StanEllis6 North Africa- The final defeat of the Afrika Korps
StanEllis7 Italy and Greece- Arrival in Italy and joining the Battle of Monte Cassino
StanEllis8 Italy and Greece- Monte Cassino
StanEllis9 Italy and Greece- Some matters of everyday soldiering
StanEllis10 Italy and Greece- The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe
StanEllis11 Demob- Time after the cessation of hostilities
StanEllis12 Demob- Postscript

Some matters of everyday soldiering

Thoughts on the surrender in Africa, and survival essentials:
Some of our troops in North Africa landed at Algiers and came up the other way (from us)… they hadn’t got the experience that the British Eighth Army had, being held up. So Monty (Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, commander of the 8th Army) decided that he’d detach two divisions and go round and boost ‘em up a bit, which one of them was the 7th Armoured Division, which was the famous Black Watch. And the Fourth Indian Division. So we drove round and, I don’t know whether there was much resistance, or whether the Germans realised that they were about outnumbered now, because of all this extra armour that was coming up. And they just got cornered up in Cape Bon- wasn’t anywhere else they could go, and then they eventually surrendered. Thank goodness for that! All our vehicles were desert yellow to match sand colour. Some of the country we drove through was green, so that was an outstanding target. The Germans weren’t in a position to take advantage of it. Some men did smoke at night, but they couldn’t show a light, it had to be concealed, under a cape or something. So it didn’t show up to the enemy, especially when you light a fag up, or that would probably be the last one you lit up. These snipers were absolute marksmen. The best shots- on both sides. They were all crack shots. Picked from the infantry. We had snipers as well- we all had the same things. If they saw something, they’d just try and pick it off. They would remember where it was and wait, and if somebody lit up again, that would be it. The flash of a gun or anything like that was enough to target onto. More like the First World War? That’s right. Part of that was, especially around Monte Cassino, where it got to a very similar state, that you imagine they had in the First World War. Wet, cold, snow in some cases. You’re never warm, you’re never dry, see. And the Army never really had any great facilities to smarten up. Showers or anything like that were unheard of.

Thanks, pal:
We never came across showers until we got alongside the American Army. They were better off in that respect, they had proper shower units. I don’t know if I ever had a shower in North Africa at all. So I don’t know what we all smelt like! They were quite generous in that respect. They would let our troops go through their showers. That would mean a good wash and clean underwear. That’s one thing I liked about the Yanks, was they were quite generous in that respect. Mind you, they had much more gear than we did. They didn’t mind sharing it. They had shower tents in some cases, sometimes it was just out in the open. Lines and lines of pipes with shower roses, and you all got yourself a good wash. It was all men anyway, all got a good wash off. I got on with the Americans all right anyway. As I say, the fact that they were generous with their equipment, showers. And I remember once, we were all in convoy, driving along, and they waved us into one of their centres. It had a special name, which I’ve forgotten. We went through there and had a coffee and doughnuts. That was the first time, I might add, for a long time! We had a NAAFI, but they had another equipment, and really generous with that. Any chocolate or anything like that used to come up with the food rations, and tins of tobacco, but I never did smoke, I’m glad to say. Tobacco came up in tins of fifty, chocolate, some bottles of beer sometimes, depending on, where the beer might have come from South Africa, or anywhere. Quite a treat. I swapped my cigarettes for chocolate, a favourite of mine, and still is. But that’s why a lot of them smoked, because it was issued. A fifty tin- Player’s. Round. And also, of course, it was a bit kind for the nerves, I think, if you did smoke. Pull yourself together a bit. But you couldn’t show any lights. And you couldn’t move around during daylight- had to keep under cover then. (The vehicles we repaired were far enough behind the lines that we weren’t targeted by snipers or 88 guns.) If it was our vehicles- well, if we could, we’d fix them, but if it was beyond our capacity, they used to go back to where Div had a workshops. And they could go right back to base if it wanted it. The main thing was to keep them going. They didn’t want them losing all their equipment, things like that- through lack of a vehicle. (The way the Army machines were held up by the primitive fighting at Monte Cassino…) was entirely different from Africa. In Africa, you could get on the sand, and you could drive up in a big Army formation- it was quite a spectacular thing to see the Army’s tanks driving the way they’d be driving. At twenty-five to thirty mile an hour. No end of dust and sand came up. They could proceed at that, in that open sort of order, all day long. They had to. In Italy, it’s different territory, you couldn’t do anything like that. You had to make your way in- up muddy tracks. There were personal dangers. The Indians, and the Gurkhas in particular I think, were excellent at moving about at night. Because that’s where they live, in sort of mountainous places. They had a way of identifying; if they saw somebody’s leg in a boot, they’d feel round the boot, they could tell if it was a British boot or a German boot, or whatever. That was one way. Apparently, it was so dark, you couldn’t get a clue of what was going on. Fortunately I wasn’t up in that area, I was further back. (Because the Germans eventually were almost surrounded, they went back.)

Goodbye Italy, on to Greece:
Same thing happened out in Greece, that way. Get up to the top of Italy, and if we’d have gone across the top there, they’d all be trapped down in Greece, and all that. Couldn’t have got back up (the Germans, that is). Somebody made the decision that they were all gonna pull out. Which they did. As far as we were concerned, that was a jolly good idea! So when we got to Greece, they’d mainly pulled out. And, as I say, were quite ineffective as a fighting force. Just set ourselves up there, and made the best of it. (We had been transported from Italy to Greece.) We went from Taranto to Salonika. By sea, Landing Ships Tanks (LST’s). The big ships that carried tanks. They carried everything (of our workshops). That was when I was very surprised at how rough it got, the Mediterranean at that time. I didn’t think that an inland sea could get rough, but it did. Also, of course, the Germans had mined the sea just outside the harbour at Salonika, so they had to creep through there a bit carefully to make sure they didn’t set off mines- all sorts of mines, sea mines. We thought-well…We’d realised everything had slowed down, somebody said: We’re going through a minefield, you know, so- oh well! So you sort of hold your breath till it gets better. We were going into Salonika which the Germans had just evacuated, I think we were some of the first people there. The Germans had pulled out, but they were very good at leaving lots of booby traps. You had to be ever so careful at what you picked up or what you put your foot on. Even if they’d had to abandon a vehicle, you had to be very careful with it. Most likely was booby-trapped, the same as houses, they would put booby traps in behind the front door, sort of thing. If you opened the door, it would probably go off. They all got wise to these things and took the necessary precautions. No chances, be ever so careful and cautious. Of course, they were using landmines as well, on the roads. That was another hazard. That was done in the desert quite a bit, too. Colossal minefields. Probably still there now. I expect the local Arab people know where they were. They saw them being put down.

Dealings with the Locals:
The Arabs were reasonably friendly, but they were a bit light fingered- pinching everything they could. And we had the same trouble in Greece. We’d been in Greece, the British Army, and they had to abandon it, didn’t they, come back out. And they abandoned a lot of equipment out there, and nobody seemed to know whether it was- they’d just pinched something, or whether it was something that was abandoned last time. That was their excuse. They were pretty clever at that- yeah. So we were quite used to dealing with people who were keen on thieving all your equipment. The tendency was to shoot at them. (We didn’t have courts-martial for them.) Not necessarily to kill ‘em, but to warn ‘em off. If they were in the act, they might have stopped a bullet. If we caught them in possession, we’d re-take it. Because there’s nothing you can do with a load of prisoners. Just a liability. As for facilities, we had to make our own arrangements. In fact we were able to do more in that direction. Because, I mean, water supplies in the desert were terrible. Very minimal. You used to have a square mess-tin for front-line soldiers: I suppose it would hold about, just over a pint. That was their day’s water. For everything: drinking, washing. (Survival TV programmes about deserts show that a person needs several litres of water per day). They had a pint a day (on the front line). Being with vehicles, we could all claim more water, because vehicles needed water. We had the advantage of that sort of thing. We always had enough water for cups of tea. For a brew-up. Yeah.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.