大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Margaret Haydon of Stokecsvactiondesk on behalf of Harold Bailey and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was in the 8th Army during WW2 and took part in Battles at Salerno, El Alamein and D Day Landings in Normandy. I was part of the 21st Army Group and was sent to Yorkshire to be trained in the use of coastal guns, in readiness to use mobile guns. The Artillery were used as back up for the Infantry and my training on coastal guns took 4 months, with a total training of 18 months to go to war.

My Unit was the 121 Field Regiment during El Alamein and the day before it commenced, me and two mates obtained a day pass into Cairo. We had a look around the city centre; and then went on to the United Services Club where we met men from all over the Commonwealth. We went out for a meal later and after coming out of the cafe, we got involved in a real scuffle with a gang of local youths. Lucky for us that the Red Caps picked us up and dropped us back at camp. We looked a right mess the next day at Roll Call but we were then on the move to take up our positions ready for the bombardment of the lines. I can still hear the noise when about one thousand guns opened up. It was a lovely feeling when Rommel's African Corps began to retreat all the way back to Tripoli and surrendered. It was bad luck that Rommel got away!

During this time, I was chosen to take part in a Special Guard composed of 'six foot' soldiers to be inspected by General Miles Dempsey who was second in charge to General Bernard Montgomery.

Over 30 Corps were specially formed for the D Day Invasion and I sailed from Liverpool on the second day. We were brought back to Exeter from North Africa to get ready for the D Day Landings and our ship was moored in St George's Dock, Liverpool while being loaded with equipment and supplies for D Day. Troops were told not to drink but the local people knew what was going on and wanted to buy everybody a drink. My mate, George Edwards from Llandudno Junction, was always full of fun and so we went out and had some drink. As a result, we nearly missed our ship sailing because we got back to St George's Dock just as the ship was pulling out. If it hadn't been for others on board putting a rope ladder down for us to climb up we would have been charged as deserters and put on a 16 day charge with loss of money.

I was in the army for 6 years and it took 18 months to be "demobbed". George Edwards continued to be a mate full of fun and I can remember him putting a baby's dummy into the middle of sandwich once when I visited him after the war. He became a bus driver for Crosville.

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