´óÏó´«Ã½

The next stop was Cape Town. While we were there we were entertained by British people who lived there. We were like a lot of school kids when we left the ship. We were taken to an assembly point where we were met by our hosts. I was taken by a Welsh couple to a very nice hotel for lunch, then on a sightseeing tour of Cape Town. The lady took the name and address of my wife and mother. She later wrote to them both and told them I was well and sent them food parcels. Then it was back to the ship, still not knowing where we were bound. It was packed with men. We were given hammocks to sleep in. You got in one side and fell out the other. I could not get the hang of it, so I settled to sleep on the mess deck.

As I was an N.C.O., I used to have to dish out the bread and food at meal times. As there were about thirty men on each table you had to be careful how you cut up the portions to make sure everyone got their fair share. There were usually lots of moans and groans of ‘he has a bigger bit than me!’ One day when they started I flung the bread down the table saying, if you can do it better get on with it. This stopped their moans for a while. We next called into Bombay for one week then eventually we got to Ceylon where we disembarked. We were taken to Colombo where we stayed for a week to get acclimatised to the weather. Then we were taken by train to the N.E. of the island to Tricomalea.

We had arrived, this was our new home. Once again we had to hang around while our gun site was being built. We were put into tents around a paddy field by the sea while the gun site was being prepared up the top of Elephant hill. Caging huts made of palm and bamboo leaves and branches were also being erected for us to live in, so we were all in the tents on the beach. The gun site overlooked China Bay where the British Fleet and the American 7th Fleet came to refuel after the fall of Singapore. Our job was to protect them from the Japanese, nuisance raids sometimes happened but they soon scattered when we opened up.

It was a joy to run out from our tents into the warm sea naked, a beautiful sandy beach, palm trees all around hoping any minute Dorothy Lamour would appear — but not such luck. We were stationed here for over a year. During this time they formed a concert party and a football team. As I could sing a bit and also enjoyed playing football, I joined both and it was good to get away from camp to do these things. At the end of the year the danger of Japanese invasion passed, so we were on the move again. This time it was to the Middle East.

We first went to Tobruk. The 8th Army had just pulled out and conditions there were terrible. There was a lot of clearing up to be done. It must have been grim for them, there was little food at first and the water had been salted. We made the best of it, even played football in the desert. While there I was picked to go on an aircraft recognition course in Arman. I went by train and going across this Middle Eastern landscape reminded me of the bible stories from school days. The shepherds on the hillside dressed in long white robes watching over the sheep and goats. I saw so many wonderful places on my journeys although I did not appreciate it at the time, Jerusalem, Egypt, The Dead Sea, Alexander, etc.

The courses I did went well and when I returned to the Regiment I was teaching officers and other ranks. Alas this did not last long. It was decided that the R.A. anti aircraft guns were not needed there any more and we were split up and I was put in an infantry regiment, the Duke of Wellingtons. I was made up to Sergeant, we used to patrol various Arab villages. One day I had to go with some officers to a French Fort in the desert, we arranged to return the next day. When we got there the next day, there was a hell of a commotion going on. We found all the French officers had been slaughtered. There were dead bodies and blood everywhere. The Fort was built in the desert rather like the ones in the Beau Geste films. We had to patrol the nearest villages. The women carried everything on their heads, we had to make them drop the bundles and search them. Very soon after this I was sitting in the tent one afternoon, when the news came that my name had been drawn out of the hat for leave in addition to python, which meant I had been drawn for home leave. I was so excited I ran round the tent three or four times. I had been away from home over four and a half years!

It took a few weeks after that for all the arrangements to be made, then at last I was on my way. Lorries and trains across miles and miles of the Middle East and other countries. Then at last the boat from Dieppe to Newhaven and what a wonderful sight when the white cliffs came into view. I sent my wife a telegram. Then when I turned into the road I saw the front of the house had been decorated with flags and a big Welcome Home Bill sign. I found Lily busy ironing. The telegram had not got to her yet so it was a big surprise. I was having a bath in the big bungalow in the scullery — no bathroom yet — when the telegram arrived.

It was a thrilling time meeting my son for the first time. He was 4 and was overwhelmed as he thought daddy was the photo on the sideboard not a real live man. When the leave was finished and I went to report, I was told I was not going back overseas. The war in the Far East was over and I was to report to Wakefield to await the return of the rest of my Regiment for demob. I decided to go home first to tell everyone and get the train for Yorkshire the next day. I was eventually demobbed September 1946. I managed to get a job before my leave was up with Post Office Telephones as a telephone engineer, where I served for 38 years before retirement. I kept very fit and well. Running discos and entertainment for O.A.Ps and being a steward for Charlton Football Club.

Unfortunately since I was 76 my health broke down, prostate, blood pressure, diabetes, cervical mylopothy leading to a 4, 5, 6, 7 cervical Laminectomy. Now in my 82nd year looked after by own private nurse, my wife. I am disabled with a paralysed nerve in my right leg. But I try to keep positive and cheerful and thank God for his many mercies. I bought our council house under the right to buy and my post office pension helps me to have good health, food and enough for our needs. I look forward to our Diamond Wedding in 2001. I was dancing at our Golden Wedding so I hope do the same again.

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