大象传媒

This story has been transcribed and published by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author.

When I initially tried to join up I had great trouble; I couldn鈥檛 get into the Navy and they offered me a place the Royal Engineers. I said I wasn鈥檛 interested in that because I had been an engineer here and wanted a change. I was sent to sweep mines on the East Coast of England for a while. Then we were sent to Dunkirk. We brought soldiers backwards and forwards like a ferry, bringing troops between Dunkirk and England. Dover was so full though we had to land them at Margate and other big ports in the South east corner of England.

I brought back French Troops as well. I must say, beforehand I had always thought they were a bit soft. But the way those men behaved was unbelievable. They stood on a pier for two days waiting to be picked up, more or less in line and they didn鈥檛 get food or water. We got as many as we could on board and then we stopped them because they had to slide down a plank to get onto the paddle boats. Well, we caught them at the bottom before they fell.

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