大象传媒

At the end of August 1939 I was 18 years old and when to Territorial camp for two weeks and came back 7 years later. I was in the Royal Engineers and based in the UK until 1940 when I travelled to Norway and we were chased out by the Germans. From there Iwent to Iceland for 1yearinstallingcoastal guns around the capital Reykavick. Whilst thereI went on to do a bomb disposal course. I was then flown backto Plymouth to diffuse the bombs that had been dropped during their blitz. My first two bombs were very frightening but after that I just got on with it and regarded it as a job. From Plymouth our unit wasmoved to Bristol doing the same job, difussing bombs. It was there that I saw a Landmine suspended from a chimney. It was swinging in space and reminded me of two dustbins welded together. We then had the job of wondering how to get the fuse out of a moving object.
After that we were sent to a country mansion in Hampshire for rest and recuperation, which we badly needed. we then sailed for Egypt vis South Afric and stayed in Durban for a month. The people were wonderful. We were off duty at 4pm everyday and there used to be long queue of people with cars waiting to take us back to their houses for tea and hospitality there was a club in Durban called the Union Jack club and it had two large baths filled with fresh fruit salad. We could help ourself to as much as we could eat. One can imagine our reaction to this. As food was on ration and fruit was hardly ever seen. when we left we were serenaded by the Lady in White. She used to sing to all the ships arriving and departing, even on the day that she heard that one of her sons had been killed on active duty.
From S.A.we went to Suez,where our job was lifting landmines left by the Germans.
On the night of initial attach of the Battle of El Alamein all the guns went off together at 9.25pm. we were positioned in front of our guns trying to lift the landmines left by the Garmans. One can imagine the noise. We had headphones on to listen for the beep when we had found a mine, but of course with all the noise of the guns going off at the same time we couldn't hear a thing. I thought my equipment had failed so to test it i swept it over my hobnailed boots, it bleeped very loudly, so I knew that I had not got equipment failure. My Bomb Diposal Unit was 200 strong and next morning there was only 36 of us left. Life expectancy was very short.
On the 24th December 1942 I was blown up and woke up in a F.D.S(forward Dressing Station). I received 11 shrapnel wounds in my back and was blind for 3 days with the impact of the sand on my pupils.
I was sent back to the 11th General Suez hopsital for 5 weeks and missed the victory parade in Tunisia.
I always maintain that I have seen the biggest car park in the wrold. Just outside Cairo there were miles and miles of new vehicles from America intendedfor the invasion of Sicily. Unfortunately there weren't many drivers. The Sergeant Major mustered the unit one morning and asked those who could drive fall out to the left. Those who couldn't drive fall out to the right. The drivers numbered 20 and the non drivers numbered about a 100. the drivers were then told to take a learner and take him out into the desert for 4/5 hours and not bring him back until he could drive. This weent on for 3 days.

When we invaded Sicily the roads were very mountainous and steep. We were very worried that the new drivers would drive of these narrow roads, but our fears were unfounded as we never lost one vehicle. Which showshow well they were taught to drive.

We landed on a beach in Syracuse and thought we would meet with resistance, but we never saw the Garmans for 3 days. We spent that time eating tomatoes and oranges.

On our batle maps there was an area of land at the foot of Mount Etna and were forbidden to go there. Apparently it belonged to an English duke and he didn't want his land churned up by our tanks. We had to do a detour which put a lot of time on our journey.

This story was submitted by Mildred Finney a volunteer with the permission of Fred Clough.

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