大象传媒

This account was given to me by my neighbour Vic Nolan, who has given his permission for it to be included on the website.

On reaching the age of 20, in May 1940, I was conscripted. Although I was medically graded CIII, I was very quickly posted to the Pay Corps, at Portsmouth - on pay of 1/- a day.
Four weeks later the south coast was being badly bombed, so the unit was transferred to London and as we were billetted out I was able to go back home to live.
But the German bombing followed us, so in November the unit was transferred again 鈥� this time to Leeds, where I enjoyed life for nearly three years and we suffered only one bombing raid. Things were not so quiet when I was drafted back to London in 1943, to a unit for overseas service. On my arrival there I was astonished to find everyone scurrying to the shelters in the daytime to avoid the droning 鈥渄oodlebugs鈥�.
No invasion happened that year, so I spent some months 鈥� again billetted at home 鈥� working in London Pay Office, and also in the Bank of England unloading specially-printed foreign currency for use in the planned invasion.
After D-Day, in June 1944, we were on stand-by for France, and we eventually reached Normandy on D-Day +56 with an advance party of 24, travelling on a landing-craft that was carrying tanks of the Free Polish Army.
We landed at Arromanches on a very hot day, at the prefabricated harbour codenamed 鈥淢ulberry鈥�. I was amazed to see the semicircle of sunken boats that made its outer wall, and at the size of the whole construction. However, we had to hurry off as we were followed by the Polish tanks that were impatient to get off the ship and onto the shore. After being moved 10km inland by truck, to an orchard near Bayeux, we of the advance party had to prepare a tented camp for the remainder of the unit. We could hear the guns day and night while the slow battle was fought at Caen.
The job of my unit was to do all the paperwork concerned with looking after the pay of the invading army and to supply the units with the specially-printed currency, which we had brought with us in big wooden chests.
Due to the delay in breaking through at Caen, our unit was in Bayeux for about six weeks. With the liberation of Paris in August 1944 we were able to at last transfer our currency to the Banque de France and my unit was moved on to Brussels. After six months I volunteered to go into Holland, as life in Brussels was proving a little expensive. After a short stay in a small Dutch town (where we indulged in some rowdy celebrations on VE Day!) our unit 鈥� which was only about 30 men 鈥� moved on to Amsterdam where we enjoyed another six months in a capital city. The unit was eventually closed down and transferred back to Brussels.
Many of my colleagues were being demobbed at this point, but I had another six months to go so I was posted to Hamburg to finish up my time and was demobbed in July 1946.
I had served as a Clerk for nearly six years and managed to get to the rank of Lance Corporal. I was very lucky, and on the whole it was an enjoyable period of my life, but it took me a while to settle back in Civvy Street.

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