大象传媒

Staffordshire County Council libraries, on behalf of the author, have submitted this story. The author fully understands the rules and regulations of the People's War website.

I went in the army in March 1941, aged 19 years, in the Royal Warwicks. I really wanted to go in the air force. My mate went with me and he wanted to go in the navy. We met outside the recruitment office and both decided to go for the army! After passing medicals, the Major behind the desk said "When do you want to go, this afternoon"? I played in a dance band and said "I can't go this afternoon, I've got a dance on Saturday - will Tuesday be alright"!!
I joined the 1st airbourne force in April, 1941. In Teranto, in Italy, I was part of a patrol consisting of fourteen men in four jeeps. We took turns at being the front vehicle for two hours at a time. We were ambushed by a section of the German airbourne. Seven men died or were badly injured. I was one of the lucky seven. The seven of us were just planning what to do when a big german with a machine gun stood in front of us. He said "For you the war is over". The germans placed us in an Italian prison.
From the Italian prison we were transported by train (cattle wagon) and eventually came to Dresden in Germany. We worked for the railway there. I was just outside Dresden when it was bombed. We were in a bunker in a hillside and watched what looked like a gigantic firework display.
Whilst working on the railway, our rations for the day consisted of half a pint of soup and one slice of bread cut from a bloomer loaf and cut to the width of a playing card. To decide who got the end pieces, playing cards were placed on the top of each piece of slice - the seven of us then drew a card to determine which piece we had.
We finished up in a barn with about seventy five others - a mix of English, Polish and French prisoners of war. The Russians came and promised us that the Americans would come the following morning to collect us. The next morning, the Russians said that the Americans weren't coming for us after all and that we would have to make our own way to the Americans. It took us nearly a fortnight, on foot, to get there. When we did finally get to them, the Americans transferred us back to England.

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