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I was working at the Burgh Island Hotel off the Devon coast at Bigbury-on-Sea as a waiter in the summer of 1939. It was here too that I met my wife-to-be. As soon as the War started, the Hotel closed. All the guests and staff left, but the owners stayed on with a skeleton staff. I returned to London to look for a job and returned to L'Aperitif Grill. I was aged 23. In December 1939, I signed on for the British Forces. On 15th March 1940, I was called up to start my Army training with the Royal Fusiliers, a London regiment, at Hounslow Barracks. On 23rd March, I was given 24 hours leave to return home in order to get married. We were married for 50 happy years. The first stage of my training lasted for two months - I will never forget the feeling of loneliness of that first fortnight. I was moved to Hounslow Heath with five other members of my Platoon to learn to drive and learn all about army vehicles. I volunteered to go to a school of physical training to become a P.T. Instructor.Having passed my courses, I was given first one stripe and then two and with the stripe went better pay.This enabled me to join the headquarters of the 19th Battalion and be a member of the staff. It was by now the beginning of 1941. At about that time, the Ministry of Defence was forming the Field Security Section, which was a branch of the Intelligence, and they were asking for members of the Forces with a knowledge of foreign languages to join them. As my mother tongue was greek, I was asked to meet my then commanding officer who asked me if I was interested. My answer was ‘no’ because I was happy as I was then — his answer was that I might be of better service to my King and Country in the new regiment rather than the infantry. He sounded serious and therefore I accepted. It took the first 4 months of 1941 to hear if I had been accepted and leave the 19th Battalion and be sent to Winchester College to learn all about my new course. By October 1941, I was posted to a section.

We left Hampshire and traveled by train to Glasgow. We embarked on a big ship with a variety of other units. Luckily for us, the ship used to be a cruise ship in peacetime. It still had the comfort amenities, but was later converted into a troop ship. We sailed north towards Canada to avoid being hit by the German submarines. In those days, several ships sailed in a convoy via the north and the South Atlantic Ocean. The first port of call for the ship was Cape Town, South Africa. That length of the voyage lasted 4 weeks. We stopped for one week and were allowed to go ashore every day. Our next stop was Durban. We continued our journey through the Indian Ocean, arriving at Bombay. After several days, we were seeing and mixing with, for the first time, the people of East Asia. We there awaited orders for our next destination, which was to be either Iraq or Singapore. It was Iraq. From Bombay, we headed northeast, through the Arabian Sea and through the Arabian Gulf and finally disembarking near Basra and then on to Baghdad to the British Headquarters. The journey had taken two months.

My stay in Baghdad was almost the entire duration of 1942. I travelled by local train on duty always accompanied by another member of my section. The train might have been nearly empty at the beginning of my journey but by the end it was full of local people, various goods, animals and chickens. The main purpose of the British forces being in Iraq was to prevent the German forces form getting hold of the Iraq oil fields. We were there as friends of the young king and its government. No fighting took place.

At the beginning of 1943 my name was put forward for promotion to full paid sergeant and join another section that meant going to Cairo. We rested at Mosul and traveled to Jordan and then Jerusalem in Palestine. The road was long and nothing but desert. I did not see a tree or any green grass until was arrived in Palestine. Eventually to Cairo and through the Sinai desert. There was a lot of fighting between the British Army against the German and Italian forces in North Africa. During that period I was sent to Cyprus twice. It was a real delight to see my family again. The Eighth Army consisted of units from every part of The British Empire.

While preparations were taking place for the battle of El Alamein there were other preparations in Egypt for second front to attack the German and Italian forces from the East and liberate the Balkan countries. By the latter part of October all was ready. A large convoy sailed from Alexandria heading north. It did not take us long to realize that Greece was our destination.
The navy’s first operation was to clear the German mines from the harbour in Piraeus.

Athens was our first base and like all liberated countries, the Greeks were friendly and hospitable despite the fact that they did not have much to offer. When things started to get better in Athens my section was sent to Salonika and then onward to Kavalla and Alexandropoulis close to the Turkish border. Having served nearly 3 years I was given a months leave in England. It was a real pleasure to be home again in Plymouth where my wife was staying with her mother.

I was then sent to Yorkshire to the headquarters of the Field Security where new recruits were being trained. Those were the days that the famous demob was in operation. We all had to wait our turn according to our age and number of years served. I was only at the depot 48 hours when I was sent home on embarkation leave. I was home for 2 days only when I received a telegram from the CO recalling me. Instead of going to Germany to join the British sector I would remain at the depot spending my last eight months of service there. I was demobbed on the 12th June 1946.

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