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StanEllis10
Italy and Greece.
The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe.

Hello, my name is Ellis Stanley, Army Service number 2092841. I have written my memoirs of World War Two as I lived it. I served through the war from first day to last, and served as a vehicle mechanic, reaching the rank of Corporal. I was a soldier in the Army firstly in the UK, then in North Africa, and finally in Italy and Greece. After Victory in Europe, I was posted to Italy again until I was returned to Aldershot and demobbed in 1946. These memoirs have been edited to conform to People’s War standards, and are spread over 12 title pages, and cover my service in locations as listed below. They have been transcribed by Andrew Voyce, an Open University graduate.

StanEllis1 UK- The Phoney War part 1
StanEllis2 UK- The Phoney War part 2
StanEllis3 UK- Northern Ireland and preparations for the desert
StanEllis4 North Africa- The journey by troopship and the Battle of El-Alamein
StanEllis5 North Africa- Active service with the Eighth Army
StanEllis6 North Africa- The final defeat of the Afrika Korps
StanEllis7 Italy and Greece- Arrival in Italy and joining the Battle of Monte Cassino
StanEllis8 Italy and Greece- Monte Cassino
StanEllis9 Italy and Greece- Some matters of everyday soldiering
StanEllis10 Italy and Greece- The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe
StanEllis11 Demob- Time after the cessation of hostilities
StanEllis12 Demob- Postscript

The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe

Victory in Europe!
We were in Greece for the Victory in Europe march-past (VE Day). Which I’ve got as ’45, May the Ninth. VE Day was in early May 1945, by which time we were settled in Greece. We had our own march-past. The regiment did that. One of the senior commanders took the salute. Nobody that I can remember . It wasn’t Montgomery, anyway. He probably was somewhere, but…Then eventually we moved from Greece. From Salonika, where we were based, to Austria. Klagenfurt was the name of the place. We took over another unit’s transport, ‘course I don’t know where they went, they might have been going back to Blighty. Drove down to Verona in Italy. We were at Klagenfurt a week or two, I suppose. Got it all together, then, took over this new transport, drove down to Verona, and we were the Army of Occupation there. (We drove all the way from Salonika to Klagenfurt.) They didn’t used to worry about that sort of thing (driving huge distances). Drive down to northern Italy. Got assembled, as it were, in Austria, off to Verona. With the new transport- well it wasn’t new, just new to us. Then I was granted my leave, 28 days leave to the UK. October ’45. By road, it was, a sort of bus service the Army had arranged. They were lorries, overland. We went through a part of Switzerland, but we weren’t allowed to stop. Because it’s neutral. It was only because it was on a mission, getting people home on leave.

Promotion to Corporal:
I must have got my stripes when I joined the ‘Sussex’. It’s funny, I don’t remember much about that. I went straight to two stripes. Because, I think it was a question of the REME strength had to be a Sergeant Mechanic, and then a Corporal, and one or two craftsmen- Privates. I had my Corporal’s stripes in North Africa. I never went down or up again after that, that was as far as I got. But it was quite a nice posting, Verona. We were in Italian Army barracks, properly built things. They had facilities like showers, and all that. Dining halls, civilisation it was, really. (The longest period we went without proper dining halls, or such, was probably the whole of the North Africa campaign.) Where everybody-these groups- did their own cooking. Had a little name for it, which I can’t think now. Company rations, something like that. You all got dished out, with the other men who were in your group, somebody cooked it, somebody made the tea, with the daily issue of food. Wasn’t too complicated in Africa, because it was only corned beef and biscuits. So you had to get to like that, I’m afraid you did. That’s all there was- there weren’t any options. But you soon accept that that’s it- you eat it. If you get hungry. The only place you can get bread in North Africa is sometimes the Arab villages. We were always a bit doubtful of it- always very brown bread. We never had any money on us in these places- never had any pay. There wasn’t anything they sold that I wanted. Obviously the civilian Arabs they all had enough fruit to live on. When you get to Italy, they had potatoes and all that growing. That was a lot better. The Italians had already changed sides when we got involved with them. We got good Italian food in Verona- cooking spaghetti and all that sort of thing. Some of their restaurants were open. That was quite a treat for us, to go out. Pasta always seemed to be available but there wasn’t much meat to go with it. Anyway, that was a treat. We used to pay for that. We’d go in, order it, then eat it up, pay ‘em and go. And they had wine- vino. There’s a big square, well a sort of coliseum thing, in Verona. And opposite that there was quite a large number of restaurants. That was a favourite place for us to go down, once a week, and have a beer out. By then, of course we had proper cooking facilities of the Army’s own. So we weren’t so desperate. It was a great relief to get away from the continual warfare. I’m sure it was for the people who were really involved in it, up the sharp end, as they say. The danger was much less. They used to keep us busy, because they always wanted the transport moving, they were always going somewhere.

Friendly Fire and a family meeting:
Talking about ‘Friendly Fire’- we’d had some of that (at Cassino). It was just as frightening, of course, because you were watching these aeroplanes, sort-of blasé, and all of a sudden they unload all their bombs on you. It was a complete and utter miracle that nobody got killed. The American soldiers who were nearby said: ‘They’ll come back, put some more in here. We’re not stopping!’ It was more than we dared do, do a thing like that. I met my brother-in-law in Italy. He found us, actually, because he knew what unit I was with. He found the echelon, of the Royal Sussex. We all had signs up outside, where we’d leave the vehicles where it’s civilised. He was a dispatch rider for the Royal Army Service Corps, as it was then. These dispatch riders, if any trucks got lost, or took the wrong turning, they had to go and get ‘em to get them back. Anyway, he found us, so we had a cup of tea together and I said: ‘Well, where are you, then?’ And he said where they were, and I said: ‘Aw, I’ll come down tomorrow, and join you for a cup of tea.’ And when I got there, the site was absolutely clear. Nobody there at all. That’s how it was in the Army. All of a sudden you got told: We’re moving. In twenty minutes, half an hour. You load up and go. Even if you’d been there for weeks or months, you could suddenly get the order to go. Which is what happened in North Africa. We were ordered to go round the First Army, American side, finish off the war, as it were. They had the satisfaction of taking the surrender of the Afrika Korps, anyway. Quite a major event- yes. I think that speech is in Monty’s book. It was the Sussex that took it. Funny that they should want to surrender to one particular unit. Eighth Army in particular. Of course they’d been up and down the desert about three or four times. I suppose they get to appreciate each other’s capabilities. ( But perhaps not everyone got to see it in that light.) When you see your friends and comrades being shot and that happening, you know, ‘ imagine that quite a tough attitude develops that: It’s them or us. Not a lot of chivalry, not a lot of place for it. With these front-line regiments, I mean, if you didn’t shoot first, they’d shoot you! So they had to be very good with their rifles, machine guns, or whatever they were using. The Sussex had anti-tank platoons with anti-tank guns. And mortars. So when they got to a fixed position, they set these mortars up, watching them over there, ‘course in Italy there was no opportunity to do that, because they were all the other side of the hill, you know, so they used to shoot these mortars over there, to share amongst them, as it were. And the Germans were very good at that as well. They had a multi-tube, these mortars. Neffelwerfers, they used to call ‘em, funny noise when it went. You could here them coming. You had to hit the deck, take cover, and hope they didn’t come down near you. Sort of a whining noise it used to make. I suppose that’s part of the act- to put the wind up you! Which it did, usually! Wow, they’re coming, but that’s not ours. Yeah.

At last- home leave:
(It’s near the end) when I get to Greece and Verona, and the Army of Occupation, and the 28 days home leave- special name there was for that LIAP. It’s in my pay books- they record it in your pay books. Leave In Advance of something or other- not everybody got it, but I did. Twenty-eight days leave by road to the UK and back. I was issued with a book like this (the one Ellis has remaining) but the official one got so tatty that they renewed this. ‘Old book destroyed’ it says. The one I have was issued in Italy. It’s come a long way, hasn’t it just? Twenty-eight days leave to the UK- from Verona. ‘LIAP- leave in UK to 26th October 1945.’ From Verona- it’s my birthday, actually. So that was a happy coincidence, I suppose!

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