大象传媒

My Dad Alan Charles volunteered in 1939 as he wanted to make sure that he could get a position driving an
ambulance as he had passed all his St.John ambulance. As far as I have heard from family he was a very different
man when he came out to when he went in. I was born in 1938 so I cant even remember him then. He went in
R.ASC, and when in Dunkirk he was driving in no.1 ambulance convoy or co. He never said much about the war,
but I remember him comming home from Dunkirk telling me about a nuns rosery he had in his pocket ,and he
gave it to me,he said he was driving his ambulance past a nunnery that had been bombed and in the road on his
way to Dunkirk lay a nun with a little girl, dad stoped to help, but the nun said to leave her as she knew nothing
could be done for her ,but she said please take the little girl to safty,which he did,and she told my dad to take the
rosery so it could look after him . So dad kept it on his person till he came home , and then he gave it to me,and I
still have it.I dont know how anything stayed with him as when hecame home, walking up our street, past our front
window,when we first saw him,his uniform was all torn , coverered in oil and soaking wet All he had with him
was what he stood up in. He only stayed home a few days as he was called back again and Idid not see him any
more for six years.My mother by then had mooved with me to my grandmothers, and when dad went back she
volunteered for the W.A.A.F. leaving me with my grandmother. I remember so well as I grew up my grandmother
taking me to the pictures ,and when I saw the newsreels of the men at war Ialways felt mooved to tears and I hoped
and prayed I would see my dad again,the feeling of sadness also has always stayed with me when seeing soldiers
marching.My dad did tll me about one of his times in Dunkirk just before he died, I had heard it before through my
mother, I emagine he told her when having nightmares, Ithink this haunted him for the rest of his life, I can
remember how sometimes he seemed in another world,and when in thought his eyes would go like marbles a look
of distance, Icouldnt think then as Iwas only a child , what made him so silent at times,but as Igrew older Icould
understand what dad and all the other men must have gone through. We went to Australia soon after the war for a
new start. Ifelt sorry for my dad as his life from leaving the war to the end of his life must have been totally
different to what he expected when he was a young man. Soon after arriving in Australia dad with 50 other
Dunkirk vets living in queensland started a Dunkirk vets club it was published in the Australian papers, 6 of the
men had a story to tell to the paper ,my dad being one.Istill have the paper with dads words 鈥淚 had wounded in my
ambulance and for four days I tried to find a place for them, but everywhere Iwent the medics had pulled out and
all was a shambles. We had nothing to eat or drink for all four days. I just had to keep on driving towards Dunkirk,
the roads were hardly passable with burnt out lorrys and jeeps ect. I dont know how many times we had to stop and
jump into ditches when being bombed. When I did get to Dunkirk I was ordered to leave my wounded, as this was
the last ship and if I missed it I would be taken prisoner , the wounded I was told would be found by the enemy and
looked after.The ship Idid get away on was sunk .鈥� Leaving those men in the ambulance left my dad feeling so
guilty, that feeling must have been with him all his life,as that is what he went over again with me just before he
died.Ioften wonder if any of those men that were left in that ambulance are still alive, Iwould love to know. It is
silly I know but I feel that as it was my dad out there that somehow part of me was with him. It is strange what war
does to one ,I was only a little girl, but it is all still deeply embedded in my mind Idont think I will ever be able to
shake it off. So it makes one think if it is like that for our generation, what was it realy like for the soldiers, as not
many of them would not say much about it .I also remember the hymns we used to sing at infants school, all were
to remind us of the war and our fathers fighting a long way away it was drummed into us whatever part of the day,
so even though we were children it was all very real or maybe it has come more to life now as one gets older, it is
something that just grows inside,it is always there but the rest of life goes on somehow,but one just can not forget
My dad enlisted at Romford into RASC posted to Dorset 24.01.40 posted 82 co-1 depot batt.27.02.40 posted
no1g.b.d.27.03.40 posted no1 motor ambulance co. 07.04.40 embarked UK 04.12.41 disembarked middle east
12.02.42 posted 2Co.-base depot 13.08.42 posted 44 Div Ind Trans Platoon 19.08.42 posted 3 Co-base depot
17.09.42 posted 14 Line of Comm Co 24.09.42 posted 397 Tank Trans Co 13.01.43 Trans to british north africa
force 29.08.43 posted 713 General Transport Co 29.10.45 Medals 1939/45 Star Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp,
Italy Star,France and Germany Star, War Medal 1939/45 .Also his Dunkirk medal.Did anyone serve with my
dad. Marion The End

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