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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by volunteer Stan Grosvenor from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Cleveland on behalf of Stanley Videan Massey and has been added to the site with his permission. Stanley Videan Massey fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

A Great War Cousin

I was born in January 1917 and named after an older cousin, Stanley Videan who was killed in the Great War and is remembered on the war memorial at North Skelton. I lived with my parents in Grosvenor Terrace, Carlin How. The front of the house was a shop and I was in the middle room listening to the radio when war was announced.

Building Chimneys

I was called up on 8 August 1940. At the time I was living with my uncle Jim Hebden in Stretford. I had gone there to build a big chimney next to Old Trafford. I used to nick in to the ground to watch Manchester United and remember seeing Stanley Matthews play on one occasion. At that time the chimney had reached about 20 feet in height.

Woking to Kilmarnock

I reported to Inkerman Barracks near Woking and was subsequently sent to RASC 350 Transport Company as I already held a full driving licence. I didn’t live in; I and three others were sent to Shipley where we lived in civvy digs. Our job was to examine suitable houses should the accommodation at Bradford be destroyed by bombing. From there we moved to a country house at Bygraves, then to the Ordnance depot at Weedon in Northamptonshire where we provided the transport. Later we moved to Scotland where we lived in tents; naturally it rained every day, and afterwards to Grants Warehouse in Kilmarnock.

Torpedoed

Whilst our lorries were being loaded at Birkenhead, we boarded ship on the Clyde. We joined a convoy and sailed straight out into the worst storm for thirty years. We sailed for French North Africa (later called Algeria). The ship was torpedoed at the stern, but was able to make its way to land. We travelled by train to the port of Bône (by Annaba) to join our vehicles. We were pretty much an independent platoon; Cpl Sid Mellows from Derbyshire and another guy used to do a bit of maintenance. There was a lad called Bert Coles with us; he was a footballer from Evesham.

In camp there was a tall Irish Guardsman, we called him Paddy. He was a busted sergeant major who now had the rank of Corporal. He took us for rifle drill. He was the sort of man who when he shouted ‘jump’ you asked how high. He left, and the next time a saw him he was a sergeant in charge of a prison detail in Naples.

Tunis and Wembley Wizards

We did spend a while just outside Tunis where there was little work to do. We would take the Arabs to work in the morning, then there was nothing to do all day until it was time to go and collect them again. A ‘swimming’ wagon was provided each day to take us to the beach and I would sometimes go to the Yanks cinema in the evening. It was a posh affair with a roof that slid back to let in the night air: I saw ‘Sun Valley Serenade’ at that cinema. I was always good at sports and while we were in North Africa I played football in the same team as Alec Jackson: football fans will remember him as one of the successful Scottish national team who became known as ‘The Wembley Wizards’.

No Shortages in Naples

After Tunis we were sent to Cape Bizerte to await transport to Italy. Whilst we were there we were not allowed to leave camp. We were transported to Italy where we landed at Taranto and drove from there to Naples, the deep sea port controlled by the Yanks. We too came under the command of the Americans and were not permitted to take our rifles into the docks. When we asked what we were supposed to do about the thefts by the Italians, we were told to let them have the stuff.
We went short of nothing in Naples — fruit, chocolate etc, depending upon what was unloading at the time. I particularly enjoyed the tins of cooked turkey: we were short of nothing. The easiest items to get rid of on the black market were coffee and cigarettes and I don’t remember attending any pay parades.

And Plenty of Football

In Naples we were billeted in the Piedmont Barracks previously occupied by the Italian army. We were very comfortable there, each of us having an American Army hospital bed. The barracks square was earthen; the rubbish was taken from the centre and a football pitch marked out, and regularly used.

From Naples we went to Genoa where I took part in trials for the Genoa Area army football team and where I also became the 400 Metres swimming champion. I was in Italy for three or four Christmases and eventually was transported home via Milan and demobbed back at Inkerman Barracks.

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