大象传媒

The following is the 11th installement of the Memories of my Uncle Jim who served in the 1st and 8th Army, who as agreed that they may be posted.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BACK HOME

Came the time for my journey home, so I sailed from Pireus which is the port of Athens, to Bari in Italy. From there I travelled by train through Switzerland down to Calais where I sailed to Dover. It felt great to see the White Cliffs of Dover.

I arrived at Nottingham Station in the early hours of the morning and was fortunate to get a lift to Mansfield in a GPO van, where I waited in Church Street for him to bring me up to Sutton-in-Ashfield.

My wife had got a home ready for when I came home, but slept at her Mother鈥檚 which was five doors away. I knocked on the front door and up went the window and she enquired 鈥淲ho鈥檚 that?鈥�. I replied 鈥淢e鈥�. 鈥淲ho鈥檚 me?鈥� 鈥淛im鈥�

I had my month鈥檚 leave and travelled all the way back to Athens. My release should have been July 1946 but the Colliery asked for my release so I came back in January 1946. In retrospect I wish I had refused because I lost out on more leave with ration pay and demob money. I reported to a camp in Newcastle-under-Lyme, from where I went to Hereford for my demob suit, trilby and raincoat, and so back home.

Although the Inniskillings and the Irish Fusiliers no longer exist as they went into the Royal Irish Regiment. A good number of us who are left still meet in Liverpool and London in the Combined OCA. In June we had a parade in London with Pipe and Drums with the band in full dress and the Irish Wolfhound mascot in front. My pal Clancy comes over from Canada to most of the Christmas Dinners and St Patrick鈥檚 Day.

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