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This story was submitted to the Peoples War Site by staff at Warrington Library on behalf of Kate Abbott and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

You asked about my time in the war….

I travelled a lot, even before the Army I worked at Risley, where they were building the munitions factory, I worked a few days in Liverpool on demolition work between air raids. One of our gang was Patrick, a young Irish man. Pat was killed when a wall fell on him. From Risley I was transferred to Pembrokeshire to build an airfield. The town was Haverford West; we were surprised the first night when bombers came over and anti-aircraft guns stared firing. The raid was on Pembroke Lock, a few miles away. At first I was housed with a vet and his wife, I shared a room with a young Irishman. He was OK, but we did not fit in. They didn’t want two builders labourers in their middle class suburban house.

I moved to the home of Jack Llewellyn and his wife and baby. It was a council house in the town; a few minutes walk from the shops and the town’s two cinemas. They fed me well and I had my own room. I was allowed to use the living room, the bathroom and the radio. It was home from home. I was happy there, but when I was given the opportunity to move back home, I took it. After a few weeks I moved to Chester to go on a training course to learn something about metal work. I lived with Jack Nichols and his wife in their neat, well-furnished terrace house in Hoole. At first I shared a room but he left and I have my own room, I was able to walk to town or get a bus. I visited most of the Cinemas I still remember the names. Odeon, Regal Garmont, Palace Tatler and Music Hall.

I was happy at the Nichols House, but the course was completed and I was directed to work at Burtonwood. I lived at home in Latchford. I met Elsie at Burtonwood; we went out a few times at the age of nineteen I was called up to the Army. I travelled to Morecombe on the train and an Army truck took us to Middleton Towers ‘Holiday’ camp. We were able to go into town a few times. All the Hotels and Boarding Houses were full with Air-Force girls. It was a W.A.A.F Training centre. After six weeks training I was posted to Scarborough for more training.

Driving, Gun Drill and Signals, I was training as a Wireless Operator and field telephone Exchange Operator. After two visits home for leave I went out with Elsie, I was moved again to Cromer in Norfolk. A quiet Seaside Town full of soldiers, no entertainment, so we visited the church. From Cromer to Tonbridge and Sevenoaks in Kent with cinemas and a forces canteen, two nice towns.

In Tonbridge I was invited to get confirmed at the Parish Church. I think I have still got the Bible. The travels continued with a three days drive in the convoy to Alyn wick In Northumberland. A very small town with a castle, the first night the town’s people invited us to hot-pot suppers and dance. Most places left me with pleasant memories. The invasion of Normandy started so we got the order to move again. (to Horsham in Sussex) From there to London where we didn’t board the ship because a flying bomb came and exploded nearby. We went back to camp for another night. Next day we boarded the ship, we spent the night in hammocks.

Next morning, after breakfast we assembled on deck. Our vehicles and artillery guns had been moved from the ship to the landing craft. We had to climb over the side down rope nets. The landing craft couldn’t drive out to the beach so they dropped the ramp and we drove of in to the shallow water. Water got in to the engine and stopped it. We had to be towed ashore and left to dry out. By his time our regiment had moved on without us. We didn’t know where, so we parked in a country lane ate some emergency rations and brewed some tea. We slept under the truck on our groundsheets and blankets.

Next morning we ate more emergency rations, drank more tea, by which time the military Police found us and escorted us to our regiment in a field, the guns already set up for action. They were firing day and night for some weeks, till we got news that the Germans had been surrounded and surrendered. I did hear that Three Hundred Thousand prisoners were taken to prison camps in England. After Normandy, we had a clear run through Northern France, Belgium and into Holland.

The Germans counter attacked in the Ardennes mountains in Belgium. By his time it was winter and we slept in tents, barns or abandoned buildings. We went back to Belgium but the Air Force stopped the German offensive with dive-bombers so we didn’t have much to do. We went back to the Holland where we met the Smits family in Tilburg. They invited us into their home. There were the parents, a couple of young boys and three girls (18, 20, 21 about) There were four of us but one was married. The girls got our addresses and wrote to us in English.

I wrote to Anny occasionally for a couple of years or more, I met another girl in the village of Brunsum. I went to her house and her sister’s house. The war still was not over; we still had to cross the Rhine in Germany. The opposite bank was defended so we brought up all our artillery and bombarded them for several hours to clear the way for the Infantry and Tanks.

I never did cross the Rhine; I was posted to a place in Belgium where I had opportunities to visit the cities of Antwerp and Brussels. We moved to Ostend, where we boarded a troop ship to Tilbury, near London, from Tilbury to Woolwich and then home for 14 days leave. The war in Germany still was not over, but some if us were needed for the war with Japan.

We were still in England for VE day, I went with a mate to Cambridge where we met two girls, watched the bonfires and missed the last train to Brandon, till the next morning. A day or two later we were put on a train to Liverpool for a ship to Bombay. A fortnight cruise via the Bay of Biscay (I was seasick) Gibraltar, Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

At Kalyan camp we were kept awake all night with the sound of thousands of frogs and crickets. I think we were at Kalyan when we got news of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japs were finished and we were not needed in Burma, we couldn’t go home for many months so we had an easy time, travelling in India. Some train journeys took three days. I went to a leave camp in the mountains, ten thousand feet up, where the air was cooler. We missed two English winters and almost two Rugby seasons! I saw many places in India and we were not rationed with food. We found a Chinese restaurant.

PS
We must not forget the men we left behind in France. Captain Jones, Captain Nightingale and Eric Digby (A signaller). There may have been others but I knew these three. Reported missing, believed killed.

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