大象传媒

Joined the army in 1940, First it was the 168th searchlight. I was 17 and had to get permission to join from my parents. Then I went into the RASC, on a boring switch board. I use to take secret messages from Horfield barracks. Then for more excitement, I join heavy ACK ACK with 3.7 guns. We went to firing camp, on a cliff in Northern Walsh, where the RAF, towing a sleeve on the end of hundreds of yards of wire, which we fired on. There was a breech burst in a gun, which meant the shell burst in the gun instead of being fired and when I looked up there was a large piece of smoking shrapnel just by my left foot, it was hot and jagged and could have taken my head off. The social life was great and I had many good friends. Then Mr Churchill brought all the guns on to the Kent coast to combat the doodle bugs. The coast was known as hell fire corner. We were under canvas and we had an Anderson shelter over our beds because of the shrapnel. The Germans would send over several buzz booms at a time. The air was thick with shell bursts. The Bofours batteries would fire over the top of our tents. I was in the army until the war ended. I was paid 9 shillings a week.

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