大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by CSV Story gatherer Jessica on behalf of Ted Plank. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

I was called up in July before war broke out and was sent to Devises for six months training with the Wiltshire regiment. I remember the food being very good! In September, war broke out and our training finished soon after as we were sent to war. We were sent to Marlbourgh, I was in the 8th Battalion Worcester regiment. One of our men got chicken pox, so we were all confined to our barracks! The jobs were divided up and I became a driver, even though I had never driven anything before!

We went by ship to France and drove to Northern France near Lille. It was winter and it was cold, there was four foot of snow and the first night we slept in a freezing cold barn on a farm. For breakfast we were given a tin of bacon between eight of us. Soon we were staying in billets and I was learning to drive a 5 ton lorry. The lieutenant asked me,

鈥淒o you think the gear box will stand it?!鈥�

We didn鈥檛 know what to do and were digging trenches just like in the First World War. The Germans came and we were outclassed by them. We each had a rifle with a 303 bullet and then an anti-tank rifle 505 bullet. We were told that this would damage a tank, but when the war started I saw a soldier shooting at a German tank, his bullets bounced off the tank and the tank fire killed him.

We were on the move again and past near to where Wellington fought Napoleon. The troops slept in blankets on the ground of the field but being a driver, I was lucky enough to sleep in the cab of the truck. We were in a village guarding a square full of equipment and when there, we slept in underground bunkers and only were above ground when on duty. It was here that a German prisoner was in imprisoned in a hut. One day the Germans came and dropped a mortar bomb, the hut splintered in all directions, but amazingly the prisoner lived, his clothes in tatters.

Then came the order to pull out and go to Dunkirk. We drove day and night. I heard a rattling noise on the truck so I got out to investigate tightening all the straps. Next thing I know, I am being woken up. I had fallen asleep, standing up, checking the lorry! As there were no place names on the road signs at each junction there would be a military officer to tell us the way. There were lots of bridges en-route and most had been damaged by the 5th Columnists. We got across best we could, sometimes pushing in broken down lorries to walk over, leaving our vehicles behind.

When we arrived at the beaches there was nothing to eat apart from our basic rations. We spread out in trenches to hide from the German air force. We could see H.M.S Hood in the bay and saw it firing at air crafts. We felt forgotten by the air force at that time, it wasn鈥檛 till we got home that we realised how great their losses were. A big ship came in close to the shore and we were told to go to it when we were called. It came to our turn, we had to walk out into the sea and as it became deeper we were told to discard our rifles, gas masks etc. to make more room for more to be taken back to England. We sailed into Dunkirk and moored at the docks. I was sitting at the top of the ship and saw a bomb come and go through the first deck, killing many. The boat was not badly damaged and managed to sail back to Tilbury, with us on board.

Entering Tilbury docks was an amazing sight. There were scores of women, clapping and cheering. They were so generous giving us tea and biscuits from their own rations. Half the regiment had been lost.

After regrouping I had to drive equipment to Cornwall. I drove into a town and beside a big building I know now is the city hall, was a sign saying Truro and I said to myself,

鈥淣ever heard of this place.鈥�

I remember going to Falmouth and to a lorry park in Kimberly Park and in the evenings me and my mates would go to the Methodist Chapel on the moor to play billiards, darts and table tennis. One night this was hit and some of my friends died. While in Cornwall I met Joan and started walking out with her.

I was sent back to Tiverton and one day I received a letter from Joan asking if I was going to marry her because otherwise she would be called up for land army or service, and she really didn鈥檛 want to do that! And so we married that December in Truro at St Paul鈥檚 Church.

I continued serving along the east coast doing night patrols but we could not walk on the beach because of land mines. I was still driving too, one day on the flats around Lincoln my lorry broke down. I waited ages alone untill another truck came along and I asked for a tow to a safer place. They found out it was a blockage in the petrol pipe, and I was soon on my way. It was then I was moved to the Gloucester regiment and it was in Gloucester that me and a pal saw a bridge which was covered in the names of men who had fallen in the war. I said to my pal,

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to hang around here long,鈥�.

We were put on a boat bound for Burma which was rerouted to Gibraltar as the Somerset鈥檚鈥� needed more men. They wanted people for the tank corp. and I volunteered. It was great fun driving on empty roads in a tank - very different to driving a truck! Soon, I passed out as a fitter with R.M.E. The next boat load of men out were all fitters so I wasn鈥檛 needed. With the Royal Engineers 1st fortress corp. I became a plumber for the drillers who were getting the rock out to build a runway which is still there today. I then went on to assemble spitfires for the air force. A large crate would come on the boat and there was an officer to oversee us building them. We put on extra fuel tanks that would be dumped on missions. These spitfires were bound for Malta. I went back to my plumbing to build a desalination plant and a launderette in the rock for the hundreds of troops there. We stayed till after the war, when eventually we were fetched back to England.

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