大象传媒

When World War Two was declared in September 1939, at the age of 18, I was serving an apprenticeship in Engineering at New Cross Hospital Wolverhampton, with a view to becoming a shift Engineer.
In those days, it was a very small hospital where most people knew each other. It was, until the 1930鈥檚 known as The Workhouse.
In the following August I decided to join the Army, and soon found myself doing Basic training at the Garrison town of Colchester.
During the next 3 years, after serving in the Middle East, and taking part in the Invasion of Sicily and later on in Italy, the 50th. Division which I was in, was brought Home.
This was in November 1943.
Although it wasn鈥檛 obvious at the time, it soon became apparent that we were being prepared for the Invasion of Europe.
I was in the Royal Army Service Corps, and the transport Vehicles had various modifications in preparations for disembarking in deep waters.
We left London docks on D3 after seeing one of the many 鈥淒oodle-Bugs鈥� flying over London at that time.
Fortunately when the vessel landed on the beaches of Normandy, we encountered very little enemy activity, and as the lorries were driven off the ship, the depth of water we drove through was no more than about twelve inches.
After quickly peeling off the water proofing sealant from our vehicles, our convoy was moved away from the area in the direction of Caen.
My short experience in Normandy came to a sudden end, late one afternoon, our company of vehicles were directed into a field that had been given the all clear signal of mines by the Royal Engineers. Suddenly there were several explosions over the other side of the field. In the midst of the activity, several of us ran over to assist the wounded, only to become involved in further explosions, and before I knew what was happening, found myself being transported by Field Ambulance to a nearby Field Hospital. By late evening I found myself being lifted on to a Dakota Aircraft, and taken to somewhere in England.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up, I was on a hospital train, and could only guess where it was going.
It turned out to be Wombourne in Staffordhire, which although closed to passenger trains, was reopened for Hospital trains during the war.
The end of my journey finished at New Cross Hospital. It wasn鈥檛 long before I recognized one of the stretcher-bearers from the engineering department where I had left almost four years previously to join the army.
It didn鈥檛 take long before word got around, which finished up with a visit from the Express and Star.
The shrapnel wounds received turned out to be only superficial, so I was soon able to return to my unit after a spell of rehabilitation.
It was in the early months of 1945 when I was able to rejoin my unit. By this time Allied forces had advanced into Germany, and my company was somewhere in Belgium. It was good to be back among the many comrades you have served along with, in the many theatres of the war, but sadly, there were one or two faces missing, and were not as fortunate in returning as myself as a result of the mine field incidents referred to in the early days of the campaign.
During the following months, we moved through many towns and cities in Germany, and witnessed the devastation and ruins caused mainly by the heavy bombing. From time to time, transporting whatever the requirements needed, personnel, food supplies etc:
When the war in Europe came to an end in May 1945, I spent several months in Berlin before being finally demobilized.
I did go back to New Cross Hospital to visit my fellow workers, and to inquire about my future working there, but as I had broken my terms of apprenticeship; found that was not possible.
It did take a while to settle down again to civilian life after five years life in the army, and I鈥檓 sure a good many servicemen also did.

[This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wolverhampton Libraries on behalf of William Dixon and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions]

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