大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Robert Springett on behalf of Ron Wallis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understand the sites terms and conditions.

14255050 Trooper R.W. Wallis
Reconnaissance Corps
1942 鈥� 1947

In mid-summer of 1942 I received my calling-up papers from the Ministry of Defence to report to an Army depot for a medical inspection to see if I was fit to join H.M. Forces. I passed A1and was informed that in due course I would receive instructions where to report for duty along with travel warrants etc.

In the interim I joined a branch of the Home Guard to get a taste of life to come in the Army such as patrolling railway sidings, sentry duty and the like. My father who was a London Transport driver for over 45 years managed to get me into the Barking Garage branch of the Home Guard whose members consisted of drivers, conductors, mechanics etc. who were of the age where they were too old to join the regulars, but wanted to play their part in the war effort alongside all the other auxiliary services such as Air Raid Wardens, Policemen, Firemen and so on.

August 20th 1942 came and in the post were my travel instructions to report to the Recce* Training Centre in Lockerbie, Scotland. My father, mother, brother and sister came to see my departure on the overnight train from Euston Station to Scotland.

Arrived at 8 o鈥檆lock next morning and along with many other recruits were taken by truck from the station to the camp. (I received good advice from my father who had served in the First World War, that I had no option and always to look on the bright side and enjoy the life ahead of me. How grateful I was to him and put in into practice).

Naturally the first weeks were very hard indeed. On our first day after breakfast it was a visit to the Quarter Masters Store where we were fitted out with uniform; underwear, shirts and all the other gear a soldier requires. Then to the Medical Centre for inoculations and a medical and dental check, and then to the barber for a short back and sides (haircut).

The days that followed were of constant drilling and marching, and being shouted at by the Regimental Sergeant Major who put the fear of God into us all. Within six weeks one had gone from a boy to a man. At the end of the six-week period we had to undergo various tests to find out which of the Services we were best suited for. Some chaps went to the Royal Engineers; Medical Corps; Infantry Squadrons and so on. Others considered above average remained to join the *armoured divisions, and I was one of this group.

A spot of leave followed and then the training began in earnest. I was taught to drive armoured cars and Bren gun carriers (a tracked vehicle). In between all this happening there were long route marches, running assault courses, land mine clearance exercises, etc. etc.

After passing the driving test there followed mock battle exercises involving the vehicles we had been trained on. We were really fit then, and were a smart mob on the parade grounds in our best uniforms. All this took place in between all the other activities going on. There were cookhouse duties to perform and guard patrols at night.

After about eight months training I was finally posted to a unit where real soldiering began. I did night patrols along the South Coast in the armoured vehicle checking on the Coast Guards in the Martell Towers to see if all was well The enemy carried out raids on the shore.
Following a three-month tour of this duty the regiment was ordered north. We then realised we were about to commence training for the invasion of Europe. In the middle of this

路 Reconnaissance Corps

I was summoned to report to our Commanding Officer. I was curious about this for I thought I had done nothing wrong. It was the evening of the 12th March 1943. The Officer said 鈥淚 have some bad news for you. Your brother and sister have been injured in an air raid, and you have a compassionate pass home鈥�. A truck took me to Newcastle Central Station where I caught the overnight express to Kings Cross. I was greeted by my Father and a close friend, and knew by the expression on their faces that all was not well. In fact they had both been killed in the raid along with 40 other men, women and children. I went to the site of our former home which had been razed to the ground. (My Father was off work for 6 months after the tragic loss of two of his children aged 17 and 15 respectively).

On the 25th March I rejoined my regiment in Morpeth, Northumberland only to be told I would be leaving on compassionate grounds and joining a home-based unit which would be unlikely to be sent overseas for some period of time. This turned out to be true, and at the beginning of April 1944 I and other colleagues were seconded to the Traffic Division of the Military Police.

We were based in Stubbington, near Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, and our duties were to control all military traffic heading for the coast in preparation for the D Day landings. After this had all taken place and the invasion well on its way we all returned to our Recce Regiment to resume normal training, which I have described earlier.

In November 1944 I was sent home on embarkation leave, and early in December I embarked on the troopship 鈥淪cythia鈥� berthed in the river Mersey. After waiting some 5 days we joined a convoy of other troop ships and set sail for an overseas destination, which turned out to be Italy. We landed in Naples on Christmas Eve and spent the next few days in a transit camp. It was cold and wet and miserable, and chaos reigned all around.

Eventually I was assigned to a unit that was waiting to join comrades facing the Germans on the opposite bank of the river Po.* In the interim I ferried all types of military vehicles to various regiments throughout the region. Vehicles to replace those lost in combat, accidents, or destroyed by the enemy.

In March 1945 I was posted to a troop patrolling the banks of the river Po. We watched and reported back to Headquarters the movements of the enemy and undertook night patrols. This was frightening indeed, and you then realised how valuable the training carried out over the past years proved to be.

Eventually we received orders to advance and as we made progress towards Trieste all the Germans surrendered. Because a Bren gun carrier driver was taken ill my Commanding Officer, whose driver I was, asked me to take over the carrier.

After a journey of some ten hours we arrived in Trieste and took over a German Barracks. I shall remember the journey always. Beautiful blue sky reflected in the sea and pure white buildings away in the distance was pure magic.

The war ended 5th May and we settled for a rest, which was short lived. On the Italian-Yugoslav border Tito was spoiling for a fight over the city of Trieste. The unit was sent up the hillside to face the Slav fighters but after weeks of huffing and puffing Tito backed off after warnings from the British Commander that we would destroy them with the armour we had at our disposal. All went quiet.

A victory parade was held in the city centre and Field Marshall Lord Montgomery took the salute. It was a very proud moment for me to be part of it.

After a few months of routine work we had to prepare for a journey across the Mediterranean from Taranto to Alexandria in Egypt, although not before we had a spot of leave which enabled us to visit Venice. A beautiful city in those days, with very few tourists.

*River Po in northern Italy

After three days at sea we docked and were marshalled to a troop train, which took
us across the desert to our main camp near Tel 鈥� ak - Abir which was a major supply depot for the British Army. Here we carried out patrols against Arab insurgents often taking us miles into the Sahara. Patrols also carried out in Cairo.

When trouble arose in Libya we were sent to Benghazi and Tripoli to stamp it out. When we were due to return to our original base, some 300 miles away I was asked to join the Transport Section and relinquish being the CO鈥檚 driver. I agreed to the change and had the honour of taking troops from place to place, collecting stores etc. and people from ENSA (the entertainments people) from other units. During this time the Reconnaissance Corps was disbanded and we became the Derbyshire Yeomanry. Our patrols then took us to within easy reach of the Suez Canal and we were able to bathe in the Great Bitter Lakes which form part of the Suez Canal.

On the 20th February 1947 I received my de-mobilisation papers and was ferried to the Port of Alexandria to join the ship, which took me to Liverpool. On arrival in the UK the country was experiencing, that year, one of the worst cold spells ever known, and did we notice it after the temperatures of the past months. I caught a train to Aldershot where we were fitted out with civilian clothes and the fare home. Obviously, one cannot get from reading this resume of six years in the Service, the hardships experienced, such as Reveille at 6 am on a cold winters morning, washing and shaving in freezing water in tin wash-houses, sore feet and aching legs from root marches of 26 miles in full battle gear, hugged around a small coke fire in the evenings when the warmest place was under the blankets; and the strenuous training undertaken in all conditions. But the good thing that came out of it all was comradeship. Each one of us depended on the other for our lives. This will remain with me always.

Finally, I learned in later years that the Company I did my original training with all perished in the D Day landings. I think the deaths of my brother and sister saved my life. Fate possibly!!

Ron Wallis
23 November 2004

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