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THOMAS HOPPEN – IN ITALY IN 1942-45

I was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps attached to the Royal Medical Corps and we had a Field Services Medical Unit with us. I arrived in North Africa in 1942 and when the campaign finished there we went to Sicily and on to Italy.

My brother, Frederick Hoppen, was also in Italy serving in the Rifle Brigade. We managed to meet several times and I also kept in touch with our family back home to let them know how we were. I found out that Fred was missing and I tried to find out whether he was just missing or killed. I was able to contact an officer from HQ and he agreed to try and find out some information. The officer said that a Geman missile had been fired into the British Rifle Brigade lines with a message wishing the members of the Rifle Brigade a Happy Christmas and listing the men that had been captured! I think this was intended to encourage the allies to give up. As I had this information I could let my family know, much sooner than through the authorities, that Fred was alive.

One of my memories was when we were first in North Africa in the Transport Division. Our spitfires used to use one particular tree as target practice and I believe to clear the guns of ammunition. We were quite used to seeing this done but when the Americans arrived one day with all their tanks, armoured cars and weapons, they were so surprised to see the spitfire firing at the tree. Instead of firing back they all jumped out of the vehicles and disappeared amongst the corn! All we could see was clouds of cigar smoke!

When we landed at Algiers at 6pm one morning our ship was torpedoed but fortunately did not sink. We then marched for about 20 miles towards Tunis and made our camp without any tents. It was a wooded area and to our surprise our neighbours were lions because this was part of a zoological garden.

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