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This story first appeared in 'Oswestry and the Borderland at War' by Peter Sharman. It was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Shropshire Libraries on behalf of Jack Cond茅 and has been added with his permission. Mr. Cond茅 fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Jack Cond茅 was born into a Chirk mining family in 1918, one of five children whose father was a miner at Ifton Colliery. They lived in Chirk Green at first and moved to Bronywaun shortly before the war. On leaving school Jack worked as a laboratory assistant at Monsanto Chemicals in Cefn Mawr. Shortly before the war he registered for call-up at Rhosymedre.

With the outbreak of war on September 3rd, 1939 Jack was called up for his full-time military service into the Royal Artillery reporting to Kimmel Camp near Rhyl for basic training on October 30th. Although initially he trained as a Gunner, Driver and Physical Training Instructor, one day he was sent for by the Adjutant who pointed out that he had been informed of his secondary education and previous employment as a Chemical Laboratory Assistant, and that consequently he would be transferred to a Special Squad, and promoted to the exalted rank of acting, unpaid Lance Bombardier! Jack then began to train on an old 1st World War eighteen pounder Artillery piece, studying the arts of gun laying, directing and map reading.

In January 1940, after returning from Christmas leave, Jack found himself posted to Ascot Racecourse, which was then being used as a Royal Artillery reinforcement depot for units serving in France. At that time the only accommodation available was in the stables. Jack鈥檚 next posting was to Pembroke castle to join the 78th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery. On his arrival, Jack was informed by his new Battery Commander that as the regiment was a former Cavalry Regiment which was re-forming and had its own NCOs, he was no longer a Lance Bombardier. He therefore joined 鈥楥鈥� Troop, 106 Battery, as a Gun Position Officer (Assistant) which meant that he had responsibility in the gun line for calculating ranges, anglesights and various barometric adjustments. He soon became very adept in the use of the slide rule. While stationed at Pembroke Castle he found himself on many occasions on ack-ack duty on the cliff top above Fishguard Harbour, armed with a Bren gun and fired a whole magazine in the general direction of the enemy aircraft, missing by a wide margin. The pilot, however, must have been irritated by the attention he was receiving and promptly turned towards Jack and the Colonel. By this time Jack could see that the aircraft rapidly approaching them was a twin-engined Heinkel. Jack, not too pleased about the now unwarranted and unwanted attention they were receiving, had taken cover. He heard the Colonel mutter 鈥渂loody missed him鈥�, as the Heinkel flew over them so low you could have hit it with a stone. He was only too pleased that the encounter was over! From then on most of the time up to Dunkirk was spent live-firing old eighteen pounder Artillery pieces, a 1st World War gun with new wheels fitted, on Senntbridge Ranges. Jack recalls at the time of Dunkirk receiving some of the lucky escapees at Pembroke, most of them with nothing but their rifle and helmet left in their possession.

During the Battle of Britain his unit was moved to Chichester on the south coast to guard against air attack and imminent invasion. They were dug in on Chichester Park and were responsible for the defence of Thorny Island, Hayling Island and Bognor Regis. The regiment also manned a rather precarious observation post situated in the top of a tree on the edge of Tangmere Aerodrome. Tangmere regularly received the attentions of the Luftwaffe, so this particular duty was often very dangerous.

At Felpham they had another observation post in a very grand house situated on the sea front. They controlled a six inch mortar dug in on the tennis courts, set to fire at Shoreham Beach. The mortar team comprised a team of four under a sergeant, the gun layer who had the terrifying task of catching any misfires (a frequent occurrence), as the barrel was upturned to empty it. By the autumn of 1942, Jack was training on 4.5鈥� guns at Oakhampton, and had done gunnery courses at Larkhill. In the New Year he and his regiment found themselves on the troopship 鈥楲ancashire鈥� in a convoy following the usual routes.

They spent six very pleasant weeks in Cape Town and then moved on to Durban. Jack recalls vividly an English lady standing on the quayside at Durban, singing 鈥楲and of Hope and Glory鈥� to the troops as they docked. (She was in fact the legendary 鈥楲ady in White鈥�, Perla Seidle Gibson, who met every convoy from 1940 to 1945, totalling 400 convoys, 45,000 ships carrying 6 million men. Sadly her son was killed serving with the Black watch in Italy). The rumour at that time was that they were heading for India. However, after calling at Mombassa and Aden and into the Red Sea, they found themselves in Cairo at Camp Cassasin, south of the city. From there they moved to an old RAOC depot at Tel-el-Kabir and then on to Cairo itself, to the Royal Artillery depot at Al-Marsah which was situated in the desert not far from the pyramids. Their equipment and guns had been sent elsewhere so they had very little training to do, but the Forces Canteen at Heliopolis was excellent, serving strawberries and cream, a magnificent treat in wartime days. In addition they could spend two to three days at rest camps on Lake Tinsah. During this time Jack鈥檚 C.O. organised trips in three-tonners to the El Alamein battlefields where they received lectures on the battles from a Staff Officer. In the frontline area of the Italian sector, they were warned to keep within white taped areas as mines had not been cleared, and many bodies were still unburied. Although they were warned by the Graves Commission to touch nothing, two Troop Sergeants chose to ignore this warning and threw an object they had found which exploded. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the two sergeants were court martialled.

Jack鈥檚 most vivid impression of the battlefield was the total lack of cover for fighting troops, with observation posts standing out like small lumps. To his horror, one day he noticed a foot sticking out of a shallow grave; the boot was missing and the flesh partly rotted off. He was later informed that local Arabs would steal the boots from dead bodies.

By the middle of 1943, the regiment鈥檚 equipment was replaced and they then spent six weeks loading, guarding and training for the invasion of Italy with the 10th Indian Division. During this time Jack鈥檚 regiment travelled the Biblical lands from Cairo to Alexandria, visiting Beirut, Damascus and the Golan Heights. Jack himself was attached to a squad of Military Police, and had many adventures dealing with bar brawls in the seedier establishments of the 鈥渞ed light鈥� districts.

Having one day returned to a transit camp at Amriah, Alexandria, almost immediately they were boarded on a troopship heading for the Italian mainland. Off Taranto Harbour they disembarked onto barges, and landed in the Bari-Barletta area. It was here that Jack experienced his first battle exposure. The Germans bombed the harbour during Christmas 1943, and at the Senio crossing he dug gun pits and worked on ammunition parties. Monty visited the area during this time, handing out cigarettes to the troops.

Early in 1944 battles were raging on the Italian mainland at Anzio and Cassino. The British 1st Division and the U.S. 34th Division faced heavy fighting at the end of January, the British 1st Division in particular taking heavy punishment. By February 2nd the Germans had stopped Allied attacks dead at Anzio.

The situation around Cassino worsened and Jack鈥檚 regiment relieved the Scottish Horse Medium Regiment and for the first time found themselves, 78th (Duke of Lancaster鈥檚 Own Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, fighting alongside the 75th and 76th (Shropshire Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery. (Both regiments now form part of the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry TAVR). The New Zealand Corps, under General Freyberg, were on their right flank. One day at a command post forward of the New Zealanders, a soldier approached Jack and said he recognised him as being from Chirk. This soldier was in fact the son of the caretaker of Weston Rhyn Institute, a place Jack had been to before the war. He has many memories of the battles around Cassino, where his company had good gun position controlled by Army Group Royal Artillery. The gun pits were three to four sandbags thick. On the second day in position they were stonked by counter battery fire from German artillery. He recalls that Albert, a friend from Wellington, was in the latrine (thunderbox type) during this stonk and was well and truly caught with his pants down! He recalls one day hearing someone shout 鈥淛ack Cond茅鈥� as he was acting as Gun Aimer at the rear of the 4.5s. Much to his surprise he saw an old friend named Ben Jones who, like him, had worked at Monsanto before the war. Ben had been in the area for three weeks with a 25-pounder regiment. Cassino was being hammered, but the Germans put up stiff resistance and any movement in daylight along the main supply routes below Cassino produced instant response from their artillery.

During particularly heavy counter battery fire, 鈥楧鈥� Troop (DLOY), positioned just to the rear of Jack鈥檚 鈥楥鈥� Troop (DLOY), received a direct hit which killed all gun crews except two, including the second in command, R.S.M. and the Troop Leader. The Sergeant reading the gun programme was severely shell-shocked. The Shropshire Yeomanry also suffered its share of casualties, as shells exploded prematurely in the breach of one of their guns killed all the gun crew, including a soldier from Bronygarth, who was normally a driver but had been drafted in that day to man the guns. Jack recalls long and heavy fighting for Cassino, which was fiercely defended by the German 1st Paratroop Division. The weather during the offensive only added to the misery. By the end of March 1944 the New Zealanders were taken out of the line and broken up, having suffered severe casualties at Cassino.

Just before midnight on May 11th 1944, Jack鈥檚 unit took part in the heavy preparatory bombardment which launched the new allied attacks. Four allied army corps took part in this attack, the 11 U.S., 11 Polish, XII British and the French Expeditionary Corps. Jack鈥檚 guns fired in support of the Polish as they moved across the Rapido River with, as far as he remembers, the French in the middle and the Americans to the west. The Poles suffered badly and were bloodily repulsed by the Germans defending Cassino. On May 18th 1944, Cassino was finally taken by Allied Forces and five days later they eventually broke out of the Anzio beachhead. About this time, Jack once again met up with a troop of the Shropshire Yeomanry, including an old friend from Chirk, Stan Sudlow.

During a lull in the fighting Jack鈥檚 Commanding Officer organised a trip to Cassino Monastery to see the place they had fought for so hard. The destruction was so bad they had to climb on foot. He recalls the great sadness he felt at seeing the bodies of Germans, British and Polish Infantrymen still lying among the ruins.

From then on the Regiment advanced steadily towards Rome, firing in close support of the Infantry or carrying out counter battery firm. Rome was entered early on the evening of June 4th, 1944 and throughout the remainder of that month and the next they progressed steadily toward Florence, eventually capturing the city on August 12th. The winter of 1944 was spent in the mountains crossing to the Adriatic. By VE day Jack was at Sienna University, Tuscany learning mathematics. He celebrated with a can of beer. Later he took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing around Venice, Bologna and Austria, hitching lifts whenever he could. Once again he met an old friend from home, Harry Jones (鈥楬arry Soldier鈥�) who was serving with the RASC. On another day, he met Ted Roberts from Chirk Green. It seemed to Jack that in order to meet your friends from back home, you had to go to war!

Jack Cond茅鈥檚 war ended at the end of January 1946 when he was demobbed in Aldershot. After the war he worked for Monsanto until his retirement from the post of Employment Officer in the Personnel Department. He is currently an active member of the Royal Artillery Association and the Royal British Legion.

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