大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ann Redgrave of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Len Press and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Before the war I worked at Mann Eggerton in Norwich and after being asked several times I eventually joined a trade corps. When the war started 10 months later I was immediately called up. I had arranged with my wife to get married on the 3rd September, but I was called up on the 1st. We had had a nice semi-detached house bought for us in Gorleston so we moved in before I went off. I had to go to some barracks, and from there was sent to Salisbury Plain where I was attached to the 1st Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery. When I got there I showed the Adjutant that the Banns had been called and that I was due to get married. He gave me 72 hours leave to get from Salisbury Plain to Gorleston, get married, have a little celebration afterwards and then get back. It was the morning after our wedding that I caught the 8 o鈥檆lock train back. When I reported for duty they told me that we were moving out in the morning. At three o鈥檆lock the next morning we went on board a ship to France. So I did go abroad for my honeymoon, but I went with the British Expeditionary Force rather than my wife!

It was quite fantastic in France. At Christmas we had bully beef stew and a bottle of Guinness each. I was given a stripe and was a Lance Corporal in the Ordinance Corps. I got a ten day leave to come home and when I went back I played football against a French team in a stadium. I wasn鈥檛 a bad footballer. After that things began to get a bit more unhealthy. The King came to see us and we paraded in the rain, waiting in the entrance to this barn for forty minutes before he came along. He was really quiet and shy, walked to the top of us, turned round, walked back and went. He didn鈥檛 really look at any of us. We then went and got changed out of our wet clothes.

Things then got a bit dicey and they asked for volunteers to get some ammo through. I volunteered but was told at first that I couldn鈥檛 because I was only attached to the corps. But I went along and we got through, but when we got back it turned out that we were surrounded. We were in northern France near a place called Ouchy. In the early hours of the morning they told us that we could probably get away if we went across some fields. So this is what we did. We went for some way and then they said we鈥檇 got to get to Dunkirk. We bashed up the vehicles and left them there so that the Germans couldn鈥檛 use them. It was difficult getting to Dunkirk because there were so many refugees on the road. We went along and it was a straight road to start with. Every now and then we would dive into the ditches to avoid planes. We had something in the region of 20 miles to walk and I was in the company of a couple of regular soldiers who I had been with whilst repairing vehicles. Eventually we got to Dunkirk and all these fellows were on the beach. I thought there was no way we could all be picked up. I looked out across a breakwater and saw a big destroyer picking up soldiers. It was high tide and I thought we鈥檇 better go up there. They were taking on walking wounded and I decided to get on the end of the queue. The other two chaps joined me, but a naval officer looked over the side once there were just the three of us left and said there was no room for anyone else. But once the officer moved off one of the crew said 鈥淐ome on, there鈥檚 only three of you鈥�. So we went aboard the HMS Greyhound (which was later sunk in the Norwegian Fjords). I was the last one to get on and the ship was already moving away as I scrambled aboard.

We were dead hungry because we hadn鈥檛 eaten and I said lets have a look round. I saw the engine as we were looking round and said 鈥淭hat looks like a Bedford engine鈥�. We started chatting to a crew member who overheard us and we told him we were hungry. He went off and got us three great big sandwiches which were lovely.

We got back to England and went to a base where they were taking in new recruits and putting them through their paces. To start off with we put up with whatever we could get and we finished up sleeping in a school. We went back to the base every day where there was a Sergeant Major Tracy who kept having us out on parade. He was a nice fellow. In time we got back to sleeping at the base and I would sometimes get a pass to go out drinking in the evening. One day another fellow I chummed up with didn鈥檛 get a pass so we went to see the Sergeant Major who said if he hadn鈥檛 got a pass he wasn鈥檛 going to get one. He then said 鈥淎nd I tell you, don鈥檛 think you can get back in through that hole in the hedge鈥� and told him exactly where it was. He was such a nice fellow!

From there I went to Lincolnshire, attached to the 1st Infantry Signals. While I was there a letter came from Mann Eggerton in Norwich saying that if they could get me out of the army would I go back with them, to which I replied I would. After a couple of weeks I got another letter from them saying that they were not having much luck at their end and would I try at my end. So I saw Captain Coppin who was in charge of the vehicles and he said he was going up to HQ, and would ask, adding that I would probably be alright. When he came back he said they wanted to put me on a charge for trying to get out of the army. But within three weeks I got another stripe which made me a Corporal, and four weeks after that they gave me another one to be Sergeant. We moved around England for a time and had lots of interesting things to do. At a place called Brandon we took over a workshop. They had taken us from Ordinance Corps to Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers which was new. I was in a Light Aid detachment which meant that we would move up the rear end of a convoy and keep the vehicles moving. We came back to Brandon and had to find a workshop. So I suggested going at the back of a hotel. I had the wife there with me and was able to sleep out. She stayed with some nice local people who were the owners of the hotel. This was a good time in the army for me.

We could see that we were going to be moving abroad, and after a while in Scotland we went o Algiers in North Africa. When we arrived we stayed in tents until we got ourselves organised. Then we moved into Tunisia, but things were beginning to ease off over there. When we got to a place called Nebo there was a bungalow where a dozen of us made our billet. We went all the way round to Tunis to finish them off. There were dead Germans lying around, which I hadn鈥檛 seen before. I got wrong with one or two people because I had my own way of doing things. They told me they could get rid of me but I said I didn鈥檛 think they would because we had done a good job. Within less than fourteen days I was on the train going back to Algiers. I went to an airport and was flown to Cairo in an American aircraft. From Cairo I went to Gaza and there I met up with Infantry who had been in the siege of Malta and all looked really thin. We had Indians and Pakistanis attached to us and I would look after them a bit. We would go on manoeuvres and on one occasion we stopped by some water and decided to dive in. It turned out to be the Dead Sea and when we came out we were all white!

After that we moved on to Italy. The ship which we were to put our vehicles on had to go into dry dock at Alexandria. We were told that it would be in for a few days and that we鈥檇 have to wait in the desert. While we were there there was a sand storm. Static electricity built up all over me from the sand and I keoot giving people shocks when I touched them. Eventually we got on board the ship and made our way to Palermo Bay in Sicily. The officers were allowed to go ashore on a small boat but they couldn鈥檛 start the engine. I looked over and said 鈥淒o you want a hand with that engine鈥�. So I went down on the rope ladder and repaired the engine by drying everything out. It started up and everyone cheered. The officer came up and said that I could go ashore, so I did.

When we got to Italy we went in at Terranto. We went all the way through Italy and I visited many places 鈥� Naples, Rome, and Florence. In Florence I met some Americans who were doing much the same job as I was. They got hold of some tyres for me from their major. Before that we had only been able to get hold of synthetic tyres and they kept blowing.

We were getting near the end of the war now. I finished up with the Infantry at Belzano which was quite a place. It was a separation centre for the good Germans they were sending back and the bad ones they were keeping. In our Mess there we had German waiters. I knew French, had begun to speak a little Italian, and now learnt some German. A German lady who served us in the Mess helped me to learn.

An ENSA crowd came along to entertain us. Before they had left the Germans had bashed up everything and the ENSA group asked if I could help with lighting. I took batteries which had been used in submarines and lit the stage up with them.

I met some wonderful people while I was in the Forces and my path would sometimes cross with people who had been good friends. After the war I went back and motored around France and Italy with my wife.

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