大象传媒

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I was called up in 1939, well before war was declared, when I was 20 years old. I had been working for Foster's Outfitter in Bedford. My initial training was undertaken at Norwich and we were told, "Never get anywhere near the Mountain Artillery!"

However, I was selected for the Mountain Artillery. My number was Gunner no. 933532 of the 451 Mountain Battery or the First Mountain Division. Our initial training was undertaken at Larkhill, Wiltshire before we went training up in the Cairngorms near Aberdeen and in the Snowdonia region. We were training for the invasion of Norway but it didn't materialise.

We had to carry 99lb. rucksack packs and had to haul a sledge. We had mules to carry our equipment, the 3.7 Howitzer guns, one mule carried the wheels and another the gun and shells striped down to fit on the mule. Another mule was the wireless station.

I was trained as the unit wheelwright/carpenter and was responsible for repairing the gun wheels, ski's, and snow shoes or tennis raquets as I called them. I was also responsible for building the latrines and digging the necessary soil pits. However, I never took part in the gunnery because I was a trademan, the wheelwright/carpenter for the unit.

I remember when training in the Cairngorms hauling a sledge with a two man tent, etc. We had to put up a two man tent up when we reach the top of the mountain. When we had got half way up we passed a little dead deer right in our track. Now, when we got on top we pitched the tent and one of them, he was a stupid blighter, he'd got one of the small cookers, he went back down to the deer and cut one or two bits out. He put in on the cooker and it stunk us out!! We all bedded down for the night, I was the first one out the following morning. We were overlooking the mountain tops, on my own, it was a glorious morning overlooking the mountains in Scotland.

After six years in the Mountain Artillery I was released from Service at Northampton on 26th February 1946.

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