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I was born in 1923 and lived at Benslow Lane, Hitchin. I worked on the railway. I used to go to Peterborough. I remember watching a German plane came over between Peterborough and Holm station and machine gun a bloke in a field, with a horse and cart, picking up sugar beet.
I was there the night they raided Coventry. It stopped all the passenger trains from running. I had to jump on a goods train to get back to Hitchin, I got home at 7 at night.
There was a siren at Bowmans Mill observation post, and a 5-gallon drum on top. It was pulled to the top of the post when the warning sounded and lowered when it was finished.
I was called up for the army at 18 and went to Bury St. Edmunds for 6 weeks training. I was posted to the Royal Signals and trained at Prestatin holiday camp in North Wales; then posted to Hopelly Park in London. I was embarked on a troop ship at the Mersey Ferry Pier in Liverpool. The ship was called Duchess of Bedford.
We went to Algiers for 2 — 3 months, invaded Sicily in Italy and then went across to Greece. I was away for 4 years without coming home. Then I had a months leave and then went back for another year.
One thing I do remember is that we only had proper bread for one whole week when I was abroad. We survived on packet rations.
When I was in Africa I remember the Americans had a big water bowser (tank) at the side of the road. We had to fetch our water in small cans. So one day we hooked it on the back of one of our trucks and took it away. Three days later they came to our camp and saw it. We said nothing, they said nothing, but they took it away.
Mrs Gray, from the Youth Club in Hitchin, sent me a parcel containing woollen gloves she had knitted. I was in North Africa in very hot weather at the time!
I was demobbed in 1946. It took me four days to get to Sorrento on a ship, 2 weeks on a train to Calais, then a ferry to Dover, then a train to Catterick and I was finally demobbed somewhere in Surrey.
My first job after coming out of the army was repainting the hands on the clock at Kings Cross station which were blacked out during the war.

This story is submitted by Hitchin Museum on Mr Hubbard's behalf.

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