大象传媒

I was born in 1924 and lived in Bath. I was bombed out of Bath when I was 16 and in the Home Guard and I wore a uniform from the age of 16 until about 23 when I came out of the Navy.

(鈥淲hat was your best memory of the War?鈥�) The women! Because we wore a uniform, they thought we were great.

I was only 18 when I joined the Navy and I was trained as a Naval Commando. By the time I was 18 and a half I was an officer. I was in the 鈥淵 Scheme鈥� entry. In those days, if you had the potential at grammar school, when you joined the Royal Navy, you joined as an Ordinary Seaman you were supervised, if you did well, you went through and were commissioned as an officer. But I failed all the exams! It was only because I was a good rugger player that I got my commission. After a bit of training I was sent to Sicily and I was in the Sicily landings, with the Canadians, so I was one of the first ashore in Europe. Then I spent some time in North Africa, then on to another ship and I came back to England, and took over another ship, then I was in the D-Day landings, and I was 19. I was on Omaha Beach with the Americans, landing their first tanks. We sailed with American tanks from Plymouth, we were shot up and bombed, got blown to smithereens 鈥� very noisy. I did about 18 trips from Portland, taking tanks over to France, until we broke up in a howling gale on Friday October 13th. We broke up and sank.

I went out to the Far East, to the Japanese War then. I was in Egypt when they dropped the bomb on Japan, to finish the War. I was on my way to India, and I eventually finished up in America, after a long run around. I came back to England, and that was it, that was my war over.

(鈥淲hat was your worst memory?鈥�) At that age, I don鈥檛 think you think in terms of worst memories. I left grammar school when I was 16, and joined the Home Guard. That was a load of nonsense 鈥� just like 鈥淒ads Army鈥�. I saw a lot of blood and bodies鈥� the War started in 1939 when I was 15, I couldn鈥檛 get into the Navy until I was 18 and by that time you get sort of indoctrinated into the War, you expected you had to be blown up and bombed. I was in the Blitz in Bath, my house was blown up and I鈥檇 seen dead bodies when I was 15 and all the horrible things that went with war.

I think about all the good times I had. I would have never gone half way around the world as I did in the Navy if there hadn鈥檛 been a war.

I was lucky, by the time of the D-Day landings that I had already been in an invasion, in Sicily. I was only 18 then, I was a Naval Commando, in beach clearance parties, I had experience. So when I came back to do the D-Day landings I already had a lot of experience in aircraft bombings, I鈥檇 been bombed at sea, I鈥檇 been depth charged. I think at our age (then) that you take it as read. A lot of us had experienced war as civilians, especially in some of the big towns. Then when the kids (from there) joined up they鈥檇 seen it all, so really it鈥檚 difficult to say 鈥渨hat was the worst thing?鈥� I don鈥檛 know. Clearing dead bodies off the beach on Omaha so we could get our door down so we could get our tanks off. We didn鈥檛 have time to think, we were too busy.

I think the biggest problem was we grew up much too quickly. I was an adult at 16/17. It鈥檚 wrong 鈥� we didn鈥檛 have half the fun you people had. We didn鈥檛 have drugs, we had whisky. The sad thing I think is that we missed growing up, but I enjoyed it. I always think about the chaps that went out to the Falklands. One moment they were young people like yourselves.. joined the Army, next thing they had a war, didn鈥檛 have a long work-up period. Much like the Iraq thing, most of the young people were suddenly dumped into a war, so it鈥檚 very difficult to answer your question 鈥淲hat were your worst memories?鈥�

That鈥檚 a difficult one to answer. I鈥檇 rather think about the fun we had between the 鈥渘asties鈥� 鈥� and we did.

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