大象传媒

I left Harrison Road School at aged fourteen and joined the Army and on the 5th July, 1939 鈥� two months before the outbreak of war 鈥� I started at the Royal Engineers鈥� School at Fort Darland, Chatham. At the age of sixteen I was an apprentice tradesman, Corporal, learning to be a fitter. The apprenticeship was reduced from three to two and a half years. They had excellent workshops covering all trades, though you selected your trade at the beginning. In 1940, I moved to the Army Apprentice School in Chepstow.
At the age of eighteen, I left for Clitheroe, Lancashire and stayed in a mill. Here we learned to build Bailey Bridges, blowing up railway tracks etc. We trained in how to use 808 鈥� a type of plastic explosive which was new 鈥� using primer, detonator and fuse.

Trained as a sapper, I then went to 213 Field Company with three other young lads who were newly trained. The Sergeant Major was like a father to us.
One day the Sergeant Major organised a draw from a hat 鈥� I drew the piece of paper with a cross on and so it was me that was sent to join the Guards Armour Division in Somerset to prepare for the breakout from Normandy. My friends were sent to the Middle East.
From Somerset we were moved to different parts of the country, then, as D-Day approached, we came south to Sussex. All our lorries had to be prepared, the engines sealed, so that they could go into water, ready for D-Day.

I remember we were in barrack rooms, which were wooden huts. A boy on guard duty shouted, 鈥淚t鈥檚 started!鈥�. We left from Tilbury but our landing ship hit the opposite bank of the Thames. The cry went up, 鈥淏loody skates!鈥�
We proceeded past Dover, having been warned about shelling, and pulled up off the Isle of Wight. There was a massive fleet of boats stretching across the Solent.
We had to take cover from our own shrapnel which came from the guns shooting at doodlebugs.
We arrived at Arramanches (Gold Beach), two weeks after D-Day, on a landing craft and walked up the beach, thanks to those lads on D-Day. We made our way inland, onto farmland. Our first casualty was the OC鈥檚 driver, who jumped off his truck and caught his sten gun on the step. He was shot in the neck.
I spent my twenty-first birthday in a hole in the ground in Normandy being shelled most of the day by a gun further along the coast. The RAF put a stop to it.

We made a mad dash up from Normandy, reaching Brussels which we liberated on the 3rd September. The population went mad, stopping tanks, climbing all over them! I must have been kissed two hundred times that day!

We spent that night in one of the boulevards, though we didn鈥檛 get much sleep with all the celebrations. The locals kept us supplied with coffee and invited us in for food.
We got as far as Nijmegen and saw the poor bounders 鈥� remnants of the airborne divisions retreating from Arnhem 鈥� swimming back across the river. Some were bandaged, bloodied. Some had just a blanket. It was sickening to see. We were in tears. Our tanks were tearing up the road from Brussels towards Nijmegen, but five of them were knocked out when the Germans laid a booby-trap in the wood. They were still burning when we drove past. One poor chap was hanging out of his tank. The smell was terrible.
Our tanks reached the friendly side of the bridge, fired a few shells across and were ordered to pull back. We failed them, but it wasn鈥檛 for want of trying.

We erected a bridge across the Rhine on barges. The Rhine was a working river, and couldn鈥檛 be used until it was cleared and a raised bridge built on German barges by the RE.

I liberated a large swastika flag from a Canteen near Bayeaux, and still have it to this day. After the war I returned to A.A.S. Chepstow as a Sergeant Instructor.
I left the Army in August 1949 and worked for the Ministry of Defence at R.N. Repair Depot, Blackbrook Road Fareham until my early retirement in March 1985. I was awarded the Imperial Service Medal, following 46 years service for just doing my job. Were those Arctic Convoy lads - who are still fighting for recognition - not doing their job?

We were all awarded the France and German Star, but they are still waiting. Over sixty years so far.

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