大象传媒

My grandad, Mr John Matley, died at the age of 67. But according to him every day after the 2nd of June was a present from God. He was taken into the army at the age of 16 and a half and he served with the 8th army as a desert rat. He was the youngest soldier in his regiment and 1 of the 8th armys youngest soldiers. He served in Africa fighting against Rommels mighty Africa korps and also in Italy. He met and made friends with lots of arabs and he used to tell my dad the stories both good and bad of his times abroad, like the time when he went swimming. His friends and he were all drunk and decided to jump into an oasis but the oasis was so big that when they swam out they could not see the land in the darkness. So they swam and swam until they were exhausted but they could still not find their way back to land. One of my grandads friends was so tired that he decided to give up.
When he stopped swimming his feet touched the ground and they realised that they could stand there and wait for dawn. When dawn came they saw that they were about 50ft from the shore where the germans were camped. They quickly swam back up the oasis until they reached allied lines where they found their clothes and the military police waiting for them.
My grandad always said that when he died he did not want to be buried because he had seen so many graves from that of his comrades. When my grandad came out of the army he went back to college to finish his training as a draughtsman. He married my nana, Mrs Ivy Matley, and they had 11 children, 1 of those being my father. My grandad worked the rest of his life for the G.P.O, which is now known as B.T. He was head of the Manchester dept for telephone and line instalation. He was awarded 7 medals for his service and always said how he missed his comrades who were killed and buried in Africa and Italy.

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