- Contributed by听
- Bournemouth Libraries
- People in story:听
- submitted by Fiona Wilson of Bournemouth Libraries on behalf of John Aberdeen with his permission and his knowledge of site terms and conditions
- Location of story:听
- North Africa
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A2632862
- Contributed on:听
- 14 May 2004
I first joined the army in 1937 after seeing an advert in the national papers by Malcolm Campbell who was famous at the time. This was for people to join the new Territorial Army units to look after the modern mechanised British army. I went up for an interview at Albany Street in London and said that I was 18 (i was actually 17 being born on 19th November 1920). Unfortunately you had to be 20 to join the unit so the Captain doing the interview told me to come back the following Thursday when I would be 20!
I was put in the military police unit under Geberal Osborne. The identification on the sides of trucks was an oval- after Osborne biscuits which were oval.
When the war started i was sent to France and then Belgium where we were given a thrashing. I got picked up off Bray Dunes at Dunkirk.
I then volunteered for the Middle East for which I was known as 'Mad Aberdeen'! I didn't get there for a while though. First to Scotland where the French boat the Louis Pasteur had its engine sabotaged in December 1940. We finally got off on the Stratheden in March 1941 heading via Freetown and Cape Town. I got to do some sightseeing there, climbing Table Mountain and driving around in cars given for the troops to have a good time. We all went out for one meal and a local on another table ended up paying the bill.
We moved on to Suez and got a train to Cairo where I went to see the Pyramids. I was separated from my friends here and posted to Alexandria, then managed to transfer to the Desert Rats- the 67th Armoured Division.
We had a hard time at first as the Germans had bigger guns and knocked out our tanks before we could use them. Then the Americans came in with their Sherman tanks a year later and at Alamein the Germans retreated.
At Tunis we had a group of Germans holding out on the peninsula and I took the lieutenant prisoner of war. As I was taking him back to our camp he said 'together we could conquer the world if we weren't fighting each other' but I should have said to him that we already have.
At the end of the war I was demobbed and became very involved in local sports clubs. I was a founding member of the Highcliffe Sailing Club in 1960 and also played in the tennis club where I met my wife who has held me captive for 55 years now!
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