大象传媒

The war period was an interesting time, I got called up in 1941 and went into a battilion at Galston (Norforlk coast). From there I was one of 30 men draughted onto a mission. We travelled by train to Liverpool and from there sailed to Cape Town. I remember soldiers throwing 6 pence pieces into the sea and small African boys diving down to fish them out, there were sharks all around but neither they nor the children seemed bothered. We spent 4 days in Cape Town and were told that we weren't aloud to go into District 6 of the city as this was for Black Africans only. From Cape Town we went to the port at Suez and from there we took a train to Egypt where there were two large British army camps. I ended up in the camp for the Home Counties and we were all given a thorough medical examination. This was the first time that I realised that the war really was extremely serious. I saw wounded men for the first time and thought 'uh oh we could be in real trouble here'. One of my first tours of duty was out into the 'Blue' this is what we used to call the Desert and we spent time planning and preparing for the battle of El Allemain. Whilst in the desert all soldiers were issued with what we used to call a nappy sack. This consisted of chocolate, soap, a quart of water and some cigerettes. If we ran out of soap we sometimes used to wash in petrol as this kept the flys away.

By the time my battilion reached Sicily our regiment got split up. The section I was in headed for a place that we nickanamed 'Cherry Ripe', otherwise known as Senturreep (unsure of spelling). This was the first place we went to in Italy and was controlled by the S.S. We took it and earned ourselves the nickname 'Churchills Butchers' because the aftermath resembled a butchers shop, such was the destruction.

Our battilion also went into Turmoli where we fought against the German Panda's. We managed to stick it out and finally break out but infantry men don't fight tanks! From there I served at Monte Cassini but got pulled out and sent back to Egypt to re-train. We were then sent back to Italy and ended up on the Gothic Line. We went from 30 to just 13 men and received no re-inforcements. The weather there beat us as it was winter and bitterly cold.

At the end of the war we were scheduled to go out on a mission to take a town but when we'd assembled for orders we were told that it was all over. We didn't celebrate but just stood there, silent.

After the war I served in Austria, which wasn't regarded as an enemy state and watched as the Russians came in and took over. Finally I was demobbed and could return home.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.