大象传媒

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Joined the Militia, at the age of 20, in 1939, then the Border Regiment. After specialist training he was created Sergeant in 21st Army Group, 3601470 Sgt Graham J.H. R.E.M.E. Att, 84th Medium Regt, Royal Artillery.
I remember recovering a vehicle while I was serving with the Desert Rats. I was working in Tunisia near Takrouna. Takrouna sat high up on an escarpment and was occupied by the Germans.
The lorry had been left behind when the Black Cat Division (London) had been forced to withdraw.
To reach the lorry we drove through a waddi, as the lorry came into sight we were spotted by the enemy and we came under a bracket fire. I parked the recovery vehicle under some trees in an almond grove and we quickly took shelter in trenches with men from the Gurhkas.
Appreciation by Field Marshal Montgomery.
Following the Normandy Landings I was in the convoy as it approached Eindhoven. The convoy ground to a halt, the road was blocked. Through the trees the German tanks appeared. They began firing at a farmhouse then concentrated on the convoy, firing five vehicles.
My driver, Wagstaffe, removed the recovery wagon, a six wheeler Austin, from the convoy line. The vehicles were burning and ammunition was exploding. The convoy stretched back all the way into France.
I found the bolt cutters and cut the wire fence. We had to keep our heads down a little bit there was ammunition exploding all around us. Moving the recovery wagon into the field we used the winch to drag the vehicles out of the line and allow the convoy to continue on its way.
Christmas Eve 1944
I was working to support the American advance, travelling from Nijmegen to Ardennes to Hotton. The guns were in action. I slept in a disused building with a large hole in the wall. I had my Christmas dinner in a school. It was the worst winter for forty five years. The roads were thick with frozen snow and ice.

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