大象传媒

I am 86 years old,and from the time I enlisted in April 1941 until I retired from the regular army in 1969 , it is a strange thing that like most of my contemporaries, if you talk about our war it is always the funny side of things you remember.
My father was English , and my mother was Irish; so this is how when the war broke out in September 1939 I was in neutral Ireland , and like the 200,000 Irish men who served in the armed forces from 1939 to 1945, if you wanted to join up you had to travel to Northern Ireland , or England, to enlist.From the outbreak of war all direct commissions were stopped.Selection was made by a War Office Selection Board.
My first experience that this was going to be a problem,finding a hole for my shape of peg, was at the recruiting office,when asked what regiment I wanted to join : as a graduate Civil Engineer, I said,naturally enough, The Royal Engineers.The recruiting sergeant said consulted his book of rules, and said "You can only join the Royal Engineers if you have a trade."My pride was affronted and I said I am a professional Civil Engineer, to which he ruled that the best he could offer me was to enlist in the Royal Artillery. It took nearly twelve months to unravel that lot.However,as I had joined up from Ireland,when the time came to go on leave,I had to disguise myself as
a civilian: if I had travelled in uniform I would have been interned.
The Dublin Holyhead Mail packet was loaded with 1000 such civilians,not dressed in uniform,but almost dressed uniformly:grey flannel slacks,unmistakeable army boots,navy jacket,khaki shirt without collar and a red neck from wearing rough battle dress (other ranks in those days did not wear collars and ties.)
When you arrived in Dublin there was a security check of sorts, as they didn't want spies to pass too freely.I was talking to a young chap while I was waiting to be processed with the usual interchange of talk such as "which mob are you with?".He told me, but added that he wasn't going back. I expressed surprise - why had he joined up if he intended to desert like this? He said it wasn't as simple as that. He had been in the Irish Army when the war broke out, and, to see a bit of fighting, he had come across to England to join the British Army.They were readily accepted as the Irish Army instructors were all ex-British Army, and these men were all fully trained soldiers.He had done well, and with all the other irish volunteers took his 10 days leave to go back to Dublin - no Blackout and unlimited food. However, as soon as he landed he was picked up by the Irish Military Police as a deserter from the Irish army and was sentenced to 6 months in the Irish Glass house. Loyal fellow that he was, as soon as he was released, he went back to his English regiment. Here because he had been Absent Without Leave for 6 months, he was sent to the English Glass house. He had been released and was on his way back to Ireland.He pointed out the Irish Military Police who were waiting to pick him up.He said he didn't want to spend the war travelling between glasshouses.

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