大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War website by Karolina Kopiec from 大象传媒 GMR Action Desk on behalf of Rudge Mehlman and has been added to the site with his permission.

My grandparents found refuge in Great Britain, way back in the 1800s, and established the first Jewish bakery in the Red Bank area of Manchester. Five of their sons saw service in the army in WW1. I had two brothers and one brother-in-law who served in the army in WW2 we all fortunately survived the war, our brother-in-law having served in Singapore.
I was conscripted 19-06-39 three months before hostilities began. I became a corporal T/97343 86 DIV T.P.T Coy W.A.A.S.C. I did a special acquired motor engineering course at Lisburn College and was posted to a training centre at Newcastle. I was then posted to Southend on sea followed by another posting to London.
We went over to France and I found myself with my comrades on the beaches at Dunkirk, luckily, we were rescued by the crew of the minesweeper HM 鈥淕ossamer鈥�. Sadly, it sunk later on in the war. As a Jewish NCO I was very grateful not to have been captured by the Germans.
In 1941, after all the necessary vacs and inoculations I was posted to ACCRA in West Africa, as a 鈥渄riving and mechanical鈥� instructor with the R.W.A.S.C.
We convoyed a company of African troops from the Gold Coast, through Togoland, French West Africa to Nigeria, and I picked up my first dose of malaria on that journey.
As it appears, reinforcements for the 82nd W.A.DIV, had all suffered from a bout of Bilharzias at that time and so the 82dn W.A.DIV was formed as replacement. I was conveyed to Bombay and so on to Burma and Arakan. I suffered terribly from the severity of the climate and bamboo skin poisoning. And after recovering from under arm carbuncles, was granted leave in Dargeeling. When finally we reached Rangoon we were told that there was an epidemic of scrub typhus. And we were all supposed to receive 3 jabs of scrub typhus vaccine but I only got 2, before my demobilisation date came up, I didn鈥檛 stick around for the third. I mention this, because I have always felt it to be the reason for my blood disorder, in the following years. I was finally demobbed on the 16th Feb 1946.

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