大象传媒

I would often ask my dad about the war years and he would answer me as best as he could remember by telling me the following stories.

My dad was out of work and at 34 years old he was called up.
When he was in army he was called 鈥榯he old man鈥� because of his age.
He did his training at 鈥榯he iron bridge鈥� which I now know is called Spean Bridge in the outskirts of Inverness just by Fought William.

From there he sent down South to London (Woolitch, Arsenal).
He was amazed at the war damage in London due to the Blitz. He had a lot of admiration for the Londoners. When he wasn鈥檛 on duty he would go up the Elephant and Castle drinking. He met up with some of the crooks of the underworld.

In 1941 he was told of his mam鈥檚 death and was given compassionate leave.

They sent him to the Far East and he was in command of the desert army until Churchill dismissed him over how badly the war was going out there.
I think my dad told me it was Lord Gort who was in charge at Dunkirk who was killed on a plane crash going out there.
Then Churchill brought in Montgomery and my dad told me he said there would be no more retreats and we are going to stand and fight here.
Montgomery had two badges and two dogs called Hitler and Rommel. I think from what my dad said the dogs were little Jack Russels.
My dad said he saw Rommel himself.
The British Soldiers (I have been told) did have a good regard of Rommel.

In the Desert the soldiers would be standing in their clean uniforms and the sand would blow up and saturate them! As you can imagine there was some 鈥渘ice鈥� language said.

Montgomery used a caravan for going out in the desert and he had got a map room and sleeping quarters and naturally a vehicle to pull it.
When Churchill or the King went to see them he would only then give up his caravan for them to sleep in.

My dad was part of the 8th Army 鈥淒esert Rats鈥�. Montgomery said they should keep the name Desert Rats.
In the desert they set up machine guns and would shoot geese 鈥� they had these for their Christmas dinner 鈥� because my dad and his friends got this food in the eyes of the others, they could do no wrong.
When they made the machine guns they used it as cross fire and they got a 45 degree angle to shot the geese 鈥� they did this by shooting the gun and the geese would fly into the fire. (see picture)

From what my dad has told me I gather that this is what happened.
Desert.
Dad came back to camp after blowing up the oil drums and asked for his tea.
They didn鈥檛 get on too well with the Australians.
Dad told me that for three days and three nights they had to be quiet because of the Germans.
Camp fire desert.
Sid James sat with the lads with a mug of tea laughing and joking.
(Sid James of course later went into films and teamed up with Tony Hancock for the radio and television shows).

When a storm kicked up in the desert if you walked out in it you would get lost and would have to use a compass.

The desert was so hot that you could fry an egg on the tank or a flat surface of metal.

When they were blowing up the dumps it was vital as this would stop them using tanks and vehicles.

I have since looked in the library and found where the battle would have possibly took place. It would have been some where between Mersa Matruh, El Alamein and Cairo.
I have heard that the battle of El Alamein was planned at a railway station.

From what my dad told me the first barrage of fire was from the British Artillery and that kept on for about an hour. Then a small contingent of tanks went out.
Bomb disposal were to clear mines and also intermingled with them were engineers (infantry).
There was a lot of Scottish regiments who went out at night with them.
Montgomery was said to have had a high regard for the Highland Troops since they were good night fighters.

You would put on clean clothes 鈥� my dad would wear short trousers, shirt, socks, desert boots, putties, tin hat and clean underwear and then although cold during the night of the action would be prepared for heat of the day.
He was issued with a Tommy gun and grenades and the grenades were in pouches.
If survived the night action.

An Arab boy tagged on to dad and his mates and they called him Joseph. The lad kept a monkey with him.

When they landed in Algeria they were in America Uniform.

Normandy.
My dad said their beach was King Beach.
They landed on Gold Beach and King Beach was part of this.
King Beach was intermingled with Canadian soldiers.
I was told that dad was put on a landing craft, took off, put on, took off again 鈥� it got to the point where he said they were like 鈥渂****ing yo-yo鈥檚鈥�.

He had his birthday on a Sunday on the 4th June 鈥� it was his 37th Birthday and he was on a landing craft.
On his day also he found out about Normandy and during the Sunday morning it was cloudy and they had an idea they would be going then. I presume they went through the Sunday and were put on a ship.
On the Monday morning they were back on the landing craft 鈥� you can imagine how anxious thy must have felt 鈥� I would have been scared stiff.
They left from Ramsgate.
On the Monday it came over sunny and bright and then it darkened again and time was against them and that day was given up. In the night they had rain.
6th June came and that was a Tuesday and in the early hours of the morning they hundreds of planes going on. He saw glider born aircraft being pulled, the single planes with the parachutists in.
Dad said to me that at 5am in the morning the engines started up and he did get agitated and they pulled out in to the channel and they were so far out and waited. They could look out and he saw ships and landing crafts.
They landed at 7.30am and he was part of the first wave to go in.
The Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) supported the landing craft.
On reaching the beaches, the ramp went down and my dad lost his nerve.
They were all under fire by then.
Prior to going behind the wall he saw lots of packs bobbing up and down the water.
When I asked him what he meant he said these 鈥榩acks鈥� were actually men dead or wounded in the water.
A lot of them in the water were Canadian. My dad had a lot of regard for the Canadians.
He got behind the wall and pushed his mate down because there was a barrage from the Germans. He lifted his head again and he wasn鈥檛 so lucky 鈥� my dad saw his mate have his head blown off.

They got behind the tanks as they were under heavy fire.
On the beaches it was strewn with bodies.
One young soldier trod on a mine and where he was the chaps seen what had happened and they gave him cigarettes as he had given them a path way through.
My dad said that from where he was lying the young man wouldn鈥檛 have survived.

We were told that my dad had lost a leg 鈥� but although wounded, this wasn鈥檛 the case.
When wounded he saw the King and the Queen.
He said she had a very softly spoken voice. Dad said her eyes seemed to sparkle when she spoke to the Canadians.

I think it was in 1944 after D-Day or around that time when my dad was in a Field Hospital. A German was brought in wounded.
A bed was prepared using oil drums, sheet of timber with sheet and pillows.
A Canadian wounded soldier was to be moved to the make shift bed and all the lads were looking and then it was said that the German was to have his bed the patients apparently pulled out small arms and the Canadian was not moved.

During the war one night my dad walked home a lady who was in the army since it was late.

My dad liked a drink and he bought a little puppy in the pub and the puppy was a Stafford Bull Terrier called Peggy. This was 1946 just after my dad came out of the army.

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mr Warrington and has been entered with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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