大象传媒

This is the story of my grandfather, Norman David Thomas. He grew up in south Wales and moved to London in 1933.

Location of the story; London; Kent;Italy.

On the outbreak of World War Two I was 20 years of age. I did not enter the armed services for another 3 years. I was employed in a reserved occupation making component parts for Radio location, surgical appliances and water purification equipment.

During the time I did quite a lot of fire watching around the industrial estates of Enfield, North London, but apart from many noisy nights everything was all by next morning.

I was married in June 1943 which lasted for 58 years. Soon after that, one night the air raid siren went as a regular as clockwork, but this particular night was different. My wife and I entered a Morrison shelter in a flat downstairs just before the house right opposite was demolished, and the house that we were in was also damaged.

However, my term in the reserved occupation came to an end. I entered the army as an infantryman in the 2nd/7th Queens Royal Regiment. After doing my initial training in Kent, we set off for Italy via one of the main London stations during an air raid alert which was just becoming a way a of life.

Our train arrived, and it soon filled with soldiers only. We travelled overnight to Liverpool Docks, on arrival we boarded a ship named 鈥淢auritania鈥�. After a while we started to sail, and on the quayside a woman stood quite alone, and waved. I wonder who she was. I am not sure how long it took us, but we sailed into the docks in Naples in brilliant sunshine, even though it was January. When we disembarked, the different units were separated to go on to their various destinations. We in the Queens travelled over to the other side of Italy, to Brindisi, where we stayed for a while. I suppose to get acclimatised.

In a week or two we boarded another ship which was rather crowded, to disembark in Ancona, where we joined the battalion and the Eighth Army. Again, after a short spell we moved up nearer the front line where we were engaged in taking ammo up to the forward troops.

Soon it was our turn to go forward, our task was to push the Germans from the south side of the river Senio which was shielded by quite a high bank, which the Germans has burrowed through. Eventually we completed our task, and started to dig trenches to seek cover. In the process I was hit by shrapnel, which fortunately was not serious. I was then taken in stages back to a field hospital in Ricine. I remained there for about 6 or 7 weeks.

On release from hospital with others we travelled through the Italian passes into Southern Europe to a place which was to me in turmoil with prisoners and displaced persons.

Eventually I arrived back with my unit, and soon, as the war was now over in Europe certain soldiers were being released. I was asked what occupation I would like to follow. I chose cooking to which I was trained and I remained a cook until June 1947 when I was returned to civvy street.

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