大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

After initial training around this area, my father moved away from Dunstable. He went to Woodbridge in Suffolk where a group, under the command of Major A M formed the nucleus of the newly formed 6th Battalion Beds and Herts Regiment. Recruits that had been under training at Bury St. Edmunds joined them and part of their duties was to guard the Radar Research Establishment that was situated at Bawdsey Manor. One comical episode was when part of the battalion was moved to Alnmouth in Northumberland. Once again they were to guard a 鈥淩adar Site鈥�, this time at Boulmer. Of course this was all secret and my mother and I did not know what he was doing or where he was. He sent her a card with a BFPO number for his mail and said he could not tell her where he was for security reasons; it was postmarked 鈥淎lnmouth, Northumberland鈥�! She told me later that she and my sister had heard 鈥淟ord Haw-Haw鈥� (William Joyce) in a broadcast from Germany, state the fact that some of the 6th Battalion had moved to Northumberland. So much for security!

My father received new W.O. II insignia and later, made acting R.S.M. of a new battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. I believe he was involved in the formation of three new battalions of Royal Fusiliers before he went to an Officer Cadet Training Unit. He was commissioned into the Pioneer Corps and after working in the Liverpool/Manchester area controlling troop movements, he was promoted and became adjutant of an Italian P.o.W. camp at Bryngwyn, near Hereford. He made lifelong friends during this period and with whom he corresponded at Christmastide until their deaths in the 1970鈥檚.

When he came home on leave during his time away from Dunstable, he would purchase 鈥淎ircraft Recognition鈥� books for me, I believe from Smith鈥檚 on the London stations. These volumes each had a description of 20-30 different aircraft with photographs and silhouettes. I eventually had a collection that covered British; American; German; Italian and Japanese aircraft and in the case of the British and German aircraft, 3 or 4 volumes of each. My friend and I studied these assiduously so that on one occasion when we were invited into the Warden鈥檚 Post in Edward St., we surprised the wardens by being able to immediately identify the model aircraft they had hanging in their room, these were official aircraft recognition models and were painted black. Evidently, the wardens found identification difficult.

In 1943 my sister, who was in the A.T.S. got married to a serviceman from Sandy, Bedfordshire where, incidentally, she still lives. My father 鈥淕ave her away鈥� wearing his uniform. By scrounging various bits and pieces my mother was able to make a wedding cake with the thinnest of coatings of icing. The family helped out with items of rationed goods for sandwiches, etc. at the reception.

In 1944, he was posted to India and was stationed at Jalna, in Hyderabad with a unit of the Indian Pioneer Corps. On completing their training and that included his learning some Urdu, the unit moved to Burma and followed the frontline advance. Their job was to repair and maintain the lines of communication and help the supply of materials to the troops in the front line.

Whilst in India and Burma, he sent me butterflies that had been caught and preserved by his Indian servant. I kept them for some years but eventually they disintegrated.

Just before VE Day as they approached Rangoon, he was told he was being replaced and sent back to the U.K. for demobilisation. He arrived back in June 1945. My mother and I went to Luton Station to meet him off the train from Glasgow where he had landed, having sailed back on a troopship called the Chittral. He was wearing a 鈥淏ush Hat鈥� with the side turned up similar to the Australians. This hat was covered with red, white and blue bunting for the VJ Day celebrations.

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