大象传媒

I am entering this story on behalf of Luke Ryan. I was called up into the army in November 1939. I did my recruits training in the Castle Carlisle. After a short period of time at Carlisle we were sent abroad to France to camp near Rouen. We were constantly under threat from German air activity. Eventually we were forced to retreat to the South of France to St. Nazare. The Germans had by passed the Magimot Line and were leading our way. We were evacuated by Destroyers which took us out into the Bay, transferred onto Ocean going Liners, ours was the 'Georgie'. While this operation was going on we were bombed from the air. Another ship the 'Lancastria' was hit and sank with no survivors. We were very lucky because we were lying a short distance away. There were 5000 on the 'Georgie' built to carry 1000. The journey from France to Liverpool was in complete darkness and under constant attack from the air. We eventually reached our destination unscathed. We were dispersed to various area's and housed in private billets. It was thought that an invasion was imminent so we were quickly disspersed to area's to protect various weak points on the coast lines. We patrolled all night looking for possible German activity from the airborne forces.

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