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This Story was submitted to the People’s War web site by a Volunteer on behalf of William Diment and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I stayed at Tarrant Rushton until after the Arnhem Operation in September 1944. The photograph shows all the gliders and Halifax all the way down the runway. They were lined up like this for three days and nights before the Order came. Delayed waiting for the right weather in Holland. All these troops with nothing to do but to wait. Many of them were dead within hours of leaving. After it was all over the few gliders that were left were parked up and we had to pack up make them ready to fly to Scicily. There were no Germans there then. We worked thirteen hours a day. A couple of weeks before, I had a pain come on in my side. It got gradually worse and worse right up to the last couple of days. We were all lined up and I was in agony. When an officer came by and he said,
‘What’s the matter with you?’ When I told him, he said. ‘Down the Sick Quarters, you can not fly like that’. When I got there I was told that I had Yellow Jaundice. They went on their way. One got shot down and the one I was going in they all got killed. Another one got interned in Portugal on the way over. I was in Hospital at Fairmile in Christchurch for sixteen days. Then out to find no one was there except for six other units, but they did not want to know me, as I belonged to a Glider unit. This went on for a while and eventually word got to the War Office. I then got posted to Stoney Cross, near Southampton. It was such a big aerodrome that they gave us all bicycles. You lived in one place and the aircraft you had to work on was two miles away. Anyway something happened just before Christmas, all Christmas leave was cancelled. They had MP’s on everywhere as we were confined to camp. But they forgot that we had bicycles. I had a girl friend back in Weymouth. What every one did was they went right round the aerodrome to where there was a gap in the hedge and went out there on their bicycles. I rode home from there, all the way from Southampton up to Weymouth on my bicycle for forty eight hours. I was not there very long, about three weeks. The Flight Sergeant said, ‘Diment, you are wanted in the Office’. They said, ‘You like this war, Diment, You like this war. You are going out of it. They are sending you to Australia’. But I said, ‘There’s no war out there’. To which he said, ’That’s right. You have heard about the Prime Minister of Australia, he’s worried about the Japanese getting down towards Darwin. They have started bombing Darwin. They want the RAF to go out there. Yours is the first Wing to go there’. It took us nine weeks to get there, by which time the Yanks had pushed the Japanese back.

One the way there we had fifteen New Zealanders on board. There were other boats there which were held up for three days waiting for an escort as there were submarines about. We went on through on our own, but they did not tell us about this till after. When we got to Wellington, New Zealand, an amazing thing happened. There was this fruit shop. All the RAF fellas were there and this chap came out and when he saw us he asked if we wanted any fruit. Any chap that came round the corner, he gave them all fruit. He emptied the shop right out. We were only there a couple of days. They never had any idea of the war out there. They took us and put us in a great big hut. There was nothing in there, no tables or chairs. We had to lie on the floor. We stayed there about a week and then they put us on a train for Brisbane. We were five days and five nights on that train. A thousand miles. It was a rickety old train and we were very cramped. If any one wanted to go to the toilet, everyone had to move. We each had two blankets, sten gun, tin hat, all with us in the carriage. They did have it organised for food. Come dinner time we would stop at a station and it was all laid on. There was everything that you could think of, big cheeses. There was only a single track and there were no wire fences and sheep would get run over and the train would never stop. When we got to Brisbane we still had our RAF Blue on. It was 110 degrees and we were marched down through the streets. The locals had never seen anything like it. They thought we had come from Mars. The Army up there of course went around in shorts, but not us. When we went out at night we would keep in step. Hundreds of people used to watch us. They were amazed how we managed to do it. After that we went on to Townsville, another one hundred and fifty miles up the coast. We were there about a week and then we went onto Cairns. From Cairns we flew by flying boat to Papua, New Guinea. As the Yanks had pushed the Japanese back there was not a lot to do. It took us nine weeks to get there. When the Japanese war ended, we were evacuating people from Singapore. Another thing that stuck in my mind was flying to Singapore over the Stanley Mountains, it got very cold. As I had my kit bag with me, I took out my blue jacket what we wore back here with the Brass buttons. When we got to Singapore I still had it on. I think I was the only one who took one out. When I appeared in the doorway, all these Japanese came running and lined up. I think they thought I was the King coming. My mates were laughing their heads off. You remember little things like that. We then had to make our way back to Sydney. We went off for a bit of leave when I was sent for and told to report back to camp. I was told that I was going a Flight engineer and to pick up all my kit, bed and everything. Soon we were in the air and after five hours I thought we must
Back but we were only in Darwin. It took us sixteen days to come back and we had a hell of a time on the way back. We flew right over my house and my wife was expecting me home. When we got back we were told that we could not go home as we had to go to London to be deaclimatised. We had a fortnight in a Hotel. Then I went Bedford to be demobbed.

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