大象传媒

I Joined the Army 1st February 1940 and reported to Luton, Bedworth. At Luton we were issued the Army uniform. From Luton we were moved to Cromer and spent two months on Defences. After this I was posted in Scotland. No formal training was given. I was just thrown in at the deep end and was given the Army position of Driver Mechanic. Next I was put on the Queen Mary and off we set. Our first stop was Cape Town, South Africa. In Cape Town we had short leave. After the leave we boarded the Queen Mary and headed to Simon鈥檚 Town, South Africa. At Simon鈥檚 Town we disembarked and were put onto a GPO boat and sailed up the Red Sea to Egypt. At Egypt we disembarked, from there we went up the Western Desert. In the Western Desert our commander was General Wavell, we engaged the Italians and after some success we returned to Alexandra, Egypt. Next I boarded a troop ship and we set sail for Rangoon, Burma. The Japanese besieged us on the journey, we fought (on foot) a rear guard action all the way from Rangoon to India, and at Mandalay we blew up the Oil wells. After Mandalay we crossed back into India and regrouped and the Chindit was formed. From there we returned to Burma to fight the Japanese, at this point I was taken ill and could not continue any further. I was taken back to India by the Red Cross and had to rest for a couple of months. When I recovered I returned to the Chindit in a support group capacity. After the end of the war I returned to England via Egypt and arrived home in 1946.

{This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wolverhampton Libraries on behalf of Albert Ainsworth and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions]

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