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This story was submitted to the People's War website by Don and Betty Tempest of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Leonard Robb and added to the site with his permission.

I was called up for the Army in December 1941, at the age of 19years and was drafted into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and sent to Squires Gate Camp near Blackpool.

The reason I was sent to the R.A.O.C. was because I was a driver and the army needed drivers. We received six weeks Infantry Training from the East Lancashire Regiment and then, on passing out, I was sent to Ashton-under-Lyne on a Mechanics course at Whittaker’s Mill, Ashton.

I was there for three months and then I was posted to Catterick Camp working in the Tank Workshop. We remained there for about six weeks and then went to Bestwood Lodge, Nottingham.

We were there for about a month doing practically nothing, and then one day this Sergeant Major collared three of us who could drive and told us we were taking three trucks to Glasgow.

We set off driving to Glasgow and when we were passing Doncaster I said to the Lance Corporal in charge that I was going to see my mother who lived close by. He told me I wasn’t, but I told I was and to follow me. We had a lovely cup of tea at my mother’s, including the Corporal, and then we continued our drive, stopping at Catterick over night.

The next morning we went on the second leg of our journey to Dumfries, where we stayed over night in a hotel the Army had commandeered.

The following morning we set off again and drove up to Glasgow, reporting to the Regional Training Officer in Bella Houston Park, Glasgow.

We stayed there for a few days and then went to Greenock where we boarded a boat, ‘The Warwick Castle’. We had no idea where we were going, but we set sail on the 31st May 1942.

We sailed into the Atlantic to the Azores, to avoid German submarines, and then we sailed to South Africa, docking at Durban on 2nd. July 1942. We stayed a couple of days in Durban and then got back on the boat and set sail for Mombassa in East Africa.

We were told that we had been originally going to Madagascar to help hold it against the Japanese because it was thought that they were going to try and take it over. However, the Vichy French, who had supported the Axis Troops and had been occupying Madagascar, had surrendered. So it was decided that we should go to Mombassa.

We arrived there on 15th. July 1942, and it was very hot. We worked there in the Ack Ack workshop doing vehicle repairs for a year until June 1943, and then I was posted to Nairobi to the 403 East African workshop.

In Nairobi we assembled trucks that were sent over from America, and we also repaired trucks that had been damaged in the fighting in North Africa. We used the old trucks so the lads up the front could have the new ones.

After a year in Nairobi I was sent once again to Mombassa to board an Indian Steam Navigation boat called ‘Khedives Ismeil’. We had actually got on board, but at the last minute they took us off it. The boat sailed out and we later learned that it was a day out of Colombo when it was attacked and sunk by the Japanese with the loss of 1,200 lives. A lot of people!

We were later sent to Colombo on another boat, a rust bucket called the Nevasa. In Colombo we were stationed at a place called Boosa for about 4 to 5 weeks doing jungle training. It was the hottest place I have ever been in.

We eventually got on another ship, which was a hospital ship called the ‘Rajula’ and we sailed to Calcutta. When we got there we lazed about for a couple of weeks in Alipor and then went on a boat up the Brama Phutra River for about ten hours. We got of the boat at Assam and marched into the jungle, and went to a transit camp in Dimapur.

I was then sent to Chittagong to pick up some ‘Scam ell’ trucks and an American ‘Mac’ truck. We got three ‘Scam ell’ trucks and had to cannibalise them to make two good ones.

We set off with the two trucks, to rejoin our unit, which by this time was in Imphal, but on the way I developed jungle sores on my ankle and finished up in hospital in Dimaphor.

I was in hospital for about three weeks and when I was released I rejoined the unit at Imphal. The infantry were now following the retreating Japanese and we followed them, keeping their vehicles mobile.

We kept on going and were almost in Rangoon, when the Japanese surrendered after the two Atom Bombs had been dropped.

After about six weeks we got a boat, the Llangibby Castle and sailed back to Southampton. Where I was subsequently demobbed.

After a while and a lot of thinking, I felt that after the war we had come off worst, even though we had won. Certainly I feel that without the Americans we would have still been fighting.

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