大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Edward Fawcett for Three Counties Action on behalf of Ted Stanley and has been added to the site with his permission.The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

'My call-up was deferred from September 1943 to March 1944 (when I was 18) because I was working in the Post Office and the Christmas post pressure meant everyone was needed to deal with the mail.I started at Bury St Edmunds initial training and I thought I was going to end up in the infantry but I ended up in the RASC because someone in the Post Office must have said something and I ended up in the RASC.

My main job was driving a lorry delivering pipes for the PLUTO system.My first few weeks at Bury St Edmunds were hard because it was my first time away from home and I was an only boy.My father,who had been wounded in the First World War,wasn't very happy about me being in the army but we just got on with it.I wrote alot of letters home,which my mother thought I'd never get to do.All my friends from home had been called up before me but I was very lucky with the platoon I was in as we all got on very well,but I never kept in touch since that time.After basic training we went to Hadrian's Camp at Carlisle to learn how to drive anything from lorries to motorbikes.

I couldn't wait to get in the army and once I was doing what I wanted I was well away.My uniform was basic khaki.My first duty was to go to Weybridge by train to join 714 General Transport Company where we picked up our lorry and drove it to one of the London docks.We waited in a warehouse whilst our lorry was backed onto the landing craft.We were then told to go to our lorries and no soon as we left the warehouse it was hit by a doodlebug!

We were then taken over the Channel to Arromanches and I wouldn't take my lifebelt off when told to because as I said, I couldn't swim.Our first job was taking forward Jerry cans of fuel.There was one night I was delivering fuel to a dump.I was invited to eat with the men there in a farmhouse and afterwards they said I could sleep there aswell but I always slept in my cab.

During the night two German planes came over and bombed the field next to the one I was in.I was lucky but all the men sleeping in the field that was hit were killed,burnt to death.We were supposed to be third line troops and quite often I asked 'Where are the first and second lines?'At Calais we had snipers taking pot shots at us because we got there too quick and another time we looked down a valley and we heard all this noise and we could see a tank battle going on.One of my most distinct memories was a night right at the end of the war.

We were dismantling the PLUTO pipelines in France.We had stopped to have the pipeline loaded and a mate of mine said he wanted to have a wee and instead of staying in the road as we were told to he went over to a hedge and stepped on a mine and was killed.I was away two years,March '44 to March '46 and only got home once after basic training,after twelve months.I was glad to get home.

The first thing my mother did when I got home was to get me down the barbers to get me a decent haircut!

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