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My father was a great raconteur and told many stories of incidents that happened during his war.

He was a reservist and was called up on September 2nd 1939. The service numbers of men called up were broadcast, so Dad went to work as normal on the Saturday morning and just walked out at 11 am when his number was broadcast. He was supplied with a rifle and dispatched to Falmouth where he boarded a boat. He had never been on a boat in his life because his mother had always told him he would be seasick if he did!

On the boat some of the men had rifles but most had wooden imitation rifles. There was no ammunition. Dad was on the boat for 8 days before he disembarked in France. During the journey the men were told to guard the lifeboats – with no ammo and very few actual rifles!

They did 2 hours on guard and 2 hours off. When they were not on guard they were supposed to sleep on the ballroom floor which had mats laid over the floor, the only trouble was that the sea was very rough and the mats slid from one side of the room and then back again as the boat rolled from side to side. He delighted in telling his mother that in spite of the conditions he was not seasick. But he always told me that he had no idea what they would have done had the ‘jerries’ invaded the boat.

Dad was in France during the phoney war when some very amusing incidents occurred centred around a young conscript to whom he gave the name Johnny. The men sent to France in 1939 had a leave at home before Dunkirk and when Johnny went home he married his childhood sweetheart.

Dad was in the RASC so their job leading up to Dunkirk was to move vehicles on to a cliff top near Dunkirk and when on the beaches they watched the RAF fly over to bomb these vehicles. Dad and Johnny were among the very last to be evacuated from Dunkirk. They were put on a very crowded train when they landed in England and the train travelled very slowly westwards. The train pulled into a station (I can’t remember exactly where but it may have been Gloucester or Bath) and the men were told to get out and collect a mug of tea. Johnny was just in front of Dad and when he was handed his mug of tea he calmly said to the young lady who handed it him ‘Thank you Mary’. She looked up and then fainted – Mary was Johnny’s wife.

Even though Dad spent the next few years in Britain I did not see him very often and he was back in France on D-day. He was invalided back shortly after the siege of Caen. Dad’s stories of incidents that happened to him were amazing he could always make the most dire event sound amusing, I regret that I cannot do them full justice.

Shortly after Dunkirk Dad was stationed in a camp in Gloucestershire, by now the soldiers all had rifles and bullets. One night Dad heard the sheep in the neighbouring field making a lot of noise. He saw a fox making off with a lamb and shot the fox. The next day the farmer called to see the Adjutant and gave him £50 in gratitude to the soldier who had saved his stock from further decimation. Result – Dad was court-martialled for misuse of army equipment. Dad was reprimanded but not punished because he had done the war effort some good by saving food.

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