大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from East Grinstead on behalf of Sidney Seal and has been added to the site with his permission. Sidney Seal fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

It was early summer in 1942 when I left in the largest convoy of ships to depart from Scotland. My ship was the John W. Mc.Andrew which had been a "meat boat" used between Argentina and New York. The convoy headed for Cape Town, but as Tobruk had fallen, we were diverted back to Egypt - a total journey of six weeks. We were sent into the desert to Alam El Halfa.
On the night of the battle of El Alamein we were positioned in front of an 800 gun bombardment of the German forces. It was the 23rd of October 1942 and the noise of the guns was deafening. On October 27th we were instructed to capture an area of rising ground given the code name "Woodcock". During that night we advanced and at light of day we were told "the war is over" by a German soldier - as we had advanced right through their tank lines under cover of darkness!
300 prisoners were taken to Banghazi and on to Tripoli, where on Friday 13th November we were put onto one of two coal boats bound for Italy. These were the SS Skillen and the Pan America. I was on Pan America and arrived in Italy - the SS Skillen was torpedeod and sank.
After being moved to various prison camps in Italy, Germany and Czechoslovakia we were released on the 8th May 1945 by a Russian Infantry Battalion, comprised of both men and women. After five days travelling in Russian lorries we were flown back to Norfolk in a Lancaster bomber.
We were given 28 days leave!

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