大象传媒

My experiences in Reconnaissance Corps.

I was called up on the 12/02/1942 at Scarborough to 63rd Reconnaissance Training Regiment at age 19 years. Three months infantry and weapons training then 7 days leave. Then a further 3 months vehicle driving repair and maintenance training then 7 days leave. On returning to Scarborough we were allocated to various Reconnaissance Regiments. I was sent with several others to an independent Recce Squadron at Orford in Suffolk. After some 8 weeks several of us were sent to the 46th Recce Regiment in Kent and I became a member of 6 troop, B Squadron in a village called Lyminge between Folkestone and Canterbury.

The regiment was based in the Lyminge area and after 3 weeks I was granted 7 days leave. Shortly after returning from leave we moved to the Godalming area for further training. In October 1942 I was granted 9 days embarkation leave and on the 10th January 1943 we sailed from Liverpool on the Liner Duchess of Bedford and arrived in Algiers on the 17th January 1943 and became part of the 1st Army in North Africa.

We moved up to the fighting area in late January and were involved in the fighting at various places in Tunisia until May 8th 1943, when the Germans surrendered. We were rested for a while and were then sent back to Algiers and mistakenly thought that we were on our way home but it was not to be. We were moved back again to the Tunis area where we started training for the Salerno landing on September 9th, 1943.

The landing was "Hell on Earth" and a complete shambles for several days as Jerry tried to push us back in to the sea. But we held on and eventually began our slow advance up Italy and by Christmas 1943 were in the Monte Casino area. In February 1944 we were withdrawn and found ourselves on board ship at Taranto on our way to Egypt and Palestine for a rest and further training. We returned to Italy in late July 1944 and rejoined the fighting a few miles north of Rome and later near Rimini on the east coast.

I was wounded at San Gemano on September 12th, 1944 and lost the use of my left arm for a while but after two operations the use gradually returned and after some 6 weeks I was pronounced fit for active service and rejoined my regiment. In February 1945 we were once again at Taranto on our way to Greece where, after a few minor problems, the Greek resistance fighters were to lay down their arms.

We returned to Italy in April 1945 and after re-equipping (we had left our armoured vehicle in Greece) we were heading once again for the fighting area when suddenly we were told the war was over and we were instructed to go as fast as we could into Austria to keep the Russians as far to the east as possible. We met the Russians at a place called Judenberg and eventually settled in a place called Koflak, some 25 miles from Graz. In October 1945 I was granted one month's leave and arrived home 3 years to the week since I left after embarkation leave in October 1942. I returned to Austria and after our regiment was disbanded in November 1945 I was transferred to the 10th Royal Hussars in Graz and saw service with them in Austria and Germany. I was eventually demobbed in October 1946 but was officially still in the army until 27/2/1947.

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