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My father was a regular soldier in the Royal Engineers so when I got called up to the royal Artillery Unit I knew I didn’t want to be a gunner but a sapper (sappers used to dig the trenches in the First World War). I consequently got notification to report to the Royal Engineers. I was posted to Cullompton for my initial training and then moved to Ufcombe village in Devon. While we were there we had an intake of troops who had to be accommodated. They had to use the upper floor of a woollen mill and to save them from going through the mill where the girls worked, it was proposed that a staircase be built in the recess outside. I was detailed to build the spiral staircase.

After our engineering training we proceeded to make our way to France to join the British Expedition Forces. By the time we got to Uckfield in Sussex we learnt that the army was retreating back to Dunkirk, hopefully to be brought home. So instead we stayed to fortify the Sussex coast beaches. We worked very hard to mine the beaches and road bridges as it was anticipated this is where the Germans would invade.

I had been given the stripe of a Lance Corporal and we were under ‘shirt sleeve order’ which meant we did not have to wear uniform so it was necessary for me to sew my stripe on my sleeve. As I could not sew I was looking to find someone to do it for me. I was put in charge of all the woodworkers in the unit and we worked from a local shop. Every morning we would get 2-3 boys coming into the shop base asking for military badges. I asked if one of them had a sister who would sew my stripe on for me. They hadn’t but they did have an evacuee living with them and they agreed to ask her. They must have gone home and told their parents and their mother offered to sew it on but I was too embarrassed to go. I was there two to three months and I did eventually meet up with this family for bread and cheese and cocoa in the evenings. They were Mr and Mrs Granger. Mr Granger was a Bank Manager and I got to know the family very well. Our unit then moved to Lamberhurst in Kent and we continued to fortify the beaches against a German invasion. I continued to write to Mr and Mrs Granger and their evacuee was also asked to answer my letters. Although my unit moved over the next 18 months we kept in touch.

In 1942 my unit was selected to be the Royal Engineers Unit in the newly formed Airborne Division. We were sent to Salisbury Plain for intensive training. This involved a great deal of exercise to build us up and flying gliders. On my first leave I decided to go to London and I would telephone the evacuee with whom I had kept in touch. I had decided to stay in a YMCA in Westminster. The evacuee had returned home to London where she was working in Government offices in Berkeley Square. She wanted to see me but her mother was opposed to her meeting up with a soldier she personally had never met so she insisted that I stay with them. This meant the mother had to go out and buy another bed. This was second-hand as it was impossible to buy new furniture in the war without a permit from the Town Hall. These were only issued if one had been bombed or if one had just got married. The evacuee’s name was Joan and she was now 18 and a very attractive young lady. We went to the cinema on the Saturday night and a walk in the woods on the Sunday and she waved me off to camp on the Sunday night. A couple of months later I had another 36 hour pass and I went back to London to meet her. We both knew by this time that we were falling in love. Towards the end of the year we got engaged although her father who was a policeman was very opposed to this but he did agree on the condition that Joan would not marry until she was 21.

My unit was then posted to North Africa to join the First British Army who were crossing from Iran through Algiers to meet up with the 8th Army in Tunisia. We had our first airborne operation in Sicily in July 1943 and from there we went into Italy to take pressure off the 8th Army which had landed there. But in December we were brought back to England to prepare for D-Day. While we were away the 6th Airborne Division had been formed and they were to be used on D-Day. We were on standby - 15 operations were planned but they all came to nothing. That is until the operation ‘Market Garden’ which was to capture the bridge over the lower Rhine at Arnhem. This was on 17 September and we were told we would be relieved in three days. It was nine days before we were able to meet up with the 2nd Army at Nimeegen. We had lost so many men and we were no use to anyone there. Eight thousand men went in and only two thousand came back. s We were kept busy all the time so we could not think about our dead comrades too much. Conditions had been terrible with 24-hour rations of milk, tea and tinned meat. After that you were on your own. The Dutch people were very generous even though they did not have much themselves. It was a case of just going hungry after your rations ran out. You didn’t sleep very well and just took cat naps whenever you could as the noise of planes and bombardment never stopped. You constantly felt worried as to what was going to happen next. We were flown back to our Quarters in Lincolnshire.

In a matter of days we were kitted out with new uniforms and were issued with shirts with collars and a tie (the first to be worn by Non-Commissioned Officers). We were then sent on 3-weeks leave. I travelled to London to see Joan and on my first day there we talked about getting married (as I might not be so lucky next time!). Joan’s father was still reluctant until an aunt intervened and he did relent. This of course meant trying to organise a license from a Bishop (as there was no time for banns), seeing the vicar of the local church, getting an organist, flowers, photographer, wedding cars, wedding cake and bridesmaids and dresses. This was all achieved in 8 days which was quite normal in wartime. We were allowed 4 photographs only as film was very scarce (this was being used by the surveillance people). The two bridesmaids dresses were borrowed and Mr downing the baker next door made our wedding cake. Of course we had to supply all the ingredients. Everyone was very kind - neighbours and tradespeople pulled together. A wedding was just the diversion needed to distract attention from the buzz bombs and the VZ’s. It was a very austere wedding breakfast and after we left the guests, we caught the train to Cardiff to spend the rest of my leave with my parents. Going up in the train, a clergyman in the same compartment took great delight in telling us about a show he had been to see in London called ‘Is your honeymoon really necessary?’ This made us all laugh.

After a few days I had to return to my unit and Joan went back to London to look after her father (her mother had died 12 months previously from cancer). Joan also did clerical work in one of the Government offices. I was demobbed in 1946 and we came back to Yelverton to live where I have lived to this day. My darling wife Joan died five years ago after 56 years of marriage. Meeting her is the finest thing I have ever done in my life.

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