´óÏó´«Ã½

When war was declared between Great Britain and Germany by Mr Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister) on Sept.3rd 1939, I was stationed at the Military College of Science, Woolwich and in the throes of a five year apprenticeship to be an Artificer R.A..
As Woolwich was considered vulnerable to enemy air attacks it was decided to re-locate our training to Lydd, Kent.
With the fall of France in June 1940 we were obliged to move to Chepstow, South Wales until Dec.1940.During this period we sustained many bombing raids (which meant sleeping in concrete shelters) plus being machine-gunned by enemy aircraft during daylight hours. There were some fatalities and wounding of personnel.
From Jan.1941- Jan 1942 I was billeted with a family at Stoke-on-Trent;
Completing our gunnery course on anti-aircraft, field and coast defence guns — enemy activity was much less here.
From Jan.1942 until my compulsory transfer to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Jan 1944 I was stationed at Rhyl , North Wales repairing and instructing self-propelled guns and armoured vehicles.
After a six month’s technical course I was promoted to Staff Sergeant.
Sept.1944, I was drafted to go to India in a troopship. The vast majority slept in hammocks .We were battened down at dusk ,no lights and one of the early convoy comprising 2 troopships ,and an aircraft carrier. We went through the Suez Canal but still took 4 weeks to get to India.
From Sept. 4th-Oct.1947 I was situated at various Military establishments throughout India. When the Indian sub-continent became India and Pakistan there was much civil unrest and bloodshed.
We British then returned to the U.K..

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