大象传媒

In 1939 I was 19 years old and war had just been declared on Germany. I volunteered to join up but I was told to wait until I was called, which was not until the middle of 1940. My papers arrived telling me to arrive at Shorncliffe barracks near Folkestone for initial training. Here I was kitted out and given a number. After my 3 months鈥� training I was posted to Scarborough to join the 9th Field Squadron. After being here about a month, I was sent to Ripon on an NCO鈥檚 course and passed with flying colours and I will always remember sewing on my Lance Corporal stripes and thinking to myself 鈥淭his is the first day to becoming a Field Marshal鈥�.

We moved to Melksham in Wiltshire and I was detailed to be guard commander. I got all my equipment cleaned and polished and about an hour before I was due to go on I thought I鈥檇 better check up and see if the other chaps were ready. I found them all, except one.

I looked all over the place for him and eventually found him in the NAAFI hut and said to him, 鈥淒o you know you鈥檙e on guard in about an hour鈥檚 time?鈥� 鈥淏limey!鈥� he said. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 cleaned any of my equipment or anything.鈥� I told him to get it ready and get on parade as best his could.

When the orderly officer came round to inspect us he said, 鈥淲hat a disgusting guard. You鈥檙e all on a charge tomorrow morning.鈥� So the following morning we were all up on a charge before the OC. All the rest of the guard got seven days CB and I was reduced to the ranks. So there was I, stripped of my stripe and bang went my chances of becoming a Field Marshal.

We now started to get some transport. 3 tonne lorries, 15 hundred weight lorries, scout cars and matadors. These matadors looked armour plated corporation dust cars. The vision was very restricted and I was detailed to drive one of these things. After knocking down a few walls I began to get the hang of it.

We were on manoeuvres one night and parked at the side of the road in convoy and Timmy Collins who was driving one of the other matadors fell asleep.

I think he had a bit of a hectic night the night before. All the vehicles in front of him went sailing off and the vehicles behind were all left there. It wasn鈥檛 noticed for about an hour and a dispatch rider came tearing back and believe me there was hell to pay.

The rumour started that we were going overseas. I got on the train from Crowborough station, Sussex and it rumbled through the night and the following morning we arrived at Liverpool docks. The train stopped in the shadow of a huge, great ship, the Monica Bermuda. Saturday May 9th 1942, the 9th Field Squadron climbed up the gangplank to the Monica Bermuda. It was a magnificent ship. In peacetime it had been a luxury liner. It weighed around 23,000 tonnes.

Much of the interior had been ripped out to make us places called troop decks, but there was enough of the original structure to give the impression of a floating Dorchester hotel. Each man had 18鈥� of wooden bench to sit on and in front of him a piece of table 18鈥� by 12鈥�. Overhead were two hooks for his hammock.

The problem of how to fit oneself in this confined space seemed impossible. But the impossible was achieved. The hooks were so arranged that every hammock dovetailed with the one in front and behind. The hammocks were stretched from end to end of the deck and wall to wall. Not an inch was wasted. There were 300 men down there in that space, the size of a village hall. I expect some planner was highly praised for getting so many men into such a confined space. This would have been OK on a short journey, but we were to spend the next 8 weeks in these conditions.

Night-time was the worst, when the portholes were closed on 300 men, confined in unbearable heat sometimes; the atmosphere was vile. The stench of human beings is very unpleasant at the best of times, but packed together in tropical hear with little air vents, down on 鈥淐鈥� deck was most unpleasant.

The days began to roll into one another; we all had to wear lifejackets, and no-one was allowed to undress at any time. After we came through the danger zone though, we were allowed to relax. To help keep the men cool, a canvas pool about 12鈥� by 12鈥� was erected on the sun deck, and it was like heaven to climb out of that troop deck and splash about in the cool water after such a sweaty night below.

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