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I joined a fresh company in Belgium, 3 Division, as an ambulance driver with three triangles of black on a red triangle in the middle to sew on the arm of my uniform. In Bruges we had several weeks of reorganising. The war with Japan finished but on that day, not knowing the war had finished, we were sent on a route march. Everyone else got the day off.

With the war in Japan now finished we were on our way to Toulon on southern France to catch a ship to Egypt to try to keep order against the Jews who were trying to make a new country in Palestine. We stayed in a camp at Toulon for a few days, then sailed on 13 November. The ship, Banfora, was a bit crowded, with some bedded down on the mess tables and some sleeping in hammocks slung from the ceiling between the tables. I had a hammock. After four days at sea, with a short stop at Malta (where we weren’t allowed to get off), we landed in Egypt. I was now with B Company 8 Field Ambulance. After a short stop in Tahag, where we left anyone in the company who was a Jew, we made our way to Palestine. With my ambulance I was sent to several different regiments, attending sick parades etc.

The mood in Palestine was not too good. I believe it was Ben-gurion, the Jewish leader, who said that every time a soldier was killed there was a song in his heart. I volunteered to do a driver mechanics course and was sent to the Middle East School of Mechanics at Gasa, where I spent Christmas 1945. After passing as a driver mechanic I returned to Nathanya, 3 pence a week better off, and resumed my ambulance duties with other regiments — East Yorks, 6 Field Reg and 33 Field Reg. After a while I was called to the office to be asked if I wanted to be demobbed as the duration of the emergencies had finished. Saying yes, I left my company and got a train across the Sinai desert to Alexandria in Egypt, then on the SS Staffordshire by sea to Toulon in France. During the sea journey on the first day, not feeling too well, I missed second day roll call so was put to help in the galley, collecting sacks, shovel and rope, going down a ladder into the hold and shovelling coal into the sacks to be hauled up for the cooking ranges. The best thing about it was when we were finished we were allowed to have some of the freshly baked crusty bread with butter (lovely).

A train through France, a ship across the channel, another train to Beeston Castle where, on 21 April 1946 I got my demob and civvies clothes, a lorry lift to Crewe Station, a train to Craven Arms, then a walk up the fields to my sister’s house at Wettelton, and next day a cycle over to my parents.

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