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I was 16 coming on 17 the day war broke out; I was a boy scout at Upper Dicker. We paraded the flag once a month through the village. But I was detailed this time to go to the vicarage to look after the phone and listen to the radio. This was probably the only phone in the village. I heard war was declared and waited until the vicar came home. On this day there was an air raid warning and I and the rest of my family went to the air raid shelter which my father built in my garden. Nothing happened, so at 3.00pm my father went milking as we had a smallholding. We all came out and carried on as usual. Later that day we heard on the radio that there was one German aircraft over Scotland. These sorts of things were quickly ironed out!

I joined the auxiliary fire service at Lower Dicker on the A22. The Wellington boots were the attraction to use on the farm!!! The duty was every third night from 8.00pm to 7.00am. At this time I was working at the Greens string factory. Later, working overtime until about 8.00pm, as the money became more available we visited the cinema more often!! Sometimes, during the show, the warning would go and the manager came on the stage to tell us that we could leave if we wanted to — not many did!!

We worked Saturday mornings until midday, I would bike home 3 miles, have dinner, wash and change and get back to Hailsham for the 2pm train to Brighton. After shopping, we went for fish and chips, delivered to the table for a shilling! We had to go to the Hippodrome Theatre early because there were no late trains. The whole day cost us fifty pence!

On my way home, on my bike with masked head lights going from Hempstead Lane to the A22, there was a slight curve in the road, with a hedge guarding a ditch. I was rudely awakened by my arm brushing the hedge on the wrong side of the road!!! I had fallen asleep on my bike; I didn’t sleep for the rest of the way home!!!

One day, during a raid — the boys in the ditch and the girls in the shelter — a bomber chased by one of our fighters dropped his bombs, one falling on the shed in the Greens factory, this being about 70 yards away. This, I think was a very small bomb.

One Saturday afternoon my friend Carol came over to get a rabbit for the pot, my dad came with us with a ferret and nets. To catch one we had to be quick because of the dark days. While we were there the German bombers came over filling the sky, probably a thousand bomber raid.

On 16/4/1942 I was called up to go to Winchester to join the KRRC. I did my basic training there and went on to Chiseldon, Wiltshire to learn to drive and then on to the 8th Battalion, 17 miles north of Newcastle, a Quaker village. The huts had no electricity or water and the tree trunks were painted white to get us from the main drive to our huts which held about 14 men. We had a bowl of about 12inches deep and 18inchesround for all of us to wash in. It was put on our stove to heat — to save water it was used the next morning but someone had to take the scum off!!!!

On Fridays, if off duty, we went to Newcastle, on a pass. After several months drivers seemed to drink more and the 30CWTS raced the 15CWTS the larger lorries, overtaking the smaller on the corners, but several of us wouldn’t go as it was too hazardous. Of course, training was still going on.

We were then brought down to Crowborough, Sussex and we came down to Eastbourne in the bombed area of Bourne St. When, after going up and down in the houses when we had to run along a 12 yard corridor and jump though a knocked out window, not knowing how high it was. This proved how well we were trained!!
Then we went to King’s Lynn and after that back to Newcastle. From there I was grateful to go to Hexham to be a mess orderly and guard for several weeks.

After a few leaves I came back to be detailed to see the CO to be informed that I was to draw a complete new uniform and boots as he wanted me to go on to Sandringham, Kings Guard as most of the others had done.

We moved into York Cottage, where the King was born, there were three guards of 36 men. When on duty we were inspected first by the Guard Commander, then by the Batt. Commander, which took about half-an-hour. Then dismissed, we were told to change into our working clothes and plimsolls — this is because the King was a light sleeper! The King was not actually sleeping at Sandringham, he was at Appleby Farm, which was surrounded by barbed wire. Guards were posted on all entrances and runners in between. There was a land-girl that worked on the farm. If nobody was about the guard on the main drive wouldn’t let her in without a kiss and the runner, if he was there too, and she had to go back out through the wire to get back home following the same kissing procedure!

One Sunday two smart girls were spotted cycling through the grounds. We were just going to wolf-whistle them when a bowler hat came round the corner. This gave us a clue that it was in fact the two Princesses — that would have been jankers for life!

On Princess Elizabeth’s birthday the officers gave her a party. A game of Treasure Hunt had been arranged. The Princess was supposed to find the first prize, a bar of chocolate, however some wagg pinched it so the officers were rushing round desperately trying to buy chocolate off the men to replace it!

After Sandringham, I went to Gillingham East where we went into intensive training. Because the training was so intensive the only regiment we could go into was the Parachute regiment. 50% came back saying it was far worse training there. I had a mate that came from Hastings on a weekend’s leave. We got as far as Brighton on the Friday, the policeman on duty at the station said he couldn’t put us on the train as they were all outside the station that night. He asked us if we’d like a cup of tea as it was nearly 1am and told us to go down under the station about a hundred and fifty yards away there was a café open. We went in to find we were drinking out of fruit tins with the edges turned down. Whilst there, a lady came in complaining bitterly. She’d been outside with some Canadian soldiers who had paid for services and then tipped her upside down to get the money back again. Getting back, we had a short sleep. The policeman came to ask if we’d like another cup of tea. He directed us in the same direction, just round the corner from the other café. Here we had white table clothes and china cups. We finally left Brighton on the six o’clock train.

After a short while we were back to our old camp, north of Newcastle. I found I was to go on a Radio scheme but was stopped because the invasion was going - so I listened to the invasion on the radio instead.

The next stop was Pembroke Dock, in Wales. Being a dock, we thought we were off to the invasion. But it was to watch secret weapons i.e. search lighting tanks. While we were on this duty we would go out at eight o’clock at night, came back at four, had breakfast and went to bed till twelve. Our afternoons were spent cleaning our weapons till five o’clock when we would have free time until eight. A downside of our stay in Pembroke was the Horseflies - everybody got bitten to death and I even ended up with my arm in a sling because of one.

After this we were disbanded. We were told, after leave, that we would be joining the 12th or the 2nd Battalions in France. We were sent to Aldershot and boarded a boat from Southampton on our way we through out our entire spare change to the children who were waiting for us. We had been given 200 franc, printed in Britain. We anchored in the Sound that night, where one man cried because he could see his home and could have spent the night there instead! The trip was uneventful; we landed in Aramentes and marched ashore on the piers, passed through the town where an old lady, dressed in black, didn’t raise her eyes form her knitting. We got to the holding unit outside Bayuex where we stayed for a few days. We then moved the holding unit to Rouen as the breakout had already started.

As there was little to do at that time I was detailed to guard a village nearby where the local ladies took no notice of naked bodies. I was quite amused to see a lady holding the hand of her boyfriend over the top of a slate wall as he relieved himself. Call up came; I was detailed to go to the 12th Battalion, who we were chasing in thirty CWTs, the advance was going fast. I received a flower as I sat at the back of the truck, from a French girl who I managed to lean over a kiss. Going through Brussels, we received fruit, thrown from the top window of flats into our trucks. We caught up with the battalion on a heath outside of Brussels and were detailed into platoons. And so our war began…

We were shelled many times the next few weeks, as we travelled to the Albert canal, taking over from the American Para-troopers. The next was the fight to Nymagen in Holland; we travelled there in canvas covered cook-trucks, instead of 3 half-tracked armoured carriers, which had been lost in France. The only surviving half-track that survived was number 13, although many think that is an unlucky number, it wasn’t this day. Half the town was in enemy hands, but our forces held the bridge, which we crossed turning to go out to Ophusen, also in Holland. This should not have happened as the plan was to move on factories at Elst to clear them and move on to banks of the Rhine at Arnham. When priming mills bombs 15 minutes before move off time, the order was cancelled. And we cheered and moved on to Ophusen. Here, nobody held the bridge, so we held station until further orders. We sent out listening patrols of 3 men, who had a whistle to warn us when they had engaged the enemy, and were retiring and coming back through our lines. We engaged a German patrol one night and wounding some, and making them retreat. We held this position for 10 days, in this time I managed to shave once, borrowing the bat-mans razor and new blade, and felt much better for it. We moved to a secondary position where a German machine gun on fixed lines fired regularly at 6am for 7 days. One day, a German tank fired at a DR, missing him and the house we lived in and a telegraph pole. Many Dutch locals used to help us by informing on the German troop movements and showed us their hospitality.

We then moved on to a safer area, in reserve, where we could get our hair cut and have a wash, etc, for a few days. We were moved to the Reichwald forest for rest. Unfortunately they put us amongst the big guns, 5.5’s, which fired all night, Germans replying in-kind, which kept us awake while we slept in trenches. We slept with only a ground sheet underneath and a gas-cape over the top to keep the sand out. While here, I was showered with shrapnel from shells hitting trees over the trench I was sleeping in, once a mate jumped in on me as he was on guard as the shells rained down. We complained to the padre and were moved away into the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. I was sent on a snipers course, to keep me out of trouble and help to protect me for the future. As luck would have it, we didn’t have a snipers rifle.

Brunsem in Holland, here we were billeted into civilian houses, a mate called Peter, befriended a local girl whose husband was out with his girlfriend skating(!?!) I had to return to the house, knowing he was alone with her, to stop any funny business. I pretended I needed to write a letter, and she pretended to hit me on the head with a hammer as she wanted to spend more time with Pete.

Towards the end of the war, I was fighting fiercely around the Rhine, where the SS were guarding all bridges, not letting anyone retreat. Soon after the air drop by the Para troopers and glider pilots, of which we had a ‘front-seat’ view, we witnessed of all this going on. I remember once we moved up to an empty farm house, with a kiln 10 yards from the house. Each evening the Germans would fire between the kiln and the house. We posted a section in the kiln to stop it being occupied. One night, while on duty, from 12 to 1am I heard a noise and woke my mate next to me in bed, by kicking him and waking him up. He woke the others and we all listened for the noise. After a while a sow and piglets came around the corner, much to our relief.

As we neared Bremen, we knew the war was ending and making us aware of living being a priority now. Meaning that I was unable to trust others to look after my interests, and I needed to be even more careful for myself. The order came for us to make ourselves scarce for when the German generals came to sign the peace treaty, on the orders of our commanding officers.

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