大象传媒

BOB MOSLEY
I joined the Sherwood Foresters
I was born in Withall Hollywood, Birmingham in 1915. I was called up and joined the Sherwood Foresters Regiment in 1941.
I was sent to Huthwaite in Nottinghamshire for square bashing training and then on to Mansfield where I went into a soldiers billet.
I was then sent to Yorkshire with the 9th army on anti-tank training, when I caught pneumonia. I went to Peterborough to convelesce and then on to a holding company in Guildford. When in Bedford I remember the WAAFs were stationed next door and I met Peggy and we danced the Anniversary Waltze together.
I then went to Dereham in Norfolk with the 1st Infantry and from there to Scotland where I embarked for North Africa on the SS Firefly.

I met Monty
When we reached Algiers we joined up with Montgomery and we fought our way to Tunis, until the war in North African finished. We had a quiet period then and to keep us occupied we started a tug of war team.
Next it was Pantolier a little island, where we joined up with the Italians, fired about three shots and that bit of the war ended too. The only three people to get killed were some despatch riders who hit a mine on their way back to camp.

Naples here we come
We reimbarked on an American boat for Naples and were in Italy when Vesuvius blew up. People were starving there and we saw many living in old factory buildings. The only food we had was in our mess tins. The Italians used to shout Johnny, Johnny, give us food - we're starving. We re-imbarked in Naples again, this time on a landing craft, but we were not told where we were going. We landed in Angio Italy, and the Americans were in Netunia. We waited until the Yanks went in - they thought it would be a piece of cake and they would be in Rome in one day, but it was not to be.

Retreat
General Alexander was in charge and after standing for three days in a wood the Germans attacked us and we were pushed back into the sea. The 67th Field artillery were with us, and we were firing until we were as deep into the sea as we could go.
We had a unit of Gerkas with us who attacked the Germans soft footed and with one blow.......!
The fighting was so fierce that a waggon took over 20 English people to grave yards every day.
My friend John Coneili who is now buried in Rushford, Tenbury was awarded the VC in Italy.

Rough medicine
When we took casualties to the clearing station many had died, and some had to endure amputations of their legs - while their boots were still on. There was blood everywhere and the sugery was very rough.
On January 21 1944 General Alexander came to the now famous "what we have we hold" dug out until May.
Just before D Day we were sent to walk or drive, back up through Italy bypassing Rome to Bolzano and Morezno. We passed through the mountains with mules, where Indians troops helped us, on to the Gothic line with the 1st Infantry Division.
When next in The 3rd Infantry we were in Palestine, and from there went to Heifa, Cairo, Beirut, and then on to Egypt for demob.
I remember one Corporal in North Africa who had fought to the finish went on a white wine bender and got so drunk. When it was time for our inspection we hid him under a camoflague net until the officers had gone.

Back to reality
The day after I landed in England after my demob - I was back on the farm haymaking, earning just 2s and 6d a day and giving my Mum 10/- for my board.

GEORGE STONES-
I worked on the Bouncing Bomb.
I worked for Oscar Dietch the man who started the Odeon Cinema chain. When I joined he admitted he had no money to pay me, so he gave me shared in the conmpany. He started the first cinema in at the Grand in Kings Standing, one in Wolverhampton, and then the Odeon Leicester Square. He started Oscar Dietch Entertains Our Nation and made millions. Later Oscar was made a Prisoner of War prisoner of War, all his businesses were started at the beginning of the war.

JOINED RAF.
I was a Sergeant in the RAF and I gave lectures in Singaport. I was in the Strike Airforce. The Japanese prisoners were put into billets, but the soldiers were freezing in tents. Moseley son was with us. We were with Mountbatten who got to hear of our concerns about the tents and the overcrowding when he flew in at 11am one day. By 1pm he had got it all sorted and the soldiers were moved into the billets in exchange for the tents. Every morning prisoners could use the toilets, but only at certain times, but they often caught the Japanese disobeying this order.
The Japs were very patient and used to make wonderful models.
I joined up in 1944 and became ad Flight Observer, moving from Warrington, to Wales and then Singapore. I later worked with the Army and was put on to secret work in a procured Nursing Home with Len Ball, on the famous bouncing Bomb.

JOHN LANE
I was in the Houshold Cavalry from 1943 to 1947. During this time we were posted to Osten, Hook of Holland, Parkston Quay,and crossed the North sea dodgine the floating mines
Unfortunately I was not a good sailor and was often sea-sick. We often tried to shoot the mine, which wasn't easy when you were sea-sick.
The first time squad were moved to a transit camp, and we were given rotten jobs. It was also a displaced persons camp and we had to delouse people coming in from the East, but we were never issued with any DDT masks, to protect us from the chemicals we used.

BACK TO MY UNIT
I managed to escape from this camp in the back of a waggon to join my own unit. I knew roughly where they were - hiding in a petrol station. We waited until till we saw a car full of Red Caps who took us in their own car back toour camp undetected.

MEMORIES
I can remember hearding about Pricess Elizabeth learning to drive during the war -up and down the Long Walk at Windsor.

AUDREY JENKINS
LAND Army Girl
Before the war I lived in West Bromwich and was training to be a jewellery but in March 1941 I joined the Land Army and was sent to Eardiston Farming Company.
There were four of us billetted to a house in Eardiston which was once an old nursery.
There were ten of us in our company all billetted at different places. We grew fruit, hops and worked with in the dairy and with the poultry as well as helping with the arable farm.

MUCK NOT BULLETS
My first job was to spready much around the fruit trees....and we had to do everything men did. I learned milking and dairy work which I found very enjoyable.
The work was very hard, especially as I had never done anything like that before.
I loved picking the soft fruit and we worked in all weathers - whatever came.
In the autumn people from the Black country used to come and pick hops - so we would make soup top feed the pickers.

DID NOT RETURN NOME
In fact I liked the life so much that after the was I never returned to the city. I joined the Young Farmers club, the church youth club, and started a guides grouop in the village Eventually I met an ex-Army man and married him and stayed in the countryside.

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