大象传媒

I was 23 at the outbreak of the war. I was a labour supervisor stationed at Depot 4 in Sanderstead, Surrey, allocating gangs to drain ditches to start essential food production, arranging assembly of agricultural machinery from Canada etc.

We had a large staff of land girls for field and tractor work, girls straight from offices in London having an exhausting time in cold conditions, but with a great spirit always. There were many injuries and even two fatalities to girls and staff.

However, there were some amusing times too, with Italian and German prisoners of war. I remember one such incident when an Italian cook was sent off to fetch water with a member of the Home Guard. The soldier couldn't get over a stile with his rifle so he handed it to the Italian prisoner so he could climb over the stile - amazingly, the Italian handed the rifle back to the soldier - some guard!

This story was added to the site by Melita Dennett on behalf of James West. James fully undersyands the site's terms and conditions.

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