大象传媒

I joined the Shropshire Yeomanry in 1939 and as my father had a riding school, I was able to provide my own horse. The first camp I was sent to was Penrith in Cumberland. The horses went by train from Gobowen. I was actually called up two days before war was declared. Other local Shropshire Yeomen were Jeff Manford, Jeff Woodcock and Roy Williams.
I was eventually sent to Shavington Hall, Market Drayton, and from there took the horses to Crewe where they were stabled and left. Next camp was at Mile End, Oswestry, where we were joined by Militia men and then divided into two regiments of Artillery - 75th and 76th - on 1st May 1940. We were supplied with civilian vehicles and 1914-1918 artillery. The mobile column was now on standby for invasion.
We went to various camps in England and Wales, the last one being at Bournemouth; there were some air raids on the town and on Poole harbour, with some damage to our billets. We all ran 3 miles each day to keep fit.
On 28th August 1942, we sailed from Grennock, on the Clyde, to Durban in South Africa on a New Zealand ship, Rangitata. Wa were in a convoy of 18 vessels and included in the convoy was HMS Shropshire. I came on deck one morning only to find that we were alone; our ship had broken down - fire in the engine room - it was a great relief when we rejoined the convoy without having been sighted by enemy U-boats.
We stayed in Durban for 6 weeks, having received a wonderful welcome on arrival. During that time we had many route marches and some training. On 6th November 1942, we were part of 6,000 troops embarked for Egypt. While sailing there, news of the El Alamein victory came though, so we went to Baghdad, 1700 miles over land and crossing the river Jordan. This was part of a plan to guard oil supplies in Iran. We also camped in a very dusty valley outside Damascus, where we were getting ready to invade Cos. However, Cos fell to German forces and we were stood down. We sailed from Alexandria for Italy and landed at Taranto. We then moved to the front line at Castel de Sangro; the aim being to divert Germans from the western side of Italy so the Fifth Army could break through to Rome. Very deep snow cut off some units and they were supplied by parachute. As the weather improved, we moved to new positions.
Our first casualty was Jock Davidson, caught in a strafing and divebomb attack by the Americans. We moved onto Monte Casino front along a former railroad track. Monte Casino dominated all approaches and we had an observation post on Monte Troccio. Sgt. Manford and his crew had to wade through 2 feet of water in order to fire their gun. New Zealand and Indian troops attacked for eight days and failed. 1000 tons of bombs were dropped and 680 guns shelled the Monte Casino area and failed. On 17th May 1944 the biggest artillery barrage the world has ever seen took place. 1100 guns on a 20 mile front, persistent bombing for one week and Polish troops attacking, caused the German to surrender. The most frightening experience up to now was a German gun firing 7 shells at once. These were known as 'Moaning Minnies' - they howled as they flew overhead. Outside Florence, Sgt. Thomas of Oswestry was killed by a shell exploding under his bivouac. Also, about this time, Winston Churchill visited one of the gun sites and wrote a rude message on one of the shells.
Near Sienna an early morning air raid killed two, wounded four, and knocked out two vehicles. I was running through a cornfield at the time. Why I do not know, but it saved my life. A friend that I went to school with, Sgt. John Maslen, was wounded while repairing telephone lines and died shortly afterwards. I wrote to his family with the sad news. I had my head down in a cellar at that time. Another friend, Jack Davies from Ellesmere, told me never to stand on doorsteps as these were often mined. Soon after warning me, he stood on a doorstep and was badly injured.
As the end of the war approached, we were near Trieste on the Yugoslavian border. Tito's army was trying to take over that part of Italy, including the Port of Trieste, essential to us for supplies. Many men in the later days had acquired abandoned vehicles, which doubled the petrol used. The CO ordered them to be abandoned. As this coincided with the end of the war, our Captain exchanged an Opel car for 56 gallons of wine and a good time was had by all. We came home in February 1946 and I found it extremely difficult to settle into civilian life.

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