大象传媒

This contribution was submitted by Ray Merrett and is added to the site with his permission.

I came back in 1944...I think it was about March and I went to Liverpool. But on the way home - our unit was the first unit supposed to be coming home for D-Day. This was what I thought. This was my first trip home in two and a half years. I had a week's leave at one time but I'd wandered about from Akia to Tel Aviv. I hadn't seen Peggy for two and a half years. Before I went away I said we'd get married - we were going to get married, and then without any warning at all I suddenly found that I came on two days embarkation leave...so I couldn't get married. When I came home in March Peg and I met up again of course, and on June 4th Peg and I got married, two days before D-Day. I was on compassionate leave. They wouldn't let me - I was playing rugby, due to play rugby on the Saturday and I tried on the Friday and Thursday before because I'd been home at the weekend, Peggy never said a damned word about it to me thinking she was on leave as well at the weekend....and she went back to camp. On the Monday I had a telegram telling me she wanted to get married, not the following weekend, but the weekend after. and that's all the time I had.
Working in the supply depot as she was she knew what was going on.

When we came back to Liverpool we went up to Blackpool for a week. we should have been home within two days, but with the usual stupidities of people it took a week instead of two days.
We were met by Air Marshall Harris and a band and everything...we were hoping to come home on leave. We were marching up behind this band and we were told we could put one kit bag on the lorry. So we thought we were going home and had been able to buy things on the ship. So I'd stacked up with cigarettes and chocolates and stuff on the ship. It was one of the Stirling ships, Stirling Castle or something like that...there were three big ships like that. When we were going up the road in Liverpool all of the people came out to cheer and shout...and they were coming out with big metal jugs of tea and everybody sat down on the kerb and on their kitbags and whatnot and we every sort of glass and mug and bottle to drink tea out of and lots of them - and I don't know where they got their rations from or how they made it - but they brought out cakes and breads all sorts of
things of interest by the side of the road there ...and we were told the marching had gone to pot and everybody disappeared, we were told to make our own way to the station and make sure we got there by half past two. And we got to the station, I don't know how or where it was...we got to the station some way or another and got on the train to Blackpool. And I can remember looking out of the window at the fields as we were going through - and the fields in those days were all small fields and hedgerows as I remember...and they were green. And was it good to get home. We got off at Blackpool and we were taken to the football ground and dispersed on there to various places and we were put into - our gang was put into houses, that took people in the summertime to stay - boarding houses. So we went into this place, tables of four, four chairs round a table, and there were about twenty of us in there I expect. And there was a young lady who was living in the place - the daughter of the house - she could play the piano and instead of the boys going out in the evening - which they would have done, everybody was bent on going out and getting canned - everybody got round the piano and we had a whale of an evening, singing around the piano. She played all evening while we sang along...we were just about knackered to be honest with you, we went to bed about ten o'clock most of us I think. Well all the other boys who should have met on Blackpool Football Ground at ten o'clock the following morning, instead of meeting as they should have done, half of them didn't turn up. They'd been canned up the night before so they didn't turn up for the morning. The meeting was cancelled, we were told to go wandering and be back there at two o'clock and we'd be organised from there. Well, we came back at two o'clock some of us...those that didn't got canned up in the morning while they were wandering around, and didn't get back at two o'clock. And that was the reason for being the whole week more or less scattered about the place.

Troopship experiences malta to sicily

When we went over from Malta to Sicily we were in the bows of the ship and carted over to the other side. It was an American ship ...and we had a wonderful meal. We thought it was the last supper - that's what we called it - it felt like that, we'd not had a meal like that since Adam was a boy.
I was a reasonable sailor - and never had any trouble....we were just there with our gear on in the bows of the ship. We left Malta at about two o'clock in the morning and we were over there when it was still dark. The Germans were right up in the North of Sicily by then. As far as we were concerned the trip was a sad one for me anyway and it was sad for the rest of us too because we were just sitting around. We'd had this wonderful meal and thought "We're not getting out of this....this is the last one we're going to get..." you know.

Troopship experiences Taranto to Liverpool...

It was pretty good really....we did nothing all day except play cards on the way. But we weren't very long, because halfway coming home something happened a German Kondor a recco plane flew over, and for some reason or other that thing went away and a little while after everybody stopped, all in convoy in the middle of nowhere. And it was decided that all the Naval wagons would go off. Because off Gibraltar there was a school of Gerry subs waiting for the convoy. Well someway or other they got to know of this - we were on these three fast ships - we were told we had to go off and instead of going on the shorter route back we to go another way I don't know. We went on these three ships and when we got into Liverpool the Naval Wagons were all there.
We had normal conditions on the ship but it was tamping, they were going at speed. And we got back here, but the Naval Wagons were already there and they were in Highbury because they'd met up with the Gerry subs or something and had had a whale of the time. They'd got back to base and they were alright...but quite a lot of them were already ashore I think. But the Naval people moved on from where we were and we moved on from Liverpool to Blackpool. But we had a hell of a rumpus in Blackpool because the Americans were there...and the Americans were annoyed because a lot of those were confined to camp because all this convoy was coming in from abroad and they were allowed a lot more freedom than you'd ever had in the army before. It was good, I must admit, we did everything...we went to the Tower ballroom. And in the Tower Ballroom at the half time interval we had a mock scrum down, because our outfit always did - don't ask me why - somebody's hat was thrown in for the ball in the scrum and there was a bit of a shindig went on. And of course as soon as that happened the Yanks said "Chuck 'em out" and started all this shouting. and as a result of it all we ended up in one hell of a punch-up...and we just went. We were told to get out and go...so we went. And we were stood on the corner of the street and a taxi pulled up beside us and there was a redcap there in all fairness - Military Policeman. And he said: "Don't go from there. You stay there - you'll get me shot." And we thought "What the hell have we done now?" About two minutes later a taxi came and stopped...we jumped in and he took us back to our billet. We thought "what's this in aid of". He said: "You've got the run of the outfit for now", he said, "you only came back today. We've got to look after you and get you back to the billet" And he said: "Our instructions are to get you off the streets and it don't matter how". So it was a taxi driver who took us back and took us back to the billet which was a lovely place.

I got married on June 4th and I booked a railway ticket to take us down to Lynton ...well we went from Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton and we had to change, and when we got to Taunton we couldn't go on - they'd taken the flaming track up during the war - there wasn't a track where we were going. And Peggy and I in Taunton had to find a place to stay for the night. Well we went to God knows how many places - and it was raining like the devil - and we couldn't get in anywhere. Peggy was getting browned off she said she was going to go to the YWCA - and I said: "If you're going to the YWCA I'm coming with you!" Anyway we met someone coming up the road and we asked them if they knew of any hotels. And he said there was the Commercial Hotel down the end of the road somewhere and I think he was either going to it or coming from it

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