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Name: Anonymous
Location: Hinckley

I was born in 1923 and joined up at 18 years. My army number was 7959107. I went to the 61st training regiment of the RAC at Tidmouth, then transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers. I trained for D Day from there.
My brother was in the Black Watch at El Alamein. He came back to England and was stationed at Berkhampstead. They took over 2 big schools. During the war a brother could ‘claim’ for a younger brother, so I joined him at Berkhampstead. I moved to Southwold and prepared for the D Day landings. We took over Southwold — cleared the people out and took over the houses. We practiced going up and down the cliffs on nets. The vehicles all had to be waterproofed. We covered the engines and parts in a type of plastic.
We went to Preston Park, Brighton, and joined the Canadian 154 Brigade, 51st Highland Division. We trained with them, route marching and keeping fit. We went on to Newhaven. There was one pub on the quayside, which was out of bounds. All the officers went in, so we followed them. We went on to the big Infantry ships to France and were on them 3 days. We were issued with French money, but we played among ourselves and I lost mine. We had to carry everything, our greatcoats, ammunition, rifles, gas masks. We had to scramble down nets on to landing craft to disembark. Lots of men dropping off the nets and were killed falling between the ships and landing craft. We landed on the beach and had to go past the big guns, on to nearby Caen on the first day. We moved back a bit at the end of the day. We lost a lot of men. We then got dug in to a big orchard just before Caen. English guards approached in tanks and the Germans opened fire, including ‘moaning minnies’.
Everyone had to stop in the trenches. Caen was the first 1,000 bomber raid by the English. We advanced by marching through Caen and tried to get to Arnhem. The Dutch had flooded the fields so we had to go round on the roads.It was all over when we arrived in Arnhem. We came back to join the Canadians fighting on the Rhine. I got wounded crossing the Rhine and was taken to the airfield, then flown to Newmarket racecourse. I went next to Bury St Edmunds to the French Canadian hospital, then was sent to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I was a month there, then on to the big hospital at Bathgate. All the beds were in a line, and they kept moving them up. The two surgeons were called Professors Dot and Alexander.
I went to ‘Mellerstain’, a big house in Scotland, after my operation. They had a matron and nurses, and the Professors visited. They took you back to the hospital for further treatment if you needed it. I went back 2 or 3 times. Eight months later I went to the Trensham Gardens convalescent home. I was able to go home at weekends.
I was then sent back to Perth, to the Black Watch depot. I went on to Egypt, then Trieste. The European war had finished, but not the war involving Japan. I went up the Adriatic to Trieste on an American liberty boat, then on to Muerzzuschlag in Austria driving a Canadian half track. I was keeping the Semmering Pass open between Muerzzuschlag and Vienna. I went to Villach, on the Austrian/Italian border, to be demobbed. It was October and it was very cold with big icicles. We were burning everything possible to keep warm. You had to look for your name on a sheet to show you had a place on the train. It took 4 days to get to Calais. I arrived in England and was demobbed on 1st June 1946 at Aldershot. I was in the war 6 years and 5 days.

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