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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Suzanne Longstone and has been added to the website on behalf of Roy Dennis with his permission and he fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

June 27th 1940 was a great day for Roy as that was the date of his wedding in Wandsworth Common, London. The happy couple went to the Isle of Wight for their honeymoon, staying in the Dunedin Hotel, Ventnor, only to have his call-up papers arrive in the post halfway through their holiday. He had to report to Nottingham and was given a travel warrant and a postal order for three shillings and sixpence for a day’s subsistence. Roy was assigned to the 1st Army 5th Medium R.A. (which had just returned from France) as a Gunner. He was not given any training but travelled with the regiment as they moved billets around the country from Worksop to Grimsby, ending up in Boxhill, London where they were billeted at Wentworth Hall. Roy was then appointed Regimental Barber. He worked during the day as the barber for the regiment and so was excused guard duty. The Regiment continued to move around the country — Kent, then Cheshire, ending at Beeston Castle in December 1942. By then his wife had an 11 month old baby and came up from London to stay for a while at the local post office. Roy will always remember how kind the postmistress, Miss Povell was to them. On 23rd December they were told to move on again and Roy was advised to send his wife and daughter back to London. Their train went north through Carlisle to Greenock where they boarded the Dutch ship ‘Boysivane’. Their trip to Algiers took 4 or 5 days.

The regiment was to use their Gun Howitzers (80lb shells) to support and cover armed divisions and infantry as they went into action. Roy took part in practice beach landings at Cap Bon. Soon after this he went down with malaria, finished up in an American field hospital and got visited by Bob Hope! After recovering he was put on a ship and was part of the Salerno landings. Despite not having received any mail from Roy, his wife sent him a letter saying she knew exactly where he was as she had been at the cinema and had watched a Pathe News report about the landings! She had recognised the serial numbers of some of the vehicles and also some of the soldiers as they lined up at the cookhouse. She went back three times to see it!

The 5th Medium RA moved north through Italy, Roy still being hairdresser to whichever soldiers needed his services — New Zealanders, French, Polish and American soldiers all joined his queue. The Regiment supported four battles, including Montecassino, as their Gun Howitzers were ideal for the hilly terrain. In fact they were the Regiment that spent the longest time in Italy, supporting others as they came, fought and were moved on. In March 1944 Roy had three days leave in Amalfi. He was billeted in a factory with some others and they were woken one morning with a terrific noise, flashing lights and women wailing in the streets — Vesuvius had erupted! The soldiers later helped to clear the streets of ash with spades.

Other memories left a very different impression. The 5th RA were assigned to support the Polish attack on the Monastery at Montecassino. One thousand Polish soldiers were killed that day, and Roy had cut the hair of many of them just a few days before they went to battle. On another occasion they were in Rome when news came of a civilian massacre in a village just outside Rome. A street stall which sold fruit to the Germans was blown up and twenty six German soldiers killed. In reprisal the German command ordered that ten civilians were to be killed for every soldier who had died. Three hundred men, women and children were taken to caves outside the village and shot. The Germans tried to blow up the caves in an effort to cover it all up but this was ineffective. Roy and his Regiment were sent in the day after to salvage the bodies — an incident that will haunt Roy for the rest of his life.

Roy arrived in Florence the day after the seven bridges had been blown up; moved on to Bologna with the Polish Army until they took the city, and finished up in Trieste, keeping Tito’s army out of Italy. It was well into 1945 by now, and when peace was declared they moved up to the Dolomites. He spent Christmas 1945 in a snow-covered Cortina, and soon after began what was to end up as an epic journey to get back to England. He travelled to Milan, then on to Bari (Southern Italy). There he boarded HMS Stratheard and sailed to Piraeus where he was transferred to the George Vth — a merchant vessel. It sailed to Salonika and then back to Piraeus! He was put back on the Stratheard, sailed to Messina and on to the South of France. Here he took a train through France up to Calais, a boat to Newhaven, a train to Guildford to get his papers and his demob suit and finally home to his wife and daughter on 26th April, 1946. He certainly saw Europe!

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