大象传媒

Private Thomas Frederick Marks
Home Town: Woodbridge. Suffolk.

I signed on at Chelmsford on the 20th October 1939 and came back to Woodbridge Drill Hall (civilian billets), from there going to Lowestoft Drill Hall, St. Peters Street for basic training, again civilian billets sleeping only.

The boys who joined like I did were from all parts of the country. The batch I was called up in contained men from the North East, the Midlands, London and Essex. The idea was men who were 20 years old were to be drafted into the services, spend 3 months in service and 18 months on the reserves. I think the idea was put forward by Hoare Belisha. A friend of mine joined in May 1939 as I had my medical. He went through Dunkirk, came back and was put in the 4th Batallion Suffolks. He died in Thailand in 1943. His name was Percy Crane and he lived in Kingston Terrace, Woodbridge. We had gone to school together.

During 1940 we performed some guard duties at the dry dock in Lowestoft where submarines were being overhauled. Then on to Loddon for a few days, then back to Lowestoft with B Company. After a few days we went to the Waverly hotel, St Olaves for further guard duty at Haddicoe station. Then we went to Langley Park (just outside Loddon) under canvas where we mostly did training and then we marched to Rackheath Park, Norfolk. We didn鈥檛 stay long as we were sent to Cawston, Norfolk.

We were on a farm, sleeping in a barn. I was in the cookhouse. The boys went out every morning and came back late afternoon. All I can think of is that they were guarding the site of a new airfield. We were only there a month and went back to Rackheath for a meal, then landed up in Yarmouth.

We were billeted about 20 yards from the sea, near the harbour mouth, in a small brick building with no mod cons, not even a light. We did 24 hour guard duties - 2 hours on, 4 hours off. Six days a week with one day off duty. We were only one section of ten men and one corporal. We also had a Bren gun mounted for anti-aircraft defence. In charge of our section was Lance-Corporal Frankenburg from London. We were in Yarmouth from late July to the end of September 1940.

Our next place was Hatley St George, Bedfordshire. We took over from the Koyli regiment from Yorkshire. We were B Company 4th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment. Living space was empty cottages belonging to Hatley Hall Estate and the cookhouse was a derelict farmhouse. Meals were eaten in broken down cow sheds. Again time was spent training and on route marches. Charley Pavis and myself on odd times went to Gamblingay. We walked it - it was three miles each way.

I went on leave just before Christmas 1940. Just after Christmas the battalion moved to Scotland, to Stobbs camp just outside Hawick in the Lowlands. We were in Nissen huts with Pail closets and outside washing facilities. In January 1941 everywhere was frozen solid. I used to go down to a stream, break the ice, get a small bucket of water and put it on the small stove so that ten of us could use it to wash and shave. I did that until the thaw started. In the 1914-18 war Stobbs camp was used for internment. One of our boys' father was interned there. His family was of German origin and lived in London. We didn鈥檛 do a lot apart from training, owing to the weather. Once we marched to Galashiels, about 30 miles each way and slept in an old mill. There were other exercises we went on for training. One place I remember going to was Walkerburn. Once we went to the firing range, but it snowed so bad that we waited about four hours only to be told that it was put off and we were to make our way back to camp. One day the whole battalion was taken to Hawick to see 鈥淭he Great Dictator鈥� in the cinema. We were in Scotland until April 1941.

Then we were off again in fourteen buses to Pilsmouth Bleach Mills, a huge area all empty. It was near Bury in Lancashire. The nearest village was Unsworth, which had a small canteen and used to give concerts of choirs and solo singers. We sometimes went to Manchester on the electric trams. Time was mostly spent training and on marches. We also went to Bury. We were there for a sports day for Minden day at Bury Barracks. August 1st 1941. (Bury, Lancashire). We moved on, this time to just outside Hereford. There we lived in wooden huts on the site of what I believe used to be an old brickworks. We had a small canteen where we could get tea and cakes in the daytime and were rationed to five fags a day. Cigarettes were very scarce then. For a day or two each week we went to work on farms. We picked Hops and helped collect sheaves of wheat from the harvest fields. We stayed for 2 days at a camp at Hinckley. I believe it was a soldiers training camp.

Finally we moved to Hereford. Whilst we were there King George VI inspected the whole battalion. On one last occasion there was a battalion church parade in Hereford Cathedral, where we were led to the Cathedral by the Suffolk Regimental band from Bury St Edmunds.

Once more we were on the move - it was dark when we left Hereford. We knew we were going abroad, but not where. After going by train all night we came to what we were told was Liverpool, where we boarded ships. Ours was named 鈥淎ndes鈥�, a pre-war ship that sailed to and from South America and had been turned into a troop ship.

RECOLLECTIONS CONTINUE in Part Two which tells Tom's story of his service in the Far East and his experiences as a POW.

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