大象传媒

My World War 2 Story

The problem is how to condense nearly six years of service into a reasonably short account.
Having completed training as a radio mechanic (the word radar had still to be invented)
I was posted to Hayscastle Cross in Pembrokeshire. This was long range radar but operations were pretty quiet there.
After about a year I was sent to Worth Matravers, near Swanage, where mobile units were being formed up for service overseas. We had some basic training and as the units had more vehicles than designated drivers anyone who had a civilian driving licence was trained to drive the large vehicles that had the radar equipment mounted in.
I was in 372 AMES (Air Ministry Experimental Station - to keep it secret). We had the same transmitters and receivers in the lorries and they also served as operations rooms.
Obviously the 360ft. and 240ft. masts of the home stations could not be transported so we had timber telescopic masts which were 100ft. when erected. These were transported on 4 wheel trailers towed by the operational vehicles.
In December 1942 we sailed from the Clyde in the Strathallan while all the equipment was carried on cargo ships in the same convoy. Strathallan was torpedoed in the Mediterranean about 70 miles from our destination, Algiers. (Having been interviewed about it on the 大象传媒 Making History programme I won鈥檛 repeat it here. Although the ship was on fire and eventually sank almost all the 4500 troops on board were taken off by RN destroyers).
We spent Christmas confined to billets as someone had assassinated the Vichy French admiral Darlan; the allies had been negotiating with him to run Algeria. Our Christmas dinner was of sardines on hard tack biscuits!
Eventually the station was set up near a village called Jemappes in a valley nicknamed Messerschmitt Alley.
As the campaign progressed we had orders to move to Tunisia and I recall a hair raising drive through the Atlas Mountains, driving the transmitter truck and towing one of the mast trailers. It was quite a sight seeing the German Afrika Corps surrendering and marching themselves to POW camps. So many of their side arms had just been chucked into the ditches that everyone in our unit had some kind of pistol or automatic.
Our final destination was Kelibia right at the tip of Cap Bon. From there our radar could look across towards Malta and the Italian base of Pantelleria. We still suffered occasional air attacks from the enemy but without any damage to the station. This was obviously an important shipping lane and at night we often saw the unfortunate results of U-boat attacks on our ships.
The victory in North Africa being complete, we expected to be sent to join the Allied invasion of Sicily. After a few days in a transit camp in Bizerta we embarked on a British cargo ship and once it had sailed were told that our destination was the island of Corsica.
A look at a map shows why this was an important place for radar stations, as with our 200 mile range we and the other units could survey enemy held territory from the South of France to the Italian coast.
Corsica had been occupied by the Italians who by then had surrendered to the Allies. The Allied army and air force on the island were mostly American. I believe the only RAF were the radar stations and some Air-Sea rescue boats. The Corsicans made us very welcome and in spite of their food shortages invited us into their homes. We got quite fond of 鈥淪oupe Corse鈥� a very thick vegetable soup that you could stand a spoon upright in, almost.
We were allowed some local leave and a friend and I went to the beautiful beach in the gulf of Porto on the west coast. When we got back to the B & B one day the landlady said excitedly 鈥淟e debarquement est arrive鈥� So I know where I was on D-Day!
The Americans landed in the south of France and via the RAF transit camp in Naples we were sent to a site near Marseille at Berre l鈥橢tang. This was a small town full of oil refineries and industry. I always thought we drew the short straw as other radar units were set up in the glamorous places like Juan les Pins, Antibes, and Cannes etc. where they had a whale of a time. However I did get a week鈥檚 leave in Nice. You could still hear the gunfire further north. Our next move was to return to Naples and just as we were about to embark in the docks of Marseille when the end of the war in Europe was announced. This was May 7th, the day before VE. I still have a French four page newspaper with a banner headline 鈥淰ICTOIRE鈥�
Back in Naples the AMES was disbanded and I was posted all over the place while waiting for my 鈥渄emob鈥� number to come up.
For a time I was stationed In Naples and enjoyed going to the San Carlo opera. It was rune by ENSA and was packed with troops of every nationality, the Italians only being allowed in the balcony.
Then I had a spell with 255 Squadron, Mosquito night fighters with radar mounted in the nose this took me to North Italy, Malta and finally Egypt.
Having been overseas for over three years the RAF peace time rules applied again and I was posted to thee U.K. as tour-expired. However on arrival at an RAF station in Hertfordshire I was told that as my demob number was so near I would be sent to a demob centre and HOME.

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