大象传媒

This story was contributed at the Living Museum by the People's War Team - the author agreed to the terms and conditions on the site.

I joined up at the end of 1941. I spent Christmas Day on the top of a hill in Tidworth - on an exercise in a gun pit with a bren gun - where we waited for any aircraft. Nothing used to come over Tidworth. Canderha Barracks, where I was stationed, is still standing today.

There were about forty in the room - on wooden bunks. Ablutions were 3 cold water taps over a slate sink. (The lightbulbs were covered with blue paint - to cut down the light for the black out. I remember thinking that it was too dark to see anything, and removing the paint. This was quickly followed by cry from the Officers mess - which was opposite the barracks. For this misdemenour I did a week of extra guard duties.)

Our battledress was thick Khaki - impregnated with a yellow substance. We wore this buttoned up at the neck - and many of us suffered from impetigo. I went into Tidworth hospital. The treatment was gentian violet. Many people had their faces covered with only the eyes uncovered. They even treated it by scrubbing people, but fortunately this did not happen to me.

There was great competition in the passing out squads, which relied upon the sergeant in charge of the squad. Our squad sergeant was a Sergeant Mason and we passed out very quickly. You could not go home on leave until you had passed out on a parade. It gave us a great feeling of pride that our squad was united together. Discipline was very strict, but our sergeant was really good.

After having gone home on leave, I went to Bovington. Here I trained as a gunner, and then as a tank driver. I took courses on both and passed out on both. There was a lot of pride in having the drivers badge, a silver circle like a spoked wheel.

From Bovington we went to Liverpool, Seaforth barracks. Suddenly we were told to get our kit ready. Our troops had been pushed back in North Africa and we were told we were needed. In the middle of the night we were ordered to parade on the parade ground - and put onto troop carriers and taken onto the docks. They started loading the ships and got to the bottom of the gang planks and we were told the ships were full! We were sent back to the barracks.

After a period of time in Liverpool we were called out again, and this time we were put on a train and sent to Scotland - where Queen Elizabeth I had come over from America loaded with American troops. I have never seen the outside of the Queen Elizabeth as we were loaded at night time directly into the cabins. We left with an escort of 2 destroyers - which stayed with us for 2 days. They left us, and we sailed on alone. This was because she was considered fast enough to avoid difficulties - it was said she could do 32 knots!

There was a gun practice one day - we were told there were 84 guns on board that could be fired if we were attacked by aircraft. She had a 6 pounder gun mounted on the stern. We were on board for 6 weeks - and we went almost to America - down the coast and then back to Africa (Simonstown and Freetown).

We went through the Red Sea to Port Tufic. From there we stayed in Ismaylia. They used to have film shows - a screen held on 2 poles on the sand. We sat on the sand - and the flying beetles would be climbing up the screen - and people would try to hit them with revolvers - leaving the screen full of holes!

From here I went on to join the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment - in B squadron as a gunner - on the 2 pounder turret gun. At that time the tanks they were using were crusaders for A squadron, and Grants and Lees (American tanks) for B, C and HQ. I had the very good fortune to have an experienced tank commander - Sergeant Frank Sheppard. He had been at Dunkirk, and the regiment had just returned from Greece.

The first action I can remember being involved in was in the Salt Sea south of El Alamein.

The main battle of El Alamein was a few weeks later. We were the 8th Armoured Brigade - made up of the 3rd tanks, Staffs Yeomanry and Notts Yeomanry. We went through the mine field on the tapes (lines that the sappers had laid). We were lucky - we got through.

The desert is a fascinating place to be. When I first got out there we had a seasoned officer who asked if we felt fit. We said we were. He asked us to walk to a palm tree nearby. It looked so easy. In the heat of the day - that short walk exhausted you - you were completely whacked! It is absolutely black at night - so that if you lost your way the best thing to do was to sit down and wait until morning. You often found you had been walking in the wrong direction. Even when you thought you were walking straight - you often weren't. The desert could also be very cold at night. In the morning we would stand by the exhaust pipes of the tanks to keep warm. We put out overcoats on, but in a quarter of an hour, when the sun had come up - we took all the layers off as it was so hot.

I can distinctly remember looking from the driving compartment of the tank and seeing the German army fleeing across the desert with the occasional burning vehicle - contrasting vividly with the peaceful scene ahead of a red sailed Dhow (boat) in the middle of the Lake.

We got to Enfediville where the Italians were behind the hill. They were fantastic gunners and made us constantly move. They were long range and you could hear the shell coming - one would land in front and then one behind and you had to move to avoid the next one!

We left Enfediville, and stopped off near Tripoli. We put up tents under the date palms. The ground would move underneath us and large white crabs would appear from beneath the roots of the palms.

We returned to Tunis and boarded the ship - an old supply vessel to the Graf Spey. We went down to the Delta and lived in tents beside the pyramids. We left here on the Neu Holland ship for Italy. We were packed into the hull, and the biscuits were full of weavils. We did not land in Italy but carried on home to England. We returned south to Newmarket to stay in nissan huts. We left there and went to Bridlington where we took over tanks which were in the streets.

I went to Scotland to teach Polish drivers whom I found could drive better than I could!

I returned to help move tanks down to Bovington tank camp. We moved down to Aldershot and started water proofing our tanks and waiting for orders to move.

Whilst at Bridlington I aquired a brand new Sherman tank - it had a five bank chrysler engine. I talked to my friend Monty - Ltn Stuart Montgomery. He then told fellow officers in the mess about my wonderful new tank. Shortly afterwards I had to hand my tank over to the Squadron Commander.

We landed in France with the eleventh armoured division. Monty broke open a bottle of Scotch. I thought it was because of our safe landing - but it was because it was his 21st birthday! There was the battle of Epsom - and the battle of Goodwood - where we formed a line and we did a slow march forward - with a creeping barrage ahead of us. We lost a lot of tanks at Goodwood and then we got to Falaise Gap where I was unfotunately blown out of my tank - and I found myself on the floor. I was put on an English Ambulance -and went back to a clearning section for the British which was full. I was transferred to an American ambulance and taken to the Second American General Hospital at St Lo. I stayed here for a couple of weeks. I was informed that if I had been an American I would have been sent home - but they transferred me to a hospital at Caen. The matron there was a dragon so I discharged myself and went to a forward tank delivery squadron at Caen and picked up a tank from there. I then made my way through France to try and catch up at the regiment. I got to the village of Bavincourt. There was some resitance there who were having trouble from the Germans so we helped out.

There was a family called Labas - Louise Labas could speak very good English. We stayed there for a few days. We then went to Brussels. We left the tank by the aviators memorial and I then met up again with a resistance group which had not got together since the Germans had left. We had a party and I was given a large serviette which they all signed. I still have it.

I left the regiment and went back to HQ. I had various jobs and finally ended up at Belsen Camp. Here I was responsible for supplying food for units around Belsen. I had an English butcher and seven German labourers and I went to the DID ( a big food depot) and then return to HQ - every soldier had an allocation - I had over 2000 men in the main mess, in addition to the officers mess and the surrounding units.

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