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My name’s Kenneth Challoner, and I’m now 82.
I was called up when I was 17 and sent to Kinmel Bay, near Rhyl. I joined the army as a driver. They put me in the infantry, the Royal Ulster Rifles. After my training I went to Cleethorpes, and then I went to Durham, to the Royal Ulster Rifles.
After my training, we were sent abroad. I landed in North Africa, to meet the 8th Army, the Desert Rats. After that, we went to Malta, stayed there for about a month, and then went to Sicily on a mission.
We went across to Italy on flat bottomed boats. At that point we were fighting the Germans and the Italians. Once we got the Italians down, we were alright. We only had to fight the Germans then.
We were in Sicily for quite a while. I can’t tell you how long for, but probably around 18 months.
While I was still in Sicily, I can remember one time, when I was just finishing a letter in one of the wagons, and after that I went in to the tent, and the sergeant said to me ‘What have you done to the wagon?’. I said ‘Nothing’. He said ‘It’s all smashed in’. And the shrapnel, or a bullet or something, must have gone through the windscreen- over the top of the windscreen- and smashed all the front of the lorry up. If I’d have stayed inside that lorry, I would have been dead.
After that, we started attacking on foot. I can remember carrying a bucket of stew on our rifles, so that we had something to eat.
I got shot on Christmas Day in Italy. I can’t remember which year. I don’t remember these things. It’s best not to remember, it only upsets you. There were these two houses together, and we were fighting the Germans. We went out to attack. I got shot, and the officer to the side of me got killed. The blast killed him outright. We were hiding upstairs in a farm, amongst the corn, and we were watching the Germans from a window, and they must have caught us. So they shot at us. I caught the gun fire, and the officer caught the blast. He was straight on top of the window, you see. I told him to come away, so I could get to them and shoot them, but he wouldn’t come away. And that’s when the blast got him. I was shot in the left shoulder, and at the back of my lung. After that I went to hospital, and stayed there for quite a while. It doesn’t give me too much trouble now, not as much as the memories. It’s awful.
When I returned to the regiment, I was involved with escorting the prisoners, and policing, until I was posted to Ireland, to be trained as an instructor. And that’s when I got my cards. They pensioned me off.

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