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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Matthew Smaldon on behalf of Norman Fox and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Fox fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war, I was working in an aircraft factory in Windsor. In February 1942, when I was 17, I joined the Royal Marines, and was sent to Eastney Barracks in Portsmouth for my training. I had hostility service training, which only lasted 9 months. If I had signed up for long service, it would have been 12 months training. At the end of the 9 months, I was drafted for service in the Mediterranean.

We left Swansea in October 1942 on a merchant ship from the Blue Funnel line, S.S. Phemius. It had a Chinese crew, with English officers. We left in a convoy, but as ours was a fast ship, the skipper was allowed to leave the convoy and go ahead. We stopped in Brazil to refuel, then sailed to Cape Town, and on to Mombassa where we spent Christmas. We weren’t allowed to go on shore, so we amused ourselves going swimming off the ship. We then travelled on to Aden, up through the Suez Canal and in January 1943 disembarked at the Bitter Lakes. When we arrived in Egypt, they opened up the hold, and we realised the ship had been carrying shells, tanks and cordite. We had no idea — if we’d been hit by something we wouldn’t have stood a chance! It was a long journey, but we were treated ok, and the food was very good, better than back in England at the time.

In Egypt we were briefly sent to a transit camp, then on to Cairo and Alexandria by train. During the journey we had to watch out at night, as the Egyptians would sneak on board and steal stuff from our bags. I was made an orderly on the Commander (C & C) of the Fleet’s Staff — he had orderlies with him at all times. My role consisted of shift work, going around all the offices, ensuring that all the paperwork from the in and out trays was always dealt with, and so on. Night shifts involved a lot of cleaning with a mop and bucket. I then ended up in hospital with suspected appendicitis. While I was in hospital, I was put forward for a new position as an Admirals orderly. Unfortunately the Flag Officer thought that I was too young, so I didn’t get the job.

After I came out of hospital, in October 1943, I heard that HMS Aurora was in need of new crew. She was a 6 inch cruiser, with a crew of 600 navy and marines. I joined as a WRA (Warder Attendant). She had been hit in the Med by Italian planes, and one of the 4 inch gun turrets and the officers quarters had taken the brunt of the attack. I remember that you could still smell burnt flesh when I first went on board. Kenneth More, the film actor, was a lieutenant on HMS Aurora — he was the Entertainments officer. From Alexandria we went to Taranto in Italy, where HMS Aurora was rebuilt in the floating dry dock. We were there 6 months, and then went back to Alexandria, where we received a new Commander, Pugh-Cook. The Captain of the Marines called us in, and said ‘Make sure you look after the new commander’, so we did as ordered.

We sailed down to the Bitter Lakes, where we picked up King Ibn Saud of Arabia. He was a rather large man, and had to be hoisted on board as he was too big to go up the gangplank. With him came lots of sheep, chickens, and so on, and his coffee makers and his personal bodyguard. He was huge, and he would taste all the King’s drinks to before he drank them to make sure they weren’t poisoned. We took him back to Jeddah, where he was met by all his relatives, who came out on boats. There must have been hundreds of them. As thanks from King Ibn Saud, all the sailors on board were presented with 10 silver coins — they brought a big box on board, which was smashed open, and the coins were distributed. Most of the ended up being sold for beer money, but I’ve still got one. The officers received swords, robes and watches.

HMS Aurora took part in the invasion of southern France. We bombarded the beaches with our 6 inch guns, and our 4 inch guns when we could get in closer to shore. It was a very easy landing, there were no problems with the Germans. I remember seeing the landing craft rockets being used to clear the beaches. It was like firework night! We were only there to bombard the beaches, and we weren’t carrying any invasion troops. We had to go to Sardinia to re-supply the ship after this.

We then went to a small Greek Island called Lavitha. This was in October 1944. The straights were very narrow there, and the Germans were signalling information about our shipping, and we had to do something about it. A detachment of 30 Marines went ashore with a naval party. They weren’t expecting much resistance, but there were a lot more Germans on the island than we thought, and the landing parties couldn’t get off the beach. So we opened up with the big guns, and then they soon hoisted the white flag. 100 German prisoners were brought on board and taken back to Alexandria. I’ve got a photo in my album of them walking down the gangplank. One of our troops took a Luger pistol off a prisoner, and he didn’t hand it in, like we were supposed to. Unfortunately we suffered casualties too. One of the Marines, Corporal Dodimead, was killed, and another was wounded — he caught it in the backside. Corporal Dodimead was buried at sea. He was sewn up and weighted in a Union Jack, and lowered over the side. I was one of the firing party.

We spent Christmas 1944 in Salonica in Greece. We had dropped off troops who were going in to sort out the Greeks, who were fighting themselves. I remember the Royal Marines band was playing on the jetty. The chap who obtained the Luger at Lavitha got a bit drunk and decided to start firing it in the air — he managed to throw it over the side of the ship before he was caught with it.

There was no cash at the bar on ship — you had to tick on a form (the mess bill) to indicate what you’d had. Gin was only 2 pence a nip. The padre had the highest mess bill. We called him The Vulture, because of his nose. It wasn’t compulsory to go to services, and he didn’t force people to go, but many people did.

Churchill came on board HMS Aurora after the Yalta meeting. He was living in the Captain’s cabin. I saw him coming out of the cabin, being brushed down by his valet. He gave him a big shove off — maybe to do with the plenty of gin he’d had! Randolph and Sarah Churchill were on board too.

When I was due to come home, we were in Naples and I was put on an Italian cruiser with a Geordie lad, Bill Shaw. We went to Malta for a few weeks training, and were then put on a troopship, back to England. There were RAF, Army and Navy men on board. We were accompanied by some small tugs, up through the Bay of Biscay. It was so rough, we could only see the mast of the tug — it must have been like being on a submarine for them! We landed at Gourock, below Greenock in Scotland, and were put on a troop train down to Portsmouth. We left and 4pm, and got there in the early hours of the morning. We were taken to the barracks in Eastney, and I was there when the war ended. We always had to be in the barracks by midnight, but that night was an exception. I went to a few pubs in Copner, and went to a bonfire. Families were supplying all the food, and I didn’t have to put my hand in my pocket for a drink all night.

After 6 weeks leave, I was then told I was being posted abroad again. It turned out ‘abroad’ meant I was going to Gosport, to Browndown Royal Marines small arms school. The driver of the truck that took me there turned out to be someone I went to school with, called Nobby Clark. I met my wife at a dance at the RAF airdrome in Gosport in July 1946. She told me that before the war, she’d worked at the German Embassy. I was demobbed that year, and we moved back to Reading, where we got married in 1947. I worked on the buses in Reading and Newbury for 29 ½ years, then as a security officer at the Royal Engineers base at Hermitage, until I retired after 13 ½ years, at 65.

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