大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jan Russell of Uckfield Community Learning Centre, a volunteer from 大象传媒 Southern Counties Radio on behalf of Derick Jack Hooker and has been added to the site with his permission. Derick Jack Hooker fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My story starts at the Edgeborough Road School at Guildford. Sergeant Major Savoury called the roll in alphabetical order and there was a Goebbals, Goring and then he said and where the * hell is Hitler!!.
During my time in the Medical Corp I also had a Sergeant Major Curry and Pepper.

After Guildford we went to Greenock to join the Llangibby Castle, we were going through the Straits of Gibraltar and had turned in for the night it was very over crowded and we were sleeping everywhere on tables etc., above each table was a plate rack and we were hit and the ship went over, all the plates shot out and it was very quiet until Bob shouted out, thank God I won鈥檛 have to wash that lot up in the morning.
The boat was going down very slowly, so the NAAFI began selling cigarettes at half price but only for English money. Eventually they brought another boat LL Stephen alongside to aid us and we had to transfer from one to another across planks with our kit bags and told not to look down, there were a lot of kit bags in the water!! They managed to get our boat into Gibraltar.
After that we went to Bone in North Africa and then to Thibar, which was run by the White Fathers of Africa, unfortunately they had only had outside toilets which ran into a cesspit. One chap went for a toilet and a smoke and dropped his cigarette in the pan there was an explosion and all the toilets blew up, when the pastor came to write to his wife he wrote injured in action. The war correspondents stayed there also and listened to the 大象传媒 so they could write up there reports.

We went on to Teranto in Italy on an American Landing Craft. The Germans had retreated and going into the harbour we ran in to the torpedo nets and got tangled with the propeller. The 大象传媒 announced that we had landed when in fact we were still 15 feet from the quayside. A reconnaissance party was sent forward to find out how far ahead the Germans were but they could not find any and went shopping and bumped into two Germans also on a shopping trip.

In Andrea we attended a concert by Vera Lynn which was also attended by Montgomery. Behind the theatre was a car park and our driver was trying to get out when a car started honking at them our driver shouted,鈥� can鈥檛 you wait鈥� and guess what it was Montgomery.

At Andrea we were seconded to the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, as patients were brought in they were stripped, shaved, showered and covered in louse cream whether they were male or female. It was an 800 bed hospital in large tents and after one terrific storm all the tents fell down. The Italian civilians had also set up a dining room for patients for their meals but one day the tents were stolen by the Italians. During our time there we were awarded the TITOV LIK the highest award from the Commissar.

One of my jobs was to test the water supply and it had run dry and when we looked into the well we found the bodies of 3 Germans, but the tea tasted good!!

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