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I was called up in January 1942 to serve in the Royal Signals. We all went to Catterick in Yorkshire for our initial training and after we had finished our training (it took 6 months to train as a radio operator which I became), we were shipped abroad from Kent. We went to North Africa and had an easy landing with no problems at all. We went through the North African campaign and although we lost a few, luckily it was not too many. From there we went to Salerno and then on up through Italy. But previous to that, when we had reached Naples, we had been sent back to the Middle East for convalescence before returning to Italy. That must have been in the final part of the war.

Monte Cassino was in our sight from a long distance away and we gradually got closer and closer. I witnessed the bombing of Monte Cassino and from there I think it became tank warfare. The infantry had really suffered before that, particularly when they were crossing the rivers.

I came home once during my time abroad. I had a month’s leave but because the shipping in the Channel was blocked I had an extra 2 weeks at home. I was only in Italy for 2 months before the war ended and then I was given a Class B early demob. I had been an electrician before I was called up, and because of the devastation, electricians and other tradesmen were badly needed to build Britain up.

My fiancée was a bit taken aback when I arrived home in the middle of the night as she had been planning to put on her best finery and meet me at the station! It was quite strange to meet up again after such a long and traumatic time, and all she could say to me at first was, “Oh, hullo. Home again?"!! We had known each other all our lives — she was pushed around in my pram as I was 2 years older - but we felt like strangers at first. We got married 3 weeks after I came home

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