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"This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Jean Sharman, Scotland CSV on behalf of Alex Clark of Aberdeen and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I joined the Gordon Highlander 5/7th Battalion when I was nineteen. My first battle was at El Alamein and we were just raw recruits sent overseas to fight in the desert with just a few trial runs at it. When Rommel was defeated the Afrika Corps went on the run. Colonel Popski and his private army specialised in raids caused havoc by manoeuvring themselves round behind the Germans and catching them by surprise. One time I was out on patrol in the desert with six or seven others and we ran out of water. We got one pint of water each to last us a day and we had to use it for washing, drinking, everything. We would lie low in the desert during the day because of the heat and as I was lying there I ran my hands through the sand and found a cable communications line. We decided to follow it to see where it led to and came across two or three vehicles. The signs on the side of the trucks were British. It was a small convoy bringing supplies to Popski’s army.

I went on to Sicily, Hermann Goering’s batallion was facing south at the time. We had a terrible job getting through to a small village on the slopes of Mount Etna but once there we had little resistance from the enemy. It was the time of the grape harvest and we helped the people out. An Intelligence Officer, Hamish Henderson of the Highland Division was nearby and heard the sound of the pipes and when he investigated he found it was the 5/7th Gordons. After that we were moved on and were told there had been a letter from Field Marshal Montgomery saying ‘you are going into Fortress Europe and everyone’s your enemy.’ But the people we helped were good folk. After the war Hamish Henderson became very famous and went round collecting folk songs. He wrote a song ‘the Banks of Sicily’ and the one people say should be the Scottish National Anthem ‘The Freedom Come all Ye’. He also came to Aberdeen to record Jeannie Robertson singing her songs about travelling people and Jeannie let Hamish in to the house. Hugh McDermid had recorded her previous to that but she didn’t let him into the house!

Another special assignment was up in the hills to teach the Canadian Landing Craft Infantry. We used to lay out tapes on the ground to show them how to land a craft on the beach.

One day a convoy came by. There was a staff car and a jeep. A Brigadier-General came over to ask me if they could have a cup of tea and brought with him about six mugs. A bit later the car passed again and Monty got out and thanked me for the tea. He asked where I was from and was interested to hear about Aberdeen. He gave me a parcel of newspapers he had been sent from his wife. After they had gone my Officer didn’t believe the story but I had the bundle of newspapers to show him and he took them away to read.

I was on an observation mission looking for the enemy but they saw us first and I was wounded by mortar bomb shrapnel. I had three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a perforated eardrum. I was taken to a general hospital in Belgium where I was given penicillin and it was discovered I was allergic to it. I became desperately ill because of this and that ended my war service overseas.

On VE day I was home on leave convalescing and I met a Pole and got very friendly with him. There was great celebration and the streets were thick with people dancing. I was about 22 at the time.

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