大象传媒

I was called up, age 19, to the 138 Field Regiment, 360 battery of the Royal Artillery, Charlie Troop. I was posted abroad for three years. I joined up in April and sailed on Christmas night 62 years ago. There were 4,500 troops on each ship and 6 ships sailed, 27,000 men in our convoy. Our ship had only one gun, an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun. On the second day out, to my amazement, I was chosen to fire it. Not at a target. Just to test it. I was a crack shot, and out of our training Regiment I was the only gunner to score a bulls-eye.

We sailed to Algiers accompanied by four corvettes and some destroyers. The escort was generally miles away from us, but I remember once two depth charges were dropped. In the Mediterranean, by the Straits of Gibraltar, the seas were mountainous and many troops were sea sick. There was plenty of food to spare for those who could eat it!

We landed in Algiers on 1st January 1943, supporting the First Group who had been there since November. It was 600 miles to the front. We were broken into different groups and made our way East. I was in the rear section of the Regiment driving a monkey truck, together with gun towers and ammunition carriers. The terrain was hilly. I served under a wonderful man and officer; he was the son of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, a leading pathologist.

One night I was half way up a steep hill when I heard some planes coming. They were ours and one was in difficulty. He managed to land on the bare hillside at the very top of the hill. Another few yards and he would have crashed over the top. He was either the best pilot, or the luckiest, in the whole war. He made a pan-cake landing on the top of a near mountain.

On another occasion I was ordered back with the truck by a Captain Spicer. He told me, 鈥淚 will be in Tunis in a fortnight鈥�. He was right. He was captured the next day and taken to Tunis as a prisoner!

We are achieved our victory in Tunisia and joined up with Montgomery and the Eight Army. Later we were sent by sea from Sousse to Sicily in two landing craft. These craft took the whole Regiment, seventy two guns, thirty six gun quads and all our equipment. The water was crystal clear until we approached Sicily and the voyage took two days. Before landing in Sicily we had to stand off as it was too rough to land. Then the German bombers came at night. Our old Major, who had a stammer, said 鈥淚 think its all over now鈥�, and it nearly was for him as he was wounded near the petrol truck and again at Bronte.

When we landed it was onto a low beach near Syracuse which was undefended from the land.

We invaded mainland Italy on 3rd September. We landed on the toe. The Germans had dropped back and the Italians, although officially still our enemies with guns on the roadside, failed to shoot. As one solider remarked, 鈥淭hese buggers are on our side鈥�. They soon became official allies after a peace treaty was signed at Caserta Palace.

We met fierce resistance from the Germans when we reached Termoli. At Termoli I later learned there had been a Brigade of British against a Division of Germans. I saw a daredevil, Jack Haigh from Leeds, stroll up a hill side towards many German tanks, as they advanced down at us. He spiked many of their guns, which were loaded, by putting shells up their barrels. The barrels split like banana skins. Conditions in Termoli were terrible. The inhabitants had had no proper food for months. Some refugees from Yugoslavia, unknown to us, took refuge in the church. We did not know this and unfortunately we shelled that church.

There was a mystery Termoli. It seemed the Germans, when they left, had burnt much of their own equipment. The mystery was resolved much later when the fires were attributed to a man called Paddy, from Ireland, who had come over from North Africa. There he had blown up around 400 German planes. Apparently he was in at the start of the SAS. After the war he returned to Ireland where he died in a road accident.

After several days the Germans withdrew from Termoli. We followed them; advancing through the most terrible weather and conditions I can ever remember. We drew up before Monte Casino in the February but were unsuccessful in taking it. The Polish Army eventually took Casino in the spring when the weather was more favourable. We by-passed Casino and I went with OP supplies to the foot of Snakehead Ridge.

When victory was announced we were at the River Po, and we picked up leaflets telling us the news. It was chaos at the Po River, horses running loose, fire everywhere. Then our Colonel called us together and told us that, 鈥淔or you the war is over. You will be posted to Austria and there you are the victors. Women with prams will make way for you on the pavements.鈥� To me this was wrong. I wanted them to know that we would not act in the way the Colonel had said.

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