大象传媒

CHAPTER SEVEN 鈥� TWICE HOME

My kit was packed, ready for the journey and next morning 11 of our chaps lined up and then got into a 3-ton wagon. It was a long way from Udine down the country to Naples and it took a few hours, but we didn鈥檛 mind the discomfort because we were going home.
In Naples we boarded the Ship 鈥楩ranconia鈥� which was the sister ship to the one on which I had left Liverpool three years earlier. Our first stop was Valetta on the Island of Malta we had sailed down past the volcano Stromboli and through the Straits of Messina and after leaving Malta we didn鈥檛 see any more land until we pulled in to Gibraltar harbour where we only stayed for a few hours, and then through the Straits of Gibraltar and out into the Atlantic ocean.
When we got to Liverpool it was very thick with fog and we couldn鈥檛 see a thing from the ship. We docked and were put on a train, homeward bound, me for Leeds and then to Crosshills, where I then walked down to Sutton to the house in Mill Street, Mary鈥檚 mother鈥檚 home.
Mary wasn鈥檛 there and her mother told me that she had gone up to my sister Margaret鈥檚 at Whitley Head, my old home. Margaret was due to have a baby and Mary was looking after her and had just gone down into Steeton to do some shopping. I set off back down Whitley Head to meet her and we walked back the rest of the way together. This was our first meeting for three years and nine months.
Whilst I was at home the victory in Japan was declared, but my leave soon ended and it was time for me to return to Italy. I again sailed from Liverpool and docked in Naples and returned to my unit in the small village of Peseriarno, where things were just the same as when I had left. I only had to do about three months which was spent spit and polishing and doing guard duty then I had done my four years in the Middle East.
I got re-acquainted with the Italian farmer, Mr. Masson and when I had some time off he asked if I would like to go with him to Udine to a place where he took his silkworm cocoons where they were put through a freezer to kill the worms. So I went along with him and he took six baskets full of cocoons to a little mill. He reversed his vehicle into the warehouse where some men were working and they opened a large door of the fridge and piled the baskets inside. The job was done in an hour and the cocoons were taken out again and weighed and Mr. Masson was paid from the office and we returned to the farm.
The weeks soon passed and one day my officer came and told me that I was going home at the end of my four years and I had the choice of sailing or flying from Foggia and that would mean another journey by truck to Foggia. I decided to risk flying.
We were told that we wouldn鈥檛 be coming back so to pack up our kit with what we wanted to take, so I slept in my officers bed for the last time and left it behind. The next morning ten of us said 鈥楥heerio鈥� to the lads, waved and set off in the 3-ton truck. We were a few hours travelling to Foggia to the airport, where a bomber was waiting with three airmen. We were told that we would be sitting on planks across the empty bomb bay. I asked if there were any parachutes, as I had never flown before. He said 鈥楴o, if they had to come down he would have to make it a beach landing but he hadn鈥檛 been confronted with a crash landing. This was a four-engine bomber and could fly on two engines or even one if necessary, so he assured us that we had nothing to worry about.
We had to sit on the planks with our feet dangling down into the bomb bay and when we were on our way we were allowed to get up, two at a time, and go into the back of the plane into the rear gunner鈥檚 place to have a look out. The guns had been removed and round the gun pit or cockpit was a brass hand rail about 3鈥� 6鈥� from the floor, so we had something to hold on to.
On one of the times that I was looking out I could see the shadow of the plane travelling over the ground and up over the mountains, so fast it made me realise the speed we were going. Then I got a bit of a scare. I just looked to one side and saw the tail fin going down and the plane tilted and I wondered what was happening until I realised the plane was turning.
We flew over Rome, across Corsica then Marseille and across France then Dunkirk and finally came in to land at Peterborough. I was watching through a little nick, as we came in to land and could see we were passing large trees at speed then the tyres screeched and we finally stopped.

The pilot asked us how we had enjoyed the flight. I thanked him and said how that the seats had been a bit hard, but I was thankful to be back in England but it had been my first flight and I thought it would be my last. And it was.
It was now evening and I was given a railway warrant for the train journey and taken by truck to the station. I got a train as far as Doncaster where I was stranded at about 1-0-clock in the morning. There wasn鈥檛 another train for Leeds until 6-o-clock so I went into a waiting room and lay on a seat until morning. I eventually got the train back to Leeds and another through to Crosshills and finally walked to Sutton.
I was only home for one month鈥檚 leave and had still to go back until my full time had finished. I enjoyed the break and it felt a burden having to go away yet again, especially as V.E. Day had been proclaimed.
I now went to London to the Woolwich Arsenal Royal Artillery Barracks. I was shown to a long upstairs room with plenty of beds but they were all empty. I was the only one in this room for the next 3 weeks and was truly fed up with the place. I had to report on the parade ground every morning at 8-0 a.m. where my name was called out. I always got well behind the crowd of soldiers because often the ones in front were detailed to do different jobs such as cleaning the toilets or wash places or sent to the cookhouse to peel spuds or wash the dirty dishes. The officers used to come out with suggestions such as could anyone ride a motor bike and then if you put up your hand you would be told to do one of the above jobs.
All the time I was there, I never went away, because I never knew when I might get called, and I was never more bored in all my army days.
One day I was called out on parade along with more chaps and told to pack my kit and return on to the barrack square. We were not told where we were going but put on to a train to Harwich. We were marched into Butlins holiday camp and were detailed two men to a chalet. I made a friend called John McKay and we were together for the rest of my army days. For three days we went for our meals either in the dining hall or the NAAFI. We were told we would be sailing about 7-30p.m on the third day so John McKay and I filled up on sausage and chips, bread and butter and tea, ready for the crossing.
We faced an eight-hour sail to the Hook of Holland so we decided to get into our hammocks and get some sleep. Two hours later we were both out of bed and vomiting our guts out hanging on to the brass handles each side of the toilet. I felt so bad I wouldn鈥檛 have cared if the ship had gone down. When we docked, we both were as right as rain and went into the NAAFI and had another meal!
After a two-hour wait we boarded a train for Belgium and went to a town called Machelen, where we would be for a week before moving on. The novelty here was the street toilets with 2鈥�6鈥� doors and a hole in the ground, when we used them we had to do a gymnastic manoeuvre to get in the correct position. The next day, one of the lads had the brain wave of taking a wooden box with a hole cut in the middle and placing it over hole in the toilet, and stood it on the foot pads, so he could sit down.
The trams were running everywhere so we had chance to visit Brussels and Antwerp from Machelen. At the weekend four of us including my friend went by train and truck to a Bad Nendorf just outside Hanover in Germany. It was only a small village and had been a prisoner of war camp and it was barb-wired all round with only one main gate. McKay and I were taken to the Motor Transport section where we saw the M.T. officer and N.C.O.鈥檚.
Next day I was detailed to take a 15-cwt truck to Hanover station to pick up some parcels and on my way back I missed a turning to Bad Nendorf. I went a further 10 miles on the road and came to another village where there were some of our troops. I was directed to a turning about eight miles back, which I had missed, I never missed that turning again.
My next job was to take an officer to Celle about 35 miles the other side of Hanover. I did this journey quite a number of times during my stay there. McKay and I were living and sleeping in the bedroom of a large house; all the houses had been taken over by the Army. We ate at a central cookhouse and when we had no driving to do we just spent our time in our room where we could be found if anyone wanted us. There was a fireplace in the bedroom so we could collect coal from a coal stack and collect wood wherever we could find it either the canteen or the garage. At suppertime we were only allowed to have a cup of cocoa, so at teatime we picked up a couple of extra slices of bread and made toast on our fire to eat with our cocoa.
Two other long journeys I made from Hanover were to Luneburg, about 80 miles where my officer had to go and the other to the border of Austria to take two officers and two A.T.S.officers to a place called Bad Harzsburg. It took a day to get there and another to get back.
I had to take around a Jewish Interrogation officer who used to interview prisoners of war. One day I had to take him and an A.T.S.officer to Frankfurt and it was winter and there had been some snow. On one place on the Auto-bahn one of the bridges had been blown up and the Royal Engineers had put up a bailey bridge. I drove down a long sloping hill and could see the bridge, but didn鈥檛 expect the ice. I could not stop and I skidded up the ramp and came to stop on the middle of the bridge with the front of the vehicle about 3 feet from another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. I reversed off the bridge and let the other vehicle come over then on our way we went. The drop from the bridge was 60 or 70 feet, so I was glad the incident had been no worse.
When we arrived at Frankfurt we pulled into a U.S. army camp and the officer told me to stick around until he called me the next day, when we would be going back. A U.S. Soldier showed me where I could sleep and eat and I was well treated and had good food. After breakfast the following morning I packed my bed in my vehicle and I stood by waiting to meet my officer. When he did turn up I saluted and said 鈥楪ood morning鈥� and he then asked where I had been last night, because he hadn鈥檛 been able to find me. So I told him that I had only been where I was shown to stay and suggested that he hadn鈥檛 looked so far. He then said 鈥楥onsider yourself on a Charge鈥�. He said he had wanted to take the car into Frankfurt that night but I told him that he had no right to do that anyway as the car was on charge to me.
On the way back after a good few miles driving, this officer told me he wanted to take over the driving. I told him he had no right to do that but he said 鈥業鈥檒l drive and that鈥檚 an order鈥�. So he took over and when we came to a bad patch of road with some very deep potholes, he drove over it like a mad man.
We pulled in at another Army camp at dinnertime and I was told to get my dinner so I went into the Ordinary Ranks dining hall. I returned to my vehicle after my meal to wait for my officers and decided to have a look round it to check things out. I discovered that one of the rear springs was broken. I told my officer about the spring and that it had happened because of the way he had driven over the potholes, so he told me I had better drive the rest of the way.
When we got back I asked to see my M.T. officer and told him what the Jewish officer had done with my vehicle and that he had put me on a charge. He told me to forget the Charge and he would 鈥楩ix that chap鈥�. I never heard any more about it.
One day when McKay and I were walking along the road in our enclosure and talking, a young officer was coming along on the other side of the road and he shouted, 鈥淒on鈥檛 you two salute officers?鈥� So we both put our hands up to our heads. I just said to McKay 鈥淭hat young man has seen no war!!鈥�
I had been out in Germany for six months and was now waiting to hear that I would be de-mobbed. I was eventually told to report to the medical officer where they tested my urine and my eyes. They fit me up with glasses and I was told to report to my own doctor when I got home.
Next day McKay and me and four or five other chaps were taken to the station in Hanover and we were soon on our way towards home. We left Hanover early in the morning and went through to Calais in France where we were put on a flat-bottomed barge with long seats, like park benches bolted on to the deck. We just sat on these seats with our kit beside us and the sea was just like a looking glass, so smooth. We landed at Dover where we went to a building to be fit up with civilian clothing, suit, shirt, tie, socks and shoes with a case to put everything in.
Now I am hoping that I am on my way for the last time to my home and finished with the army.
By this time Mary and Barbara were back in our own house,so I went straight home. It was June 1946 and so nice to be back home and the war years behind me.
There was a Home-Coming party at Mary鈥檚 mother鈥檚 at Mill Street when everyone who had been in the forces came home and my brother in law, Edward baked a cake and iced it and decorated it with badges made out of icing sugar, to represent all the regiments we had been in for the Army, Air force and Land-Army.

Here I was now at home with three month鈥檚 Army Pay and I had now to get reinstated in my business. I had been paying for a plot of land at Cononley to be reserved with the hope of putting a building on the land but I found that the land had been taken over by Skipton Council for house building. So I had to look for somewhere else to re-start in my cobbling business. The property I found had a house attached and I had to buy both and had many weeks of hard work ahead renovating the property and starting over.

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