大象传媒

I lived in a village in Northamptonshire until joining the 55th Training Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. Farnborough, in May 1942.
My father had served with the 7th Northamptonshire Service Regiment (Mobbs Own) in France from September 1915 until wounded by shrapnel in September 1917 when the Machine Gun post he was with was shelled. He suffered wounds, losing his right eye and was evacuated to England. He was invalided out of the army in February 1918. When my time arrived to join the Army he was quietly relieved to know I had chosen to serve in tanks, as he said 鈥渂etter than the PBI鈥�.
After my six weeks basic training, followed by a further six weeks on Tank Driving and maintenance, I was posted to the North Staffordshire Regiment at Wivenhoe Park and then to RAC Bovington where I did further tank training and was able to spend Christmas 1942. Mid January 1943, I left England from Grenock on board the SS Circassia for North Africa, docking at Algiers after several submarine attack alarms.
After two weeks at the staging camp I joined the memorable train journey from Algiers to Souk Ahras, travelling 40 men to a cattle truck. From Souk Ahras I was taken by army truck to join B Squadron 16/5 Lancers where I was immediately allocated the duty of Co-Driver in a Sherman tank. The Regiment, having suffered losses in both men and materials, was being re-equipped with the new Sherman tank to replace the Valentine. Following a crash course on these tanks, the regiment was back in battle. I was now experiencing the conditions I had been trained for - not pleasant - the shelling and mortar attacks were mostly on target unless an equally smart re-positioning of the tank co-ordinates was undertaken.
During a mortar attack at 鈥淢ortar Ridge鈥� I was slightly wounded and evacuated to hospital rejoining the Squadron in August at the Regimental Camp near Phillipeville (now renamed Skidida).
Christmas 1943 was spent with the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, A Company entertaining A Squadron, B Company entertaining B Squadron etc.
January 4th 1944 we moved from North Africa to Italy and then into Austria.
In October 1946 I returned to England and was demobilised from Barnard Castle in November 1946, collecting my new suit from York.
After leaving the army I gained employment with an Electrical Engineering Co.
I regularly attended B. Squadron reunions meeting many of the comrades who had been with the squadron from 1939 to 1945.
A position in a Mining Engineering Section brought me in contact with the Section Leader who I learned during conversation had attended the same college as Captain J Metcalf, B Squadron 2ndIC. Unfortunately the details of their college days had not been evident until after Capt. Metcalf鈥檚 death.