the crease on the inside ofthe trousers then press them. This was done the night before our guard duty. When we were ell dressed up in our best uniform with brasses polished and webbing blanco'ed, Boots dubbined anc teeth gleaming, We locked goad enough to guard Buckingham Palace. The first one to Inspect us was our platoon Sergeant. everything was ok then he marched us tothe guard house, It started to rain by the time the RSM came out we were eoked but down the crease, of the lads that used the sosp was alot of bubbles anc foam. For that file mistake they hed a week of guard duty. | was glad | was (and stil am) a ile on the scruffy side. My trousers were folded and laid between two pieces of cardbosrd and put under my mattress, which was the only way | pressed them | was given @ couple of 1cay passes (normally @ Saturday) inthis platoon. Not iong enough to come home on. But Mrs White, whe we INved with at Gosport, was now Iving in Greenford, near London. So up early in the morring, thumb Ff to London, then onto Sal Whites. It mace a nice change. But just for this one dey ‘out, I had to carry gas mask, tn at, ie, bayonet and fen rounds of mmo, ‘The course wert very well both driving and mortar work, | enjoyed it all | must admit, | did moan abit wen we went out on a long carry fot about ton mils, That mortar didn't half get heavy. Stil wes fi. The end of the course was taken up with driving exams and tess, on fring the mortar. Yours tly managed to pass them both, which meent thet when Left this barracks | would goto @ regiment as a mortar man tst class. Some of my mates passed, so they would be coming with me, (Our days at Le Cateau barracks were over, our packs and kit bags were packed. We had a weeks leave anc then would retum fo a new regiment. We wouldn't know where, unt we wore given our railway tickets ‘and draft sheets. This was what we were now waiting for. Hurry up that we can get off home. Into the berrack room came an NCO? Private Ftempton end Prvate Henry (one ofthe ater lacs) report tothe C.0. office, was his words tous. What aid It moan, what's i all about77? | soon found out (One of the platoons Sergeants hed been caught in town drunk, which meant he lost a couple of stipes ‘This resulted in the platoon requiring two extra Lance-Corporals. These were to be Henry and myself. Hennys jo® was to instruct on the morta. Mine was driving insbuctor on the cariars, | was Tike a cat with ten ted, The only thing was all my gear was packed and even though | wes now coming back to the same barracks, !had to cart all that stuff home end then beck agein, There was a sad side to allthis, it meant once more saying ‘goodbye fo some damn good mates. | was begining to realise the worth of a good friend, somebody to share your troubles and good times, it even went as far as sharing a letter from home, Money would be lent without {questions asked, even down to borrowing some bianco or dubbin. If you had a good mate in te army, then you could face anything. Stil | dct know at the time that was to mest up with some of them later on. 80, home | went and so did every other service man in England. The trains were so packed that when you put your hand in your pockets you had fo be very sure twas your pocket. As this was @ Sunday, meant 8ron my back, up that when | errved at Fareham ‘Sunday service forthe busesi so | had to hump all my g {Gudgeheath Lane. Whist onthe subject of trains, when one was coming on leave, the wheols tapped out tune very slow oF soit seemed ‘Im going home, fm going home’ But when one was going beck of leave it was very diferent, the wheels sil tapped out tune but ths time very very quik, im going back, 'm going back. Dad was stationed at Bitleme now, s0 there wes only mum to weleome me and of course Stole. “Things hada't changed much. Mr Miler was stl living in his cow shed. He stil had a few cows; the house next door to him was stil a wreck. Eddie Mids had moved out til after the war. She stil ives there now. There wasn't 4 great deal to do, to pass the time away | use to 90 for @ few miles running in the morning just to keep ft. | thought visit to Mr Frost wouldn't be out of place, so down | went. Yes she was stil working there, Popoy. Atter a lt of persuading she finaly said she would come to the pictures with me. | did’ think she would tum up thet ‘evening but she did | think we went to the plctures two or three tines that week. I remember she ahways made {un of my army grest cost. Mind you it did come down to my ankles. But army issue wassit to be altered or cut about. So that was how it stayed. | was later to be very grateful for that long heavy coal. I passed that weeks leave in various ways. One day | even raced the bus. | was waking up Park Lane one day when the local bus ‘Mikerds’ passed me at Prices School and | decided to race it to Highland Road, (so called because the potterias were thece at the tims) My journey was through the park, where the swimming poo! new i, on through [Mr Farrow farm land, through to Moss Bartlets farm to Highland Road. If, remember right, there were si stiles to get over, umpteen herds of cows and 2 few horses but being army fi, | beat that bus, ‘Down the town | would mest some of my old mates also on leave. We would swap yarns over a cup of tea in the cafe. It was here that | learnt that Dennis Woodford had been killed, whist serving inthe ‘Black ‘Watch’ that was indeed sad news. Another thing happened on this leave; Aunt Leahy had moved from our neuse and now lived in the lodge ofthe Bishop of Portemouth in Redland Lane, Jennifer was born this week: mum had to rie up ano down, CGudgeheath to see to her. Mum never did get any medals for Bice riding but she should have hac) one for bringing babies into this wort | took the tein fo Biterne one day to see dad as he couldn’ got home, He managed to get a couple of hours off swe had a pie and a pnt inthe local pub, We talked about old times, tes that were never io come, back. Then it wes time to say goodbye tl we met again. Farewols were always a sad time for the baker boy was now a full grown soldier What cn fe have in store for us| wondered? (One other litle incident heppenes on that leave. Jim Miler came round and asked if! would help him oliver 8 calf ax he had a bad! hand, |has never delivered a calf before, soit was cuits an experience, Other than the fact that the calves feet were doubled up all went wall, twas e fine bull calf. 0Wel, twas the end ef my leave, time to go back. Poppy said she would write to me, ime would te ‘Sunday moming, | remember was & nice sunny day, so once more all my gear had to be packed and slung on my back. | cid ike goodbyes, even the dog looked miserable. So Iwas pleased when twas all ver and | was ‘on my way down Gudgheath,|oved walking down there, | was 60 ft. The word for & change looked quite rosy “The train joumey back was uneventful, except for those wheels ‘im going back, tm going back. A word about these ‘rain journeys ftom Fareham to Waterloo, quits uneventful because it was in dayight ‘Then acrons London to Victoria Station via the tube. The tube stations were packed with people, whole femilas claiming a place to sleep, befor tho alr raids started, “There was aways @ wail before the train to Colenester deperted, so everybody made for the Salvation ‘Army canteen, for 2 cup of tea and a bun. This was about all one could get because everything was rationed, “There was every type of service man of every nationslty iM one of those places. When the train eventually artived (it could be a couple of hours late owing to an air raid). It was every man for hima, pushing shoving tuying to get seat or atleast « bt of space somewhere, What tip thal was, all the binds had to be pulled, |ust 9 dim ight and the smoke! | dich smoke then but i seemed to me that everybocy else dd and of course there was always a drunk or two, ‘Talking about the Salvation Army reminds me of one oftheir places in Colchester on Sunday nights; i was open for hymn singing, Now I drt know much about this hymn singing but what I did know was ster the singing was over we were treeted to free tea end sanduiches and cakes. This was well worth exercising ones tonsils for. Just a point of interest The date that | am writing now is une 6 1964, The 40th anniversary of D day. ‘This day as you all know is when the invation of France took place. A lot of mates I knew took part inthis do. ‘After arriving back in barracks | turned in, wondering what tomorrow woul bring forth, My first day as an N.C.O. | regretted taking this stripe tater on as | was parted from my mates. Some of them | met up with on the troop ship going to italy. My frst ob in the moming was to march the new intake down to breakfast Thet was afte | inspected their esting tons (knives, forks and spoons). This was done every meal time. It may seem ‘strange to you readers tha this was done but seme of the lads dd forget to wash them. If they were caught with ity eating icons, it meant @ fow nights of spud bashing. Another thankless task, the Lance Corporal was in ‘charge of the ‘bath Bock’. A soldier had to have at least one bath @ week and when he did he had to sign Fis, ramen the bath Nook. i @ mane name wast in the book every week, he was foriny scrubbed by thro or four room mates ans then put on @ charge, ‘Breakfast over and | had to report tothe platoon Sergeant in charge of transpor. Here I had to sign for my Bren carer, yes of course in triplicate, This ment checking every thing. Tow ropes, 2. Starting hand, +. Pick and shovel saw and tools. This 4ook at leest a couple of hours, finaly the carrer was mine and | drove ‘ever to our platoon garages, where | was to meet my new team of leamer divere, Only one had ever drivensomething before. But that had to be forgotion, every body had to lear the army way. When we progressed from the assault course, we took tothe highway. One lad | had demolished a fence and a clothes line. The old gal in the house wasn't very pleased about that one ofthe other sections had a very nasty accident ‘some how or other the diver tumed his carrier over sideways unable fo get clear. One of the crew got his legs trapped under he cari side. He lost both feet one of the commonest accidents was caused by replacing the tracks. Many 2 finger was lest this way. Towards the end ofthe course, we did what was known as ctching and Lncitching. The instructor would dive his carer into the woree muddlest ditch or pond he could find and really (tI stuck in. All the crew had to do then was get it cut Boy did they gat in a mess. Of course when they got bback to barracks the first job was to clean the thing unl was shinny bright. Then they could clean themselves. ‘Allgood fun, ‘Being an NCO meant extra duties, such as being a dispatch rider forthe barracks fre tation. At times. he had to be regimental postman and then there was Corporal ofthe guard. Being the D.R. forthe fie service ‘meant riding a mator bike, As I couldn't ride one | had to goon a dispatch riders course, This was a fortnight of fun and games as far as | was concernec. The bike | was given was 2 350 BSA the Sergeant in charge rode = Royal Enfield. | was to scon learn what the eference was. We di @ few turns around the square, to get the hhand of things end then out on the road. There were alo of bent muc guards and missing pint by the time we ‘came back. After a few dys we were introduced to cross county work. Those bikes had to do everything ber ‘swim. We now found out the cifference between the two types of motor bikes. The Sergeants gear box was four Inches higher of the ground than cur BSAs which meent he could travel over ruts and bumps with no bother Whereas us idiots would get stuck on a bump and sit there ike we were on rocking horses, This of course did't {90 down very well with our instructor and he tld us We did a couple of night rides but somehow somebody always got lost. Siln al most of us passed our test. | was quite miserable when was allover. The ether vehicle I hed to drive was @ small van. This was uses to collect the ma Being an NCO had its draw backs ae | found out one evening. | was walking back to camp with one cf ‘my mates when low and behold RSM dark and the Camp Adjutent appeared on the road coming towards us. ‘This wes allright, my het was on and tunic buttoned up, boots nicely dubbined. He coukint book me for ‘anything, How wrong can one be. As they walked by | gave my best salute and carried on walking anc then it ‘hundered. No, was the RSM "Corporal come here” I was turned and doubled up to him. | was postive he dnt ike me. Firstly, dict | know it wasn't alowed for # NCO to walk with a private? No sir, didn't | know that ‘my hat had tobe 1 inch above my ear, not resting on it? Yes sir Was that thy unfcrm I was wearing my best suit? Yes sr Did | have written permission to wear boats without galls? No si | know he was twice as big 2s ime but he ceriainly made me feel small Then out came the classic stoke, a¢ | didnt know @ lt about army rules and regulations, perhaps | knew something about potatoes. So | had a week confined to barracks in charge of spud peeling squat so on a charge of some sort or other. 2twas August, on a certain date (forget when) the whole Hempshire Regiment was formed up on the ‘square. Allin our best gear, each man was given paper rose which we had to wear in our caps, @ red rose ‘This was to commemorate a great battle fought in a place called Minden, many years ago. As the Hampshire ‘mea went into batte they picked white roses from the hedges and stuck them in their hats. But when the ghting ‘was over the white roses were red with blood, So to this day that parade in August is known as Minden Day. | emember once being in barracks one Saturday when word was received that our laundry was ready for collecting from the company stores, This was normally undertaken by two or four men being sont to cobec it “The bundles of laundry was putin a blanket and brought back tothe barrack room, On this occasion there wore ‘thee men in the room 80 | told al trae fo grab a blanket and get he launcry. There always has to be one. Yes cone chap wasn't going o get the 80 and go launery, He was going out. Well one thing led to ancther. He stil fefused my order so | put him on @ charge. So | dug out our platoon Sergeant to ask him, He wasn't very pleased because he was having forty winks and when I hac finished fing up all those chargo sheets | wish | had gone forthe laundry myset (On occasion our company Sergeant Major would take the whole company for dil perade on the barrack square. | am positive he could be heard from one end of Colchester to the other. There were the usual remarks from him he would stand behind @ man and roar in his ear hole, “Am | hurting you boy", no sir, wouls come the enswer, ‘well | should be, because | am standing on your bloody heir, gett cut". Another fevourte remark of his would be sddressed to somebody who was not standing properly at ease. ‘Dont be afraid fo open your legs soldier, you won't lose anything, you've got & tle bag to Keep them in. On the whale 1 ike army ie Even fit id have some funny rules and regulations, ke white washing heaps of coal, anything tht dint move ‘was white washed. One of the biages! swindles was pay parade. My pay was about 3 old shilings a day. When collecting your pay you smal salute the pay master and signed for your money, Buti would be less ‘barrack room damegee' a broken light bub, anything that was damaged, even when a broom was wor out We had to pay for it out of our very poor wages but we had to pay fortwo items, one forthe broken item and one forthe tom replacing “Then we would move along the table, Where somebody was seling ‘Nations! Saving Stompe’ whether you wanted fo oF not it was advisable toby @ couple. At the last table we were given # bar of very dark chocolate and @ smal round tn containing 50 cigarettes or pipe tobacco. It wes just your hard luck if you gota tn of backy and dint smoke @ pipe. It meant aaking around until you could do @ swap. As | did't smoxe at all my tin was ‘changed for chocolate “Talking about pay | was at his time drawing the vast amount of three old shitings @ day (167) not ata Ike today, one hundred and fity pounds piue @ week and then going on strike for more, As we were crewing this ‘vast amount of money we had tobe very careful what twas spent on. Of course when we went to town, we hac to look our smartest so there was such a thing as hard grease to buy. Bill cream was unobtainable, Vaseline‘was too sticky, so most of us settled for liquid paratin. It ict smell but it kept the hair in place (yes | hac hair In those deye) and if the army grub didnt’ agree with your stomach one could alvaye drink eome ofthe hair dressing, twas about now that two Lance Corporas left cur platoon. As | eaid before Lance-Comporals Evans ‘wansterred to the arbore Reg and Lane Corporal Wyatt went to become a glider plot. We had a farewell rink (on their lastnight anc said our goodbyes in the morning. | often wonder where they are now, or H they are, ‘around at all. Did they make itor not? Talking about transferring to other Regiments a circular came around the barracks one dey. Volunteers were required to join the Palestine Police: Iwas very tempted but decided agalnet 't because | had decised to sign on in the army as @ regular soir. |cften wonder what fe would have had in sore for me if! has joined. There were the usual Church Parades. It was no good being @ Jew, Musi or ‘even a sun worshipper you went just to make the numbers up, ‘Things were about to happen and we were scon te learn about. We crawled out of our beds as usual one morning and were fold that al parades that day were canceled. “Holo, helo’ we thought “whet is going ‘on?" After breakfast We found out We had fo move out of our rooms into another part of the barracks into ‘married quarters in fact. There were rows of Iie hcuses three stories high, Each quarters consisted of two ‘rooms a kitchen and @ bath room between four families. They were very old places indeed but to us they weren't too bad, Eight men to a room #1 remember rahly. The barracks we vaceted wsre taken over by men ofthe Ox-and-Bucks regiment ‘Things caried on as usual accept our quarters now over looked the A.T:S. dil round. Any man found taking a more than a glance at the women at dril were sent dowm to jin then and their dil sergeant was as ‘bad as ours. During one daylight raid a German plane was hit and the crew bailed out. We were called out to look for them. They were finally found and brought in but most of cur ads took all day to get back to barracks. | ‘i not find any Germans in the Cafe was int ‘The nest surprise fr us was one day boing fold no more driving instructions. Al the carrors were tobe taken to the reiway station and loaded onto trucks, plus all he Lorties. Some ofthe cartiors were driven to the sation others were put anto the back of tank carrying Vehicles called ‘Diamond T's, They were huge lores, four men could stn the driving cab side by side. One man sat on the right hand side ofthe ever he cid all the hhand signals. ‘Who want to dre one of these?! asked our sergeent No one volunteered but that was soon settied: You, you and you' was the result ofthat question. |had a diamond T to dive, It was a great pity the lamp posts weren't made of rubber. Betwsen the barracks and the station there Weren't many left stancing, It was a good job they weren't being used nigh times. We wore told when going round comer to count te four when level with the comer thon start turning. These lorries were not equipped Powith power stewing by the way so the pavernent s became part of he road. Gimey what a shower of drivers we fumed out o be. One of us drove our lorries right ovar a small van. Luckly the diver was notin atthe time, “There was alot of weight on those Diamond T's. | am sure he people of Colchester sighed with reef when at lest we were finished but question we wanted the enewer to was what was going to happen to us. What good was # mortar men ot carrer drivar without his cartier? We were scon to find out | til received letters from Mum had the very edd one from Bul. I didnt know where he was, Dad hac been moved from Bittern. His station was now in London again. We receWved our marching orders a few days later, Our destination was Northampton, What the hell woulé we do there? We wondered. The fst thing that affected me was that no longer would be @ Lance Corporal. You automatically lost the stripe on being posted | was once more one of the lads, The powers above made big thing of the Hampshire's leaving Colchester 'Al our best gear on with full marching order. We were to March from out barracks to the raiway station. The town's people got to hear of us leaving and they tumed out to give us a right royal send off. A lot of our instructors were living in Colchester with their femiies so they were not very pleased about the move. Me, | Was, locking forward te our move. | alvays wanted to Know what was over the hil. We arrived at Northampton but nobody seemed to want us. ‘Some of us finshed up in part of an ATS camp. Me Included. They were much posher than are old ‘quarters except the lack of oles ATS troop don't use troughs in ther tiles stil we managed some how. There ‘were a ot of hedges around. ‘We were in this place for enly about a week. We werent wanted there. Itwas @ right cock up. Now ‘orders were received. Get reedy to move. So ance we packed our gear and mustered atthe ralway station Were to now? W artived at out new quarters inthe hours of darkness and pouring with rain. Blimey what = dump. wes on od unused cotton milin Blackburn ‘Duckworth Mill was our new address. You daren't put any clothing er blenksts on the floor or they would be covered in black grease. No hot water was available. Our week bath was taken was taken in the ‘owns public bathe. It was bitery cold place wih no means of heating and when one's clothos got wet they ‘were put on again wet. it was rally was a dark damp dismal place. The other troops there were the ‘Royal West Kents’ ‘We setied in the next day. The day afler we were tld exactly what we were there for. This wes the Jest posting we would heve before going ovorsaes, The instructors at Duckworth were really rough. We were ail young leds at wth big ideas and very ft. Althis nonsense was very soon tobe knocked out of us. I was sil ina mortar pialoon. Also in the camp was an antitank squad equipped wih 6 pounder ant-tenk gun. I mention this because at onetime the ant-tank squad were man hanciing the gun across an assault course, They were 3swesting bleed, siding and falling in the mud. To keep the gun balanced one man had toride on the end ofthe parrol, Well, thie particular chap came a cropper and fel face frat inthe biggest and mudiest pond on the course, To us onlookers this was very funny and we gave vent to 2 huge roar of laughter. Now laughing at ancther man’s cownfal didn? go down very well with our officer. ‘So you think # i funny do you"? I give you ‘something you can really laugh’ at says he. His next order had us @ ite worried. Drive carver onthe assault course, this wes done, His next order had us even more worried, ‘now take the tracks ofthe bloody thing’. No sooner said than done. Then came the ombhel "Right you comedians’ says he you wil crag that carier over the same course as the ant tank crew It took us about five hours to do that litle job, we realy were knackered but ell wasn't friched yet. ‘Right, pu tho tracks on his was done withthe machine standing in about afoot of simy mu: surely this was the end of the joke. How wrong can one be? ‘Right, get it back fo & hose pipe end weeh it. | wasn’ to see It shine’. By now R was pitch dark, we were wel, tired, fithy diy infect neary dead. Stit We finished the job and welted for him to inspect our work, him by the way was having his supper. Eventually he came and cartiad out his inspection. It will do says he. Thank god, | thought, now for a wash and some grub ‘Just one more thing before you go, We will now have five minutes laughing exercise and laugh we did. But believe me we never did laugh at anybody else's downfall again. Boy did we hate that officer. Most of our officers were straight out of training college. I thnk they were picked for ther fess; anyway lets get back to the beginning. “The fist thing we learnt was that we didnt know a thing. So we started traning all ovar again. Most of ‘our training was done on the moors. We marched or ran everywhere, no transport supplied at this place. Thity miles a day eventually meant nothing tous. The moors were very cold and wet, very soft too. f you happened to tread on 2 soft spat you would soon be up to your Waist, carying so much weight 38 we were this often happened. Heaven help any man who cropped his rf or his part of mortar in the mud. | remember one day we had to put on a demonstration shoot for some top people. We were using three mortars. These were placed round the base of large hil all the spectators were on the top. We had to fire over their heads into the valley beyond, We got there brght and early in the moming and setup. It was vary cold and very hard. About a couple of hours iter all the brass hats arrive, olmey you should have seen them, all cessed up in their best, great conte, gloves, scarves, some were wearing wolles. And all of them carrying shooting sticks to park their behinds on. No we didn't laugh at them, not aloud enyway, As I ssid boforo, the base plate is placed on the ‘round with the spikes underneath them, the bare placed on top of i The principal being when the fst bomb was thrown down the barrel and exploded the force crove the base plate into the ground and then it was firm ‘and steady. Well today things didn't go quite ike that. As | said there hed been @ very hard frost and ali the estore got sated on thelr shooting sticks atthe top of the hill and the signal was given to stat the shoot. We were no 2 gun. No.1 fired, then our loader dropped a bomb down the Barrel and calamity. Instead of the base plate cettng in the ground, sid along on top. Because ofthe frost, the bomb exploded and went on its way. But because the base moved beckwards I lowered the angle of the barel and instead cf the bomb clearing the spectators heads by a couple of hundred fet, | think it gave them a haircut 36\When we looked up at them, boy what sight, al the shooting sticks were stuck up i the air ike @ lot of cricket stumas and al the spectators hing in heaps on the city wet ground. Now that was very nearly worth laughing at. The bom landed wel away from them and nobody was hurt. Butt was worrying for a whie. | Det that was the nearest some of those gents got to hearing a shot fired in anger. Oh course there was a hell of stink about and of course we got the blame, which meant we had todo extra mortar di. Even after al these years, | can stil emember the frst command wnen setting up the mortar. The NCO in charge would plonk his foot onthe ground and yell heel mark, base plate position, siming mark postin ron, Ccharge 2 range 1,200 yards ‘action’. Then, we moved. “Duckworth was situated smack bang on the pavernent, no fence around it, nothing. So wren one was, fon guard duty you could pass the hours of darkness away by saying how do’ to the passers by. Many isthe time I've had @ handful of chips or a piece of block pudding whist standing guard. About five o'clock in the morning we were ewekened by the sound of clogs on the cobbled streets as most of the workers wore them SO we were adveye awake when the bugle sounded. Talking about night ime we had a chap in our room, he dn ‘seem to fit in withthe rest of us, as he was much older, by et least ten years. Anyway first night he arved he ‘was eaen to knee! onthe dy floor and slump on his bunk. We thought he had been taken ill or something, $0 8 couple ofthe lads left ther card scheol and went to see what was the mater with him. They got no enswer when they spoke to him. Gosh this is serious we thought and quite a group was gathered around him. After a wile he ‘stood up, good he wasn't dees, it tums out he was only saying his prayers. Before being called up he hed been «2 Sunday school teacher. He was a very decent chap but couldnt stand the pace, it wasnt fong before he was moved out and posted some other place “Things must have baen going rather bedly for us on the frontline because any body in 8 non-infentry unit that was in A‘ heath was being drafted ino an infantry mob and jt of them came to cur place, Not @ lt ‘of them made the grade as It wae realy hard at this place, | have seen men crying wit fetigue. Others wih ‘mote bisiers than feet and qute a few eared back to camp. toll you, these young officers of ours had no pity for anybody or arty thing. The only thing they understood was march or run. Stil we were very glad of this traning later on. Anyway We had @ now batch of blokes tum up one day and of course we gave them the once cover in case we knew anybody. | know that face, | said looking at one chap. Good ore, it was my old Sunday ‘schoat teacher, a Mr Mls, now he wat geting on @ bt. When | got him alone he said he had been a cerk inthe ‘artlery and his name wes Ted. He wasn't very happy about the situsion, | dot think | wil make it he said. The ‘poor chap did, he broke his leg one day whist out training, | vsted him in hospital once and he seemed quite happy about i. No more marching for him, One litle incident | witnessed was while we were going over the ‘assault course for the umpteenth tie. By the way they didnt muck about at this place: the mstructors fred live ‘ammunition a fev inehes from us. Poor beggars. | dont tink they Iked us. Anyway back to my story. One ofthe cbstacies on the course wes climbing over @ wal, The usual procedure was to hald your rife inthe air and get s7‘over. The tad di it the lazy way. Propped his ile and beyonet against the wall end cimbed over and then sipped. Yes he sat on his bayonet. It went inane side of his body and out the other. Qur bayonets were 16° tong, boy did he holler. There was plenty of blood and a fair old gash, but nothing serious, After @ couple of ‘weeks he wes baok with us, 26 usual none ofthe instructors had any sympathy fr him. |A word about Blackbum and the people, they were very very generous. | cannot sey too much in their favour. It was quite a common thing to be standing in line outside the cinema waiting to go Inside and some passer by would push hatf @ crown In your hand, and with 2 cheerful have a good time” was gone before you ‘could say thenk you, Inthe pubs ene did't ge to the har ans order your drink. No you sat at a tabie and somebody would teke the order. My drinking partners were, Arthur Fosket whom had joined us here anc @ chap Bill Bell known lo us as Ding Dang 0° Dinger. Now Dinger very easly got drunk which meant geting him back to cur ‘ump’ without the guards seeing him. We got real good at this, he was never caught. | remember one night be was 0 drunk that we put him to bed end one of the lads put a Bren gun in bed with him and he slept with it allright. was a nomibie trip at night one wanted to go to the latrines (lavatory), as they were situated outside inthe yard, Not very nice on a winters night. So Dinger used his boots. i was good forthe boots he said, and provided he did't fil one above the lace holes, it wes alright. On some occasions he had to use two. Anywa Jot’s get back to the pub. We would order our beer; the stuff we drank was called Oid Ben (I wonder itis stil sold today). That pint would hardly be drunk end up would come the waiter with three more, *Not ours mate" we would say, ‘We haven't ordered any’ “These are for you from somebody inthe room’, would come the reply. But | would never say no. Se we Would just raise our glasses to everybody. | wil ell you about the Christmas I spend at Duckworth “The day before Christmas day | was on cook house cuty peeling thousands of spuds and Brussels sprouts. Scrubbing floors and washing up dozens of diy pots and pans ready for the great day. My day finishes, | got my denim jacket ofthe door and headed forthe grub room, Tea over, a quick wash, on with my best bate dress and out fora dink withthe lads, We were going to @ service club called Toc. H. Must not forget my wallet. twas in my denim jacket: How wrong can one be? It wasn't there, Some swine had pinched it while | \was inthe cook house. What a Christmas it was going 1 be, no blooming money. | ad four pounds saved up in that wallet which was a lol of money in these days. | parted the theft fo tne Orderly Officer. But very file could be done about It. He did give me halla -crown though and wished me a happy Christmas. Also, wes to find ot the meaning of the word mate. With half an nour hed been given in small change money to the value of about two pounds. That woul see me over Christmas. The amazing thing about these donations was that | was tiven money by blokes from other pletoone, known only by name to me, But the word had gotten aroun het | had been robbed and needed help. So help! got, a great py it wasn't 20 of today. ‘Anyway, off we went tothe Toe. H. Forget all the problems we were going to enjoy ourselves. Wve were rather surprised on arriving as there was hardly any body inside. It turned out, esly on in the evening = greet Eymany cf the local people had come t the club offering to share there Christmas with anybody who would Ske to {900 thelr houses. This wasn't my day, | was missing out on everything, all through a stolen wallet We weren't feeling very happy end not taking much notice of what was going en when somebody put their hand on my shoulcer *Biimay’ I thought "Miltary police” “They were about he only people | knew who put hands on shoulders. But! was wrong, was an elderly chap in Civilian clothes, would we bke te join his family fora Christmas day party? Would we. We had to have Christmas dinner at barracks so arranged to be mel outside afterwards because we dint know where the house was. Christmas moming consisted of Church Parade fist then back in time for dinner. In the army on Giristmes Day the troops were waited on by the officers of their regiment curing the cinner, serving up the grub end pouring out the beer. Quite a few ibeties were taken with them during the meal but most of them were well on the way to being drunk, so they didn't take much notice ofthe remarks, But we were all very sober and well behaved, whist the Colonel tossted the King. After the meal was finished the offeers really went wild, Trousers were stuffed with custard pudding, in fect anything they could grab hold of. Most ofthe younger ones were debegged. Beer poured over them. Us ordinary troops took no part inthis, except verbally, this was for Officers only. God what @ mess they were in when the Colonel called time. Anyway dinner over, we got ready to go visng, on went our best bate dress, boots were cleaned, (We weren't allowed to weer shows but could go without those sily ite gltere, washed. shaved and of course on went plenty of iquid paraffin. The only item of eoiour we were allowed to wear was our regimental dress hat. The ‘Hampshice's! was blue and yellow, so these were taken out of newspaper covers, set jaunty over our ear holes and were ready. Oulside the main door we looked for our ‘ude. We could see him anywhere but we neechrt have worried, he wasn't there but three young ladies were instead. Alter geting acquainted we set off, We woren't gong straight tothe house. The rest ofthe famiy were waking in a pub for us. Pints of beer were plied to us es soon as we entered, they were a jlly nice femiy anc couldnt they ink. | think everybody was there, mum, dad, gran's gran, about two dozen el told Finally we lft the pub and home we went, it was just @ normal terrace house. People were silting everywhere end anywhere. | remember the loo was down the garden, this wes kept very busy but you couldn't stay there too long or else ‘somebody was banging on the door saying “Hurry Un". “These folks realy were friendly; wo felt pat cf the family. | learnt later that ‘Dinger became one of the family because he maried one of the daughters. A lot more beer was crunk that afternoon, 8 ft of singing ‘around the piano, played by the mother, We were al full with drink and food and most of all he Chvistmas spr. “Then the father said ‘Right ch lads lets sit down to dinner Blimey | was busting at the seems aleady. Aryway the table was laid and father seid right mother, bring in the pie, pie 1 have never seen anything so big in allmy ie. twas all the mather could do to cary tin twas as big 2s a dust bin id I remember the very words Dinger said when he saw it ‘Bloody hel, what's that. It was & couple of hours before we polished of that pie but we dd. | have often thought sbout that dinner those kind fk must have saved there food coupons for months to give us the spread we had that day. It was really a Christmas to remember. | am only sory that thelr names are now long forgotten. We cid run out of beer inthe 59evening, welch meant ancther trip to the pub. The evening end night and early hours of the moming were gone ut wasn'ta case of walking back to camp on our own; the whole lot of them came back with us to see thet we got back safe and sound. Good nights ware said and we crawied inlo our bunks. Bil Bell came to bed about tan hour afer us. His romance was blossoming. Christmas over, we got down to some serious training again, for a fow days anyway, because New ‘Year's Eve was with us. There was 2 big do at the Toc-H (club) that night. Once more out came our best gear fon with a bit more paraffin and we were ready. We had a rght old time there, Troops ofall Nationalities. ATS, Wrens, Waifs and civilans all were there, Afterall who was to know, this may be the last New Year some of us ‘would see, What e sobering thought, but oh so very true, During the dancing the band were to have a break but 0 the festivities would carry en it was arranged that some of us guests would do a tum on the stage. Where ‘ware the volunteers, 80 many people wanted to be in the show that we (yes | was one of them) had to have a test to see if we were fm star material, Now What co yeu think | had to do for my test | had to get on the stage with about @ dozen other biokes and in front of everybody imitate @ donkey. The best imitation got @ part inthe Play. Now | had been istsning to danksys holerng forthe best part of my young lf so this test was a pioce of cake. | got the job. | forget what the play wes about but it passed an hour away tl the band came back. Once more we staggered back to camp inthe early hours of the morning. Boy we were going 1o pay dealy for these lote hours and high living. Bright and eary nest morning came the call ‘ut of bed’ bleary eyed, belly’ stil bloated with gruo we crawled out but that wasnt fast enough for the NCOs so they helped us along by tipping ‘ur bunks over and kicking our gear allover the place. | am sure they dnt have any father’s! We were given & few minutes to clean our room up, wash and shave and get down to breakfast. They were in a very nasty cod this morning so we guessed something was in the wind. Lt me just add thatthe westher was very cold, Snow \was coming down thick end fest on this January morning. After breakfast porridge golf nals’ we were tole, “Go {90t you gear on and cutside in ten minutes" ‘The officers then atrived. They were wearing packs and canying Tommy guns, the favourite weapons of officers, dressed in scruty denim Jackets and trousers. They lookes Ike they meant business. As the weather was so bad it was decided by somebody who would be nice and warm and dry thet we shoul move out to the ‘moors on @ survvel course, for the week. It was cold and we. During the day we moved about which enables ‘some blood fe circulate but having fallen in & snow cf one got wat and remained wet, Night me was a swine when not on guard duty we tried fo sleep in two man tents, We couldn't drive eny pegs in the ground as the ‘snow was too deep s0 we were tld to hold the tont dow with stones. We couldn find ary stones es they were buried also. The warmest and driest piece of equipment we had was our gas capes. These were very large waterproof capes that went overall your packs and reached tothe ground. Their primary use was to protect you I mustard ges was ever used. So we would wrap ourselves in these end layin @crcle of snow, which we frst ‘scraped ito position. Four or fie blokes together and you generated litle heat. To be far on our kaon offcars they were inthe same boat. What we did have o romembor was that everybody's weapon was also wrapped up With him. It dint matter how wet we got or how wet and soggy the grub got, that weapon had to stay ory and Clean, Another place of equipment we were issued with was a Tommy cooker. This was @ emall metal object 0bout the size of a small gas ring. standing sbout four inches high. A tablet of soled methoiated spirts wes inserted in te bottom and a mess tn wae stood on top. The fuel would last just long enough to make a brew of tea. After lt of disasters we found out how to use the thing, It was no good standing it on the snow because the heat melted it end the whole thing fell over and that meant no tea. We had to stand it on a stone, @ large ‘one, which took some finding in a that snow. But ike all solders, dasperate for @ cup of ‘char we managed. | often wondered i the bofin who invented the cooker ever tried it out in some other place then on his kitchen tae. Our food was brought ta us every evening In so called hot containers. This was aur only hot mesl, The remainder of the day we had biscuits bread and cheese and stuf Ike it. One or two chaps couldnt stanc the pace and had to be taken book to barracks. But | am afraid the offeers had na pity or mercy for them. The chaps concemed ended up witha let more duties than were usual. | sl think these officers were hand nicked {er the job. The week finally came to an end and we marched beck to barracks, the frst tring we had todo was, to have foot inspection by the MO. Then a bath, rub and bed in tha order. The weather was stil very bad but |t wes duties as usual. The snow tumae to rain and then we had a real hum dinger of = job qven to us, by us 1 ‘mean our platoon When we have had mortar shootin the past there was always the odd bomb cr two that didnt explode, These had to be found and blown up, 28 sheep and catle roamed over the moors end it wouldnt do for one of them to read on an UXB. This then was our job, tramping over those windswept moors looking for unexploded bombs. When one was found a marker post would be put up by it then the demotion squad would biow it up. There was the odd farmhouse hear and there and we were always welcome to have a cup of toa and ‘bacon sandwich, they always had a carcass ofa pig or sheep hanging inthe kitchen. ‘A.couple of weeks after, it must have been in February, came some news that didnt really come 3 2 surprise. Afterall this was what Duckworth Mill was all about. We were going on embarkation leave, During my soldering days | had often wondered what | would feel cr what | would think when 1 reesived tis news. It was the fist step towards me having to kil somebody er somebody doing their best to kill me. Not @ very pleasant thought ether way. But dont let us get morbid, a few more weeks at being a human being before becoming ‘something much, much lower. We had one more surprise before going on leave, Al platoons finishing thet training here had a three ay skirmish in which 100 miles had to be covered in that ime. Once more it was out othe moors. It wasn’ just 4 case of walking those miles. We hed an enemy to fight these were supplied by anather regiment. The mortar had to be set up end taken down umpteen times @ day. The same procedure was carted cut both night and day, Anyway we did It. We could almost say we were soldiers, The fst hing we cid on aval at beracks wes to have our fest inspected by the MO. It is said an army marches on its stomach, don't believe i, the infantry marches on its plates of meat. Anyone with bad feet couldnt go on leave. So of course everybody was AV. In the morning kts were packed and putin the store. We would be coming back to Duckworth ust ane more time 6for ene more reascn. Dressed in our best and feeling happier than we had felt for weeks, we collected our ‘money and travel warrants and said our cheario's. Look out home, here | we come; for fourteen days leave. I was dark whon | artved at Fareham station, One more Ite task to do bafore walking home though ‘All roope leaving 2 ratway station had to show ther travel warrant to the regimental police just to make sure ‘one was traveling legally. Dac wasnt home when | arrived, Stoller was pleased to see me. We were to have @ goed many walks up the wood before | went back There wasn't meny of my old mates around 80 most of the ‘ay time was spent taking i easy at home. Evenings were a cifferent mater as | was now geting vey friendly With Poppy and as Fareham had quite 2 few pubs and the cinema was open to @ esleck we foun plenty todo. Poppy's’ ded came cut for @ drink with us @ couple of times. Boy could that man drink. He wes quite good ‘company though. | made a few trips to the bake house to see old Frank. Butt didn't seem the same down there 0 I didnt stay long, Dad came home for a few days leave so that made @ nice change. | remember we got the ‘old motorbike and sidecar out. Once more old clever Dick opened his big mouth “Loan ride 2 motorbike now dad, ets have 2.90” So dad sat in the sdecar and off we went down Highlands Road. As we approached Hilsan Drive | decide! to ‘um but the blasted bike wouldn't tun and | finished up in the hedge with the bike and Dad. The bike wasn't damaged but it id have a few scratches, | el very sorry for Dad as he thought the world ofthat bike. Than he broceeded 10 tell me how to ride 8 motorbike and sidecar | felt quite small when he finished, Turn into the comer; dont ean ito it he sais (One waited & long time to go on leave and when the leave came it went so quick. | did't have many days lef, then it would be goodyes once again. | hated those goodbyes. This me it was to be twice as bad because Ded had to go back a couple of days before | did. The night before he left we hac a dink at The: Highiande’ and he said to me what hundrecs of other fathers said to their sons, take care, write home and lt us know how you are, Keep your head down. He knew wnat he was taking about having served inthe last war. The next day came and off he went and as we sald goosbye there was that thought in my head and in his 26 wel. | ‘Pink. "| wonder if we will meet agsin?’ The good Lord was good to me, we dl. The next goodbye was with PPopy. By now | knew shve was the gi for me, this was another sad parting, but tme waits for nobody and | had {0 go. | was up very early next cay, ally gear packed: hours before | was due to catch my tran. I couldn't stay Indoors 80 | took Strole for a walk up Fareham Park Roa to the woods, It wae cold but nice end quiet. The woods are no longer there now. But they are stil In my memory and sa are my thoughts on that cold winter morning. Then ft wes back heme end # very sad goodbye fo Mum and then off | went waking down [Gudgeheath lane to the station. Now | am old and have children of my own | realize how Mum and Dad must hhave felt that morning many years ago. it was all ight for me no ene to worry about except mysel, going on 2 (reat adventure. But forthe foks back home, alot of worry, no knowing what's going on. For Mum, wth Dad ‘evay, Bil somewhere and now me going somewhere, sho realy must have suffer, a| was going from @ place | grew up in, to what? | did't know the answer to that question then. But ike & Jott other chaps | would soon find cut. The journey back was uneventful, wiven atving back to Duckworth my ‘old room was taken ever by @ new intake, 80 ll my of platoon had fo make de with another one. Like all new intakes there were the usual questions, what is Ike here? What are the officers lke? Us old hands told them what they wanted to knew, we couldn ple on the agony because as we sald they would gt all the agony they ‘could cope with very shorty. Anyway that was thelr worry, mine was ust stating. Inthe moming we were called ‘on parade to be glen our embarkation code numbers. These numbers would tell us on what bate front we ‘would be sent to. The one moet dreaded was Burma’. | forget the code number. The other two numbers were {or taly'and the 278t army. Thi was boing formed forthe invasion of Europe. So on this cold winter morning we: stood there holding our breath end crossing our fingers. ‘Lord be good to me’ it sounds sily now considering that where ever we went it wasn't going fo be very nice. Somebody was going to do thers best to kill us. | think ‘the worst pat oft was the thought that you would be separated from your mates. We had trained together and lived together for so long that by now we could trust esch other to look afte the man standing next to him. We didn't have long to wait. The names were called with the appropriate number and then it came ‘Frampton [RXBNY! the code for Italy. But the worst had happened: two of my best matos went elsewhere, dari. “The next fow daye were spent collecting new ki, In my case it was tropical kit. | was given @ couple of pairs of KD shorts for @ start. Shorts you would have to see to beleve. They reached almost to my ankles, as cour army socks weren't very long, we were given a pair of scck tops. These were socks minus the foot. They were pulled on over the ordinary socks and up the leg. When the boots were on we then had to wear those bloody awful gators, My legs were about four inches thick and the gators were rade for elephant’ legs. When ‘one was on the march of running, those gators flew up and down one leg lke @ horse collar on @ puppy. Gawd, hat a sight we looked, I's a wonder Jerry dnt ce laughing. We realy were like character from that show ‘it int’ half hot mum’. Alter drawing our kit it was then fim to vst the MO for about two dozen injections. Our ‘ame were ike pin cushions, Nex! on the list was a litle lecture about all the diseases that one can get from & lavatory seat, We were al ght: there wasnt any lavs where we were going. Justa hole in the ground, Then just to fnish of, a couple of jlly days we had to make our wils, To whom it may concem.. These last few days hac made me realise now lucky | was to be single. Nobody to worry about, just No.1. Net lke the married chaps. ‘They would st on their Bunks waiting their letters and looking at family photos. War realy was 2 teribe thing 10 them, Ones mare we got the order, pack your ki, we are moving out. And ence more ceme the goodoyes ‘amongst us, | lft some good mates behind again. ‘We didn't have far to go on the train, just to Liverpool. We arrved in the night, gosh it was dar. | worried Iwas going to fallin the water, There were dozens of boats ted up, but somebody was there to show us hich were ours. twas @ Dutch boat about as long as it was broad, or soit seemed. Anyway | was to rd out how good a boat it wale later on, we Were shown fo oUr mess deck, lak about cramped quarters, We had to sleep in hammocks, 80 we were shown how to tle them up. We had to sleep so no two men were facing each ather. Heed 1 toe, twas called. Wel we were 20 fight for space that some ofthe lads hed to sleop on the mess tables and some undemeath on the lor. The conditions on board were just ike these on the old Vitor, Iwas unbearably hot and sufly down there. And wat wit he snoring and farting, plus al those sweaty feet one was fd uton morning came around, | qute expected that we woul be saing out in the morning but was © be. The nest couple of days was taken up withthe boat being loaded with stores and on dack was stored the lowies and tanks. The olf ship had only one gun, it was a six inch callore mounted up on the front. This was manned by men of the Royal Artilery who were part ofthe ships crew. There were a great many smaller uns ‘on deck and these were manned by troops, so whist we were sil in deck we receved instruction on them. “The unexpected happened on the two nights we were in dock, there were huncreds of women working there and after they fished work about thy of thers would gather by the troop ship, ours wasnt the only one, and sing to us, Tha was 8 most touching scene and believe me there weren't many dry eyes onthe boats, snd ' good many throats wit lumps in them, They aivays finished up with that very popular song (in those days) ‘wish me luck a8 you Wave me goodbye’. Just imegine If you can a dark, dirty dockyard and the voices of hundreds of women singing to thousands of home sick troops. I is something | shall never forget. Nothing ‘seemed too much trouble for people in those tes. We woke up on the second moming to hear the ships engine running and, next, the meoring ropes were cest off. We were on our way at last - oF were we? No we were not. About a dozen boats moved out that rmoming but ate a few hours we were aurprised fo hear the anchor chains rattling end cur boat stopped in the Irian Channel. We were fol that the boats would be waling here for a couple of days whilst more ships arved to make up the convoys, hen our escort vessels, Well folks, | was not the best of salrs whist the Bost was moving, but to be ted up for two days inthe lish Sea was ternble. Just imagine hundreds of blokes on a small tub Eke ours and ninety per cent of us being as sick as pigs, with about @ dozen lavatories between us. Blimey, ‘what a mess everything was in. There was 2 litle incident whilst we were there, some ofthe chaps (here was & lot of Americans on board 8s well for @ laugh and to refeve the borecem wrote their names and tle messages ‘on paper, They then stuck them in empty bates and chucked them overboard, hoping they woud Be picked Up ‘on some beach somewhere. Any way the boal police caught them at it nd they were straight up before the shipe Captain, accused of giving information to the enemy. Hf thase bottles were picked up by enemy ships the message could give them a lot of information. He well an trly tld them what he thought of them, ‘Another ite losson to be learnt was to do with washing, | leat to get up very early inthe moming to have my wash and sheve because oniy so much fresh water was allacated fo each mess in the morning. After that wae gone, salt water came out ofthe tape If you washed too often int your face became very sore, Phis a few cuts where one's razor had to work overtime. Anothor duly we had to perform was ife boat dil. When the ‘alarm bell was rung we all ed to put on if jackets and muster ata given place on deck. As we were a fro0p ship tere weren't enough ifeboats to go around, So tied to the handrails all around the ship were very large ope nets, called sorambiing nets. Nearby tothe nets were @ number of large wooden fats. The nets by the way 6\were rolled up and festoned tothe rail wth cord. The fist time we had @ cit t went as follows: atthe order aeerdon ship, we assembled at our alen position on deck, where a ship's officer met us. Two men were etaled 10 cut the cords holding the net. A given number of biokes had to pick up the rafts and throw them ‘overboard, having first tied the long fine attached to them fo the handrel, We didn't want them floating way bofore we got fo them did we? All this the Officer explained tous, then tothe man who were to cut away the net He said “show me your knives” (this Aer wes fseued to us with our ki). Would you Believe it, nether of them hed one. That was @ chargeable offence, straight away. “Now we willhave 2 go et throwing the rafts overboard” says he, Three were thrown over. One floated away because some fol forget to tet to the ship. was @ good job this was only dil or we would have all been drowned. The offer wasn't too upset he just seid that before Wwe reached Italy we would be abe todo the job biindfolded and with our hands ted behind our backs, After four risa day for a woek we ci. | woke up onthe second day to 8a lot more shins anchored around us and they continued arving a doy, Dozens of them, all shapes and sizes, then last of ell tne escort ships. That night the engines wore started and we were on ous way. Well John boy this is really t. No way of turing back now. There was ane incident that | thought was funny (\ahvays dic have a funny senee of humour). AS we were going to a hot county we had to take ‘napaquin’tabets to prevent malala, The dose at first was half tabet a day, We always had these t2bets tt inner time and & meant that a whole tablet was broken in half This chore was carried out by our own deck OOficer. He would come atthe same time everyday (just as we were about fo eat our grub) and stand in exactly the same piace every ime at the head of our mess table. | expect you are wondering what the neck this is all pout (hang on | am geting to t). There were about forty blokes atthe table, anyway It was noticed that one particular chap never ato his diner. When he was esked why he said that bloody ofcer always broke the {abies over his diner plate and the dus rom them fll on his grub and, as napaquin fs very biter his food wasn't ‘edible and sooner then sey anything, he went wthout his meal. But somebody must havo eakd someting boceuse the Officer changed his positon atthe table. ‘Boredom and 898 sickness wes the worst enemy on board, We had about half an hours PT a day and @ lecture or two, other than that we had to amuse ourselves as best we could. There were the usual card schools ‘and crown and anchor games but these were mainly taken over by the men with money, the Yanks, My wages, by the way, were the vast amount of te shilirgs and nine pence (about 19p) a day, which wouldn't go far int card school ‘Alot of loters were written in these quiet moments and it was surprising how many chaps thought they could sing, especialy on deck in the evenings. There was quite a Bit of excitement cne day when we passed real cose to a herd of whales, Itwas the frst and only te | have seen ene. They swam with us fr quite a ime ‘nd then they just slippes under the waves and were gone, 6s| would look atthe ether ships in the convoy and wonder what the flags meant, that were always on the ‘move up and down the masts. Signal lamps were centinuously lashing thelr secrets to one another end al the time the destroyers were nipping in and out the convoy. | could almost hear them telling @ ship to "move up don't lag behind, keep inline, hold your postion’, then to another one, “don't stray too far away or you willbe sunk”. ‘Those Iitle Navy ships were lke an old mother hen wth ner chicks, always onthe look cut forthe fox, but inthis ‘case the fox was a submarine, Whilst on the subject of submarines, when one was thought to be in the vicinity ‘ef the convoy or in our case ce was seen, 2 Claxon was sounded and everytody had to go below to thelr ‘espected mess room. Once there al doors were lacked and armed guards posted on all saiways. We would ‘ther listening to the depth charges going off and imagining al sorts of things. Would we get torpedoed? and It so what would we do? At times we were very near to pani stations, was a very tering time. It got very hot down Inthe mess room, as air got rather short There was no way out of & beleve me. What withthe locked doors and armed guards we were glad to hear the al clear signal sound. Then itwas up on deck again for some ‘of us, quite a few had to stay behind and clea up the mess they left behind, being closed up in the bowls of the ship a lot of the chaps were very sick AS we moved nearer our destination the weather gat very much warmer and sleeping became quite @ problem. So some of us decided that despite the hard deck we would sooner sleep up top, then in the swaltering heat down below. That first night was lovely, rice and cool with lot of fresh sir but somebody forgot to tell us that about six clock inthe morning the ships crew cleaned the decks ‘down wih a high pressure hose. But it was stil worth it ang we soon leamed when the hose was coming, To help pass the ime awey, some bright person decd we would have boxing matches. Soaring was ‘setup ona hatch coverup on deck. The PT Instructors were in charge an they has very funny way of picking the contestants. The fst blokes they saw was a bore, it drt matter he was big or srl, private or Ofer Wiis ne fots were acing on there were plenty of pectators. But when it fished, everbody ied o got away 1s quick as possible incase they were picked for he next fight But here was no escape, the PT's saw otha Cf course there werent any prizes, suchas free grub or fogs, jut the gory of boxing fr Englané, so we were told. Darnn that for joke, though | but could never keep out of trouble nora | hs time. My opponent was @ Captain from the Buff Reg, 60 I thought. seeing as I was in the ring and it was all legal, now wa the time to hit an Officer. Iwas a deft bugger to think I could get away with something ike that [Bimey couldrt that bioke hit | asted about two rounds and then he hit me, god almighly he broke my nose, He id sey sorry afterwards It mesnt a tip to the sick bay and they plastered i up, | was told to keep it plastered for ‘a month, Sti | eit nave to wash “The days following were uneventful, the weather was getting warmer end night times were getting shorter This was the time for thinking. Out would come the old photos again or one would think about ‘memories of home and the folks left behind. What would Mum and dad be dolng now? Hew wae Poppy? And the bake house? Who would be taking Stroller for nis walks up the copse. All these things flashed through my ‘ind. It was good to think about the past But always in the back of ones mind was what ofthe future? I thinka the main worry was how | would stand up tothe things to come. In front of anes mates, it would never do to let yourself down, nor ther We were geting nearer fo our destination because that same ld order was given, ‘get your gear packed! Italy “This was where boys tured into men and a lot of men didnt have the chance to grow old, Just a word bout the war in lly. Apparent it waer't meant to be a full-scale war, was meant to draw Germen troops trom Euroce and so make it eesier for when the invasion took place, But it tumed into a real swine cf @ war; ‘come of the fiercest fighting ofthe war fronts took place in his esmpaign, especially in a place called Cassino \We had rain, snow and blazing sun, and mud, ‘We pulled into Naples's harbour, Somebody had certainly given it @ hammering. The docks were non sxistent. Our means of getting from the ship to shore was by walking on boards placed on the hu of wrecks, We finally made itt fem ground and were then marched info town to a motor depot. AS we marched through Naples, | could see it had been a lvely od City but now twas knocked about a bit. We were greeted by cozens cof youngsters; this was something we were fo get used to, They wanted cigarettes, chocolates and chewing ‘gum, anything realy that was given to them, We were to learn later on that most of these gifs wererit for themseivés; they were sold on their black market or taken by their parens. Although it was eerly spring it was ‘looming hot marching through those streets and I for one was glad when we reached the depot. Hear we ware put onto Lorries to be taken to our camp. Our destination this ime was place called Cateuta, about 30 miles cutside Naples. We arrived after horrible tp, what withthe heat and having all our gear on and just having finished a couple of weeks on a crowded troop ship. Some ofthe lads decided tobe travel sick and there wasn't 2 lot of room In the fory to duck out ofthe way, | wasnt sick in the lory bu | fet Ike it when we artived at our camp. There to greet us, was the biggest Sergeant Major | have had the misfortune to meet and with the biggest mouth, He only knew one word and that was double’. Everything with tim had to be done on the run LUnbeknown to us we were going o be attached to a ‘Guards’ Batialon. What had we done to deserve al this? “The next thing, learnt was | was ne longer required as a mortar man. twas, as they say in the Army, back to cluty. | wae now an infantry man in the 24th Hampshire's. The only conscaton | nad was that there would be no more carrying the mortar. Bu it meant that | would be getting much nearer the enemy. We had a few more injections and alot of lectures. | remember one crime that we were not alowed fo commit, and that was to get ‘sunburned. You were aulomatcaly on a charge f you went sick with this complaint. twas classed as a self inficted wound. What struck me about this place was all the white wash. All our tents hac # litte stone Path Jeading to them and each tert was encrced wit ring of stones and all those etones were white washed, even the coal heep behind the cook house was whitewashed, It was @ guard's camp allright There were two regiments of guards here, The Cold Streams and the Scots, Our frat meal here (by the way "nar! was 3 vilacecalled Rotund just ouside Catsurta was a proper eye opener. We had to queue up for our grub with our mess ting, then ito the mess tent to eat. Now, what one cc eat or drink wes thrown away into large ewil ins. [Around these tins would wait dozens of kids al equipped wit large empty tins. Now these kids were efferent ‘rom those we saw in Naples. These were realy hungry, wearing rags, no shoes on their fet, aged between {our end fourteen, As soon as the Swill tins were about hal full and nobody was watching (they were chesed ‘away by the camp police seen) they would dip the cans in the swill and fil them. There was tea, bread, {alters greens, whatever we had been eating. When their cans were filed they would run to come quiet spot ‘and eat it Foor litle deve and we had the nerve to moan about army grub. Our camp was situated in the foothils ofthe Alps, #0 our taining consisted meinly of leaming mountain warfare, The mountains were made up of aranite rock and whet with the sun reflecting off of these racks and our skin just geting over an English winter: dle take long for us to start peeling, mainly on the face and fis. But we survived, anc got use to it Let me tell you something about thase mountains end the Italian people, It dnt matter where we went up these ‘mountains we alwaye came across @ religious shrine. It may be in the form of a cross carved in the rock or 8 proper figure of the Virgin Mary, alvays docked out with fresh flowers. We never saw anybody puting them there but every day somebody took those steep paths up there to pay homage. We would very often meet women coming dawn with huge bundles of wood on their heads; everybody carried their shere from ‘randmother's to young gis. We watched them load up once, everybody helped one another to get the loads ‘onthe heads, the lat one was always the oldest and that poor gal had to manage 8s best she could ‘Also, inthe lower part of the mountains were big pits dug inthe ground. These were saw pits. When a tree trunk had to be cut into planks it was rolled over the op of the pit and cut witha very large hand! saw, One person stoad on top ofthe trunk and pushed downwards, another person stood in the pit and pushed upwards, with the saw. Who do you think stood in the pit covered wth sweat snd sawdust, yes you'e right, the old woman, The man was up top. We were well and truly robbed when we went fo buy something with cur new Italian money. There weren't any shops as we knew them, mostly there were wooden stalls outside houses: sling wine, nuts and frit, Not knowing the valve of the money I would hold outa hand fullof cash and let them help themselves. it dit take me long to realise | was a bloody fool and being chested. So from then on, the cheating was done by me if possible, There wasrit much in the way of wid Ife around the eamp excent for big bulfrogs and liza. These lizards wece briliant reds end greens, They were about a foot long and could give you a nasty bit. If you could get them to bite on @ small plece of wood they could be handled quit safely. We leven tried to make them run in @ line and have a bet onthe winner. The guard's mess tent was separated from furs. These posh solders wouldnt associate wih us scrufly lt. Well, one day | was queuing up for grub and looking at the guerds i their tent, whan low and behold | recognised a familiar face. It was Ede Treacher. | hadn't seen him singe my schoo! days, We met @ couple of times after that and as usuel talked about the old days. was realy pleasec about that Let me tell you sbout the day | came vary unstuck with a Sergeant from the Scots guards. We were waiting in ine for our grub end the mess tent Sergeant wae the biggest bloke Id seen, damn near sever fot tll “Js aa eee de le | reckoned, Anyway, he was standing with his back to me and | was staring at the back of his neck and | suppose he sensed it Ho turned around and caught me looking at him, he shouted, anc I near cle wit fight He then, in no uncerlain terms told me what he ticught of me and my parents, That's the last ime | get cn the wrong side of him says |. Once more, yours uty cd know what he was taking about. Fate has a funny way of ‘getting people into trouble. Wel that night | was put on cook house fatigues, (nothing to do with this Sergeant) ‘spud beshing, Thore were six of us atogether, we arrived atthe cockhouse and were cach given a dirty great sack of spuds to peck We got stuck into it, had a laugh told few jokes to pass the time sway, and after @ couple of hours were well on the way to finishing. When who should waik in? None other than the mess ‘Sergeant to inspect our work. Oh no, it was the seme bloody Sergeant, my Scots giant He ignored the other blokes end pickes on me. He shouted (they always di) | jumped to atten and he calmly tod me | was poaiing the spuds too thick and tat | would now pee! the bloody peelings and he wasn't Joking be back iter to inspect them seys he. He was back about two hours later, by then the other biokes hed gone, hed thei ‘supper, and weee in their biankets. God how I hated that Sergeant. Stl it was anciter lesson learnt, Don't tare st Guard's Sergeants ‘Some of us had to go to Naples with a lorry one day to load up with eoak it made a nice change from the camp. When we arved what a site greeted us! Everything was covered with black dust, inches thick. Mt Vesuvius had been erupting: the air was so thick it was a ob to breathe. This volcano wes easly seen from Naples, 80 when it became dark we could clearly see the red hot lava creeping down the mountain sie. What with being covered vith coal dust and volcano dust we were ina fithy condition. Stil, we had one consolation We did't have the jo af white washing when we got beck. | expect you are wondering why the coal heaps were ‘coverec with white, The reason we were given, was that looked belie and also one could see if anybody slole any ofthe coal, Just imagine the mess in camp when itrained. AS scon 28 i stopped al the stones around the tents had to be whitened, plus the coe, Also the tent boards had to be seisbed cleen. Belave me, tis camp had more bullshit then @ farm yard. | just couldnt believe there was a war going on. Sti, | suppose some idiot with @ lot of brass on hie shoulders thought it served a goed purpose. We didnt have much of a social fe here. Firstly, there wes only the litle wilage wnere you could buy ¢ aes of vino and some walnuts. Then of course there was the question of money. Us privates were only lowed to draw 60 lira (ten shilings) # week, So there weren't ary spencing sprees. There was @ NAAFI we could go to fr a beer. Ithed to be drunk out of the bottle as glasses were unheard of “The local ltalans didnt have ary means of transport their carts were pulled by huge oxen called Beetas. The word of command to start them was e long drawn out “oh” and fo stop ther ft was a tong “ea It cdc toko us lads long to learn this, 0 when one of these carts passed us on the road we would shout out ‘ceeh and the Becta would stop. The driver would get him to start and then we would stop him again. In the end wwe fished up with a very nasty driver and a very miced up oxen. One thing we did learn very qulkly, @ man ever walked out at right on his own. The italiane were not all friendly towards us and your webbing belt 6\wrapped around your fist made a very good weapon. Most of the Italians around us lived in small sort of farm houses wth no water lid on and a lite shec down the yard. In the yard there would be pigs and chickens running about and they thought nothing of going indoors for a kip. There would be a tap Inthe vilage square but mest ofthe houses were supplied wih water from the mountain streams breught down by means of chutes and ‘an ascortmant of pipes fishing up in the yards as a big pond in which the catle would drink and leave their caling cards (also the pigs). Ary water to be crunk was shoved out of. Let me tell you a litle story about this ‘water from the mountains. We were watned not to drink it 98 R contsined a lat of miners, which gave you the runs. We had Deen on an exerci for @ couple of days and a lot of lads did their brewing up with water from these streams. The day after we got back we had an open air church parade as it was Sunday. Well we wers all lined up listening tothe pecre, when al of a sudden cne chap broke ranks, making forthe nearest hedge. Then ‘another. Before long there were more men inthe hedges with thelr trousers down then there was on the parade (round. The funniest thing was a certain Sergeant was running up and down shouting at everybody to stand sill. When all of a sudden a funny expression ceme on ths face. He didn't have tme fo make the hedge; we knew this because he was wearing shorts. God what a mess. ' hed one friend in camp; | never did know his name. You see I was in the grub tne and when it came ‘my turn to have my grub coled out | opened my mess tins and low and behold what shouls be jammed in them but @ bloody great bul fog. | dnt fancy any porridge after seeing that, stil with frends Bike that who nesds enemies, Getting back to the mountain streams, they were very cold and very fast moving. Well, when we were ut of camp these streams became our bathroom. There wes one problem, Hf, during your wash you dropped the soap it was lost. Ether sunk or washed downstream. Somebody back home must have heard about thie ‘because they invented a soap that floated, it wes called ‘Swans floating soap’. If dropped inthe streem it could be retieved, some ofthe lads mede a hole inthe middle of tt end threaded ion @ sting that was ted to their wrist. wasn'ta very good soap, not much lather. By the way the local woman wou'd come around camp asking If any body wanted any laundry done. They would take away loads of washing and knack the hell out oft onthe ‘ocks in the stream, But somehow or other we alveys got the right clothes back. This service would costa few lire, some cigaretos or haif bar of soap. Talking ebout cigs there was one brand of cigarettes the italian Would never take as payment. They were callad ‘Victory Ve" | dnt amoke but was given to understand that they tasted bloody awful “Time wes running out for us at tis camp. For the first time in my army career, | was issued with ammunition ‘end grenades to be Used against another human being, A very sobering thought. Well, once more came thet order "Get your gear packed, we are moving out. ‘We clambered aboard tne lorries and did just that, Moved oul. Where to? We would soon find out. We travalied orth of Naples by lony then disembarked; now we had to match, that night we slept in a field | found a nice litle hesge to ereep under. By now we could hear the rumble ofthe big guns and as darkness fell we could see the distant flashes of gunfire, We were tol that this was a place known as tha ‘Po valley: These were the rofields of Italy; | could wel beleve k, because the ground was very wet. That night it poured with rain. We alt uessed where we were heading for ‘Cassino’ and ‘Monastery Hil. Let me explain a bit. Cassino wes @ town at the botiom of Monastery Hil, £0 called because a huge Monastery was buit atthe top, The German's hel this “The reason this wes a very imiportant postion to hoki was the fact thatthe guns up top, covered the main road to Rome ‘Highway 6°. Without this road the Briish were stuck, Tanks carit move on paddy fields, The Monastery was in rune having bean bombed by fying fortresses of the American Air Force, plus hundreds of shells from arilery guns. “The Germans had taken tanks up there and then driven them into buildings and walls, which meant the tanks, were completely covered in granite blocks and rubble, This meant they were almost impossible to hit “The only way to take this hill was wit infantry. Come the moming and tme to brew up. eat some of those famous army biscuits and then move out. We were going to Cassino. We finally got there and gathered inthe emaine of the railway station. I wes raining very hard and we were knee deep in mud. was here that | saw my first dead body, I had been @ German. | remember one of our Corporals saying “Get uses to it you wil see a ot more’. “There were graves all over the place and the stench of t was homble, Once you have smelt death you never ferget ‘Monte Casino (2001) ‘About midnight we started moving up to the front line, There was only one rosd open to get there and besides ‘troops going tothe front there were troops coming back for @ rest. There was also the ambulances coming back wih wounded and of course there was the mule trains, These mules were handled by Sikh and Fathem troops: {rom India. Everything used up front was brought up by these mules, food, water and ammunition. | ahwaye, nimagined a mule was ike @ large donkey but these beasts were ike darn great cart horses, One daren't get off the road because the cround ether side was heavily mined because this was the only road to the Monastery. ‘The Germans had guns lined up on i. The guns were sighted on the road during the day, and then fixed so they Wouldn't move. Then during the hours of darknass they would open fie, This road got the name ofthe Valley of deal. It wasnt any goed tring to take cover during these berrages because there wasn't any. The other hazard was tying to keep out of the way of dazens of rearing and bucking mules. How those Indian troops handled them | cldn't know, But one day | was to find out. After losing quite 2 few blokes we reached our destination atthe bottom of Monastery Hil. When one was in the mountains we couldnt ig our trenches 2s it Wes ail rock. So we had to bul litle circle of rocks called a ‘Sanger sometimes two blokes would build one big enough for beth of them but mainly you bult your own. Thistle task had to be completed before it got ight ‘otherwise what you had done was waste of time because you would be dead. | fished mine in time because | was 80 scared, I dn't know the own strength of my imitations. \We had to spend the whole day in these Sangers making very sure not fo show too much of your body, come fin of sunshine you Kept very low. It Was inthis, my frst day in action that | did some very serous. thinking and praying, No way can | describe my fear during this fist bombardment. The ground shook, shrapnel screamed through the air then there was the sound of somebody hit. But the main worry was that you were so helpless fo do anything about it Just hug mother earth and hope. | volunteered for this, what a bloody fool. It seemed ages ago that | was delivering bread and now | was on some Italian mountain with some very irate Germans tying to knock the hell out of me, In my estimation, the most fearsome weapon the Germans used was the mortar. He was deadly accurate wih i He had one that fire six bombs et once and the scream they ‘made coming through the air was terible, They had the nickname of ‘the sobbing sisters. The smell wes horrible; thece were bodies and worst of al bits of body hanging around all over the place | thought | would ‘aver be able to stand it but as time went by my mind and body adjusted to it all and! accepted it We spent the next day in our holes (twas vary lonely) then when it got dark we started up the hil. We tried to move quity but that was impossible wth the loose rocks. We made a bit of ground and then once more ult our ‘sangers’. We didn't stay n them long because we moved again in the day light, This day I learnt all about war. This day | killed @ human being forthe frst time. | won't dwell an the subject but this | will sy. When fan aeroplane drops its load of bombs the crew nover s99s ther victims. The same apoies with the ariley but the pace bloody infantry man is there face to face and it int vey rie. But ike everything else one expects it But in my case I didnt get use to it. Like me, 2 lt ofthe enemy weren't much more then boys, [Night times were very eerie i you looked long enough. Rocks or trees would move and every sound ‘wos the enemy and all the tine thera was the mortars and above al this there was the singing. The Germans ‘twaye at night sang ‘Lil Malaine’ was very strange and as | said very eerie. It gotin the end ke we were not fighting the enemy; we were fghting the blasted Monastery[After many attempts we finaly tok the hil. | went up there and back twice, We lost too many men too ‘any good when we got up there. A Polish Regiment finaly took k. We took some prisoners end on erry officer asked ther what they thought of our barrage and they saic quite calmly that when cur barrage went up they went down. And when it stopped they came up, You see, there were tunnels and vaults under the Monastery so they were not ico worried. One right before It was captured our platoon was put on mula pata the Indians were cue for 8 rest, The first thing we had to learn vas how to put the packs on their backs. Every time we put them on, the rules would give a grunt and a cough end the packs were between their legs. Then ‘we were shown how to doit by a Sergeant, as he pulled the girth strap ight he kneed the poor animal in te ‘stomach and as it gasped for breathe pulled tighter and locked ofthe gh. That's how you doit he said, but the frst man | see il eating an animal willbe on a charge. So much for army humour. The mules were loaded Up with their packs and we got ready to move, We had to be in @ poston by darkness. Each man by the way, ‘was in charge of two mules. All went well uni we got tothe beginning of Death Velley. It was now pitch dark. ‘This was worse than fighting. Those mules had a mind of their own. It was bad enough betore the shooting started but when it did all hel broke loose. Once those animals got off the road we had to let go of them because the ground each side was covered wih the mines. Many mules were blown up, one poor chap had ‘twisted the load rope around his hand and he court et go. He went ofthe road and was blown up. About haf the mules made it that night and | was very glad when twas over, One ofthe saddest tacks was identtying and burying the dead. After Monastery Hl was taken, we carried on and our next obstacle was the river Rapio. We hhad to make the crossing in canvas boats, many lads were lost here. Many ofthe wounded were saved by our Padre, He swam in the river towing a boat, picking wounded blokes out of the water and putting them in the boat. “The good Lord must have been looking after me that night because I coulent swim withthe emount of ‘gear we were carrying. I dont think t would have made any difference il could. | have never been so wet and ‘cold 3s | was on that river crossing, The ground around the river was swamp. As one dugout holes 60 they filed with water and tis is where we stayed for quite a few days. Lots leave the fighting for a while and talk about the lighter side of war. It is surprising what does |happen at times. | was on a patrol one night, on a road leading to @vilage, when we heard some strange noises ‘coming towards us. It dnt soune lke an enemy patro! but we took up positions elther side of the road and Walted. Out of the darkness they came. It was Jerry. There was about eight of them but hey were carrying large bath. Yos a bath. We captured them quite essiy; there wasn't much they could to about it. When we ‘asked them what they wore doing they tld us their commanding Officer wanted a bath, 80 he sent his men out to.getone | wonder what he dé do without his bath (Other patrols we captured had al sorts of things, chickens, painungs and also women to entertain ther Officers. | liked these night patois. This was the kind of warfare | liked, When the platoon had newreplacements, one of ther fst jobs was to go on a patrol. Some of them would hang onto the bioke's belt in front, In case he ot lost, | unpose. But whon the signal fo etop was given they wouldrt see it and we would finish up in one big hasp. When we had done our turn up the front. usualy three to four weeks, we would come ‘ut for @ few days rest. The fist thing we had was a shower, as the troops moved forward the back up gear followed. This incuded cock trucks end tents. Quarter master stores and the sanitary waters. They would ria uo their miles of steel pipes in the nearest field then pump water through them. Every few feet was a sprinkler, $0 Wwe would stip our fithy clthes off in @ mad rush to get under a sprinkler. As | said this was in an open fed, which was surrounded by ail the local inhabitants. Of course there was @ lot of shouting and laughing from them, Afier ait wasn't every day they saw about two hundred men running about naked ina field ‘Another very strange site| saw was in Rome. We were marching cut of Rome for a days res, otner troops were marching in. Coming towards us was a company of Americans, as we came closer to ene another ‘we got ready forthe usual comments passed between troops moving up the line and troops moving away. But we remained speechless, they were all Japanese soldiers. It tues out there were so many Japanese in ‘America that had taken American citizenship, and then when they were called up for some 1 they went into companies of Japanese troops. It certainly took us by surprise. Tolking about this day of, outside Rome we camped on the banks of the river Ther and of course the frst thing we oid was clothes of and in the river. This river by the way was about ae wide as Fareham Creok. A couple of us found an old Al Force fe Jacket, 89 | decided tole flat on it Two things I forgot, ane | couldn't swim, secend | forgt about the river's strong current. Next thing | realized was me; loating way cut in the middle, the lads on the banks gave me a lot of advice about what todo. | sid off the float trying to find the bottom. Blimey no boom, | was dammn soon back. (on the float. The rivers banks got very steep and it swept info @ huge horse shoe bend. Anyway, after whet seemed alfetime | got to shore, where | was able to climb the bank. | was about a mile from camp. That's not far you might say, the only thing was | was starkers! A lot of women were drying thelr dally wash atthe rivers ‘edge. | can tel you that was the fastest mile | have ever run. NO more swimming for me! 60 oF another How about this for a bit of army bullshit. One day while we were at a rest camp, a Brigader drove through the cams in his staff car, with his flag fhing | suppose and according tc him nobody saluted him. ‘Anyway the frst | heard about it was when everybody in my Regiment (about five huncred men) were tld we were to parade in our best bate dress for saluting practice, Can you justimagine & We were all battle weary, was boiling hot and we were marching up and down some dusty lalian lane, shouting atthe top of our lungs, 0 the front salute, up two, three, down and as usual we had an audience of italiane. What the hell they thought of it, | don't know. | could just see the Yanks doing it Talking about the Yanks reminds me of @ nice paying business we had with them. When we were up the line and came across any loot, such as German pistols, ‘badges, bayonets, in fact anything todo with them, we would collect it Then when we came out we would sell those items to the Yanks. The best prices were from those thet did't go near the front | bet they told some tals when they returned home with it One had to be very careful, when doing this because if you should have the misfortune to be taken prisoner and any ofthis loot was found en you, things could became very unpleasantGreat care had to be taken when picking Up these items I pistol was found laying on 3 table, oF on the ground in fll iew, wasnt touched, 2s the Germans were very clever at booby trapping such things. Quite «2 few lads fost a hand picking things up. So a vory hard lesson was learnt and of course looting wasn't allows’ by the Bish. Taking about booby traps, mines were another speciality of the Germans. They would very nearly “wie them up, s0 they would explode even by locking at them. | went on a demolition course once | missed one tum in action doing this so | didn't mind. The fist thing Learnt was how to blow down tres. It was quite good fun reel. The only person who didnt enjoy i wes the italian who owned the trees. Which by the way were mainly very large chestnut tees, ‘Another form of explosive wes called a ‘bochive, his was in the shape of ite dust bins on three legs. It was used to blow a neat round hole in rack In which you would place large charge of explosive to blow the rock to pieces, There was oniy one thing to be careful about so our intructor told us. Dont put the second ‘charge into the hole until ted eooled down. “Only one way to make sure’ he said, ‘pee inthe hole”. So three of us had to stand around the hole and use it as @ lavatory. Al clever stuf, this demotshing business, They do sey one never hears the bomb that hits you, but | have seen some very extraordinary sights connect with bullets. One chap | knew wes vary lucky, he was waking in front of me and | naticed blood coming out of the tack of nis neck. He had been hit in the nose by a but, t went rght though the face anc out the back of his neck and he didn't know it. My ok! mate Alan Moor got hit one dark night, We were attacking this fermhouse. “Atir the farm was taken, we did what was always done after an attack, look around to see who was missing ‘Aian wasn't with us, we back tacked a bit and found him. He was in 2 sory stale, He had been ht by a machine fqn. Two big groves across the chest, not to0 bad, but one bullet had entered his head, just behind the eyes. From that night on he would be bind, | didn't krow then tht | would meet him in simile circumstances lator “The main tank used by Jerry was the Tiger tank. A very formidable weapon, f carried the dreadec f8amm gun. Very securate end very powerful. The frst ime | saw a Briish Churcil tank (this was the newest tank) | fel vary sorry forthe crew, thay had been having a go ata Tiger and their shells ware jst bouncing of fit, You see this Churchil was armed with » pea shooter of ¢ gun. twas only # 2 pounder. The power that be finally saw the light and fted 8 much larger gun. “To make t easier to cary, lot of our food was dried or dehydrated. This was a very good ide unit rained. | had the job of caryng a sack of dehydrated spuds once. twas very light to start with but it rained and there was nowhere to put te sack oF to cover i. Before long the spuds started to swell and swell ard then there |was a tearing sound and slushy spud powder was all over the place, No spuds for us for afew days. ‘Afr having a ret, the night before we maved up the line we always reckoned to have a litle party (who knew it ay have been your las) Bottles of Vino would be bought and some tmes we would acquire ig. One «of the iads with us had been @ butener before being called up. The pig Would be cooked over an oven fire 6washed down with a drop of pionk It tasted real ood. We were once caught acquiring @ pig and made to pay the Haian owner frit That almost spot our party! We often use to talk to other troops and we had quite @ few to choose from. But whether they were Inclans of wrich there were many diferent tibes or Aficans or trop from Europe, it alvays ended up wih the ld photos being passes arcund, Mums, wives, chidren even pets. But one subject always came up, what troops hed the eushiest jobs. | would have hated fo have been in 8 tank crew and the tenk boys wouldn't have ‘swapped thelr jobs for mine. They reckoned the Infantry man was too vulnerable. He got wet, sore feet and was ‘on the recelving end of everything fying about. A coupe of times | have had the unpleasant task of geting the bodies of tank crews out of their knocked cut tanks. It was worse i the tank had caught fr, The cherred bodies ‘erent much bigger then babies. So I suppose nobody was any better off then the next man. | put tall down to fate, what wl be, wil be Justa word about the wounded. The most callous bicke would tum ino a first lass nurse when itcame to helping somebody who wes hur. A wounded German was treated the same as one of our lads, they were no longer the enemy. just somebody needing help. There were some teribla wounde at times. Legs blown off by ‘mines were one of the commonest. Once more, it was the feeling of helplessness that got me down. Just Imagine trying to Keep one of your mates alive untl the stretcher bearers got to you. We were only supplied with ® small field dressing and sometimes this could be pushed right inside a large wound. | wil say that ft was any ‘Way Possible the Germans did respect the stretcher bearers (as did we) they would not deliberately shoot at them ‘The average Garman was allright just Ike us. Fed up an far from home, But one hd to be very ‘careful ofthe very young nes. Most ofthese belonged tothe fanatical Hier youth organisation. One cn’ ever trust these cheps, not even when they were asleep. A cood many lads have died because they tock their eyes of these Hitler youl It must have been about this time thatthe British Army brought in their new type of headwear. It wae in Colour and it resembled something ke trying pan, maybe something lke a dustbin lid. Anyway i was ' horribie looking thing, the only thing | can say int Favour is that it wae a good math for ur shorts end gators ‘While | am on the subject of clothes, a well known phrase was ‘dead mans kt. If whilst up the fronta chap fost any cloties, when he came back to camp, he wou draw new gear from the company stores. Fist ofall he ‘Would have to look trough the kit bags of the chaps who didnt come back. These bags were taped out on the {round ouside the stores. The quarter msster woul be there, After stating what you wanted he would search through the heaps of clothes frst, unt ne found what he was aftr. One other Officer was always present whilst this was going on, He was the Pacre. You see, there were 8 lot of persona belongings in these kit bage, photos, letters and articles of value that a man didn't want to take up the front with him, So as each bag wes toped out the Pacre would look it over frst. All the personal gear ine would put in a ite bag withthe man's name and 6number on it! suppose this wae then raturmed to the man’s next of kin. They were grand fellows, those Padres. ‘Another oftheir duties was to read and censor the ltrs written by the cops. ‘The middle of the summer wee with us now snd it was very hot and dusty. The dust was the main ruicance, eepecialy with regards keeping your weapon clean, Somebody who wasn't frend of mine decided | should be in cherge of @ Bren gun. This could be a bit hairy at times because Jerry would try and knock out these machine guns as soon as possible. “There was one person that got up our backs and that was a replacement NCO who wouldnt lisen to = chap who had seen a bit of service, We had one such Sergeant join us straight from England. He thought we were sil in Colchester. I think. Anyway he was unbearable. He would have kit nections. Boots he wanted! highly poshes and stark raving mad about Blanco so we decided it was time he was taught @ lesson. Because we were always on the move, te lavatories ware rather primitive, apiece of sacking, a hole inthe ground and pole to alton. Well the Sergeant bogs were separate from ours, so we first found a replacement pole which we sawed nearly in hal. Then it was just @ matter of time watching and waiting. Then he saw him heading for the lv. Quick @9 @ flesh the poles were changed and every body got out of sight. God you never heard @ Boke shout so much, the pole broke and in the hole he wert, it was a large hole too, Mind you there was & hell of row bout But nothing could be done about ft because nobody knew anything! But we hed @ changed ‘Sergeant afterwards. ‘out platoon Officer was quite @ good bloke. We were having a weapons inspection one wet morning He picked up a couple of points to complain about dity weapons. Then he looked at us and said, he had the ‘choice of nice lean troops or nice clean weapons he would choose the wespons. Soon another dity moming he would over look @ bit of stubble on a chin provided our weapons were clean. Now, he was always ‘eccompaniad by our company Sergeant Major. When we were dismissed and about to get out of the ran, this (GSM called us back, “now listen to me" he says, forget what you have just heard and remember this, | vl not ‘overlook @ man with yesterday's whiskers ora dirty shit” “Lwant and il have clean weapons and clean men. Do | make mysel clear?" He id | suppose, f we had to dle we had to die property dressed and clean. | wil tell you @ litle story about this CSM. | and another chap were out on @ recon patrol with him once, We were up inthe mountains, he suddenly ssid to us, Soy lads but | have got to go to the toi.” Now this wasn't the best of places fo drop ones trousers because Jerry wasr't faraway. | don't know if we were seen or R was just an accident. But he was in the equal position, ever came a mortar shell vary very close, “Blimey there's some shit fying around” he says. How right he was, the bast from the shell must have scooped up what he was trying to got rd of end splatired tall up his back. We dian't get close to him afer that, tak ‘about geting your own back, he did ”Let me just mention about the mud, never have | sen mud tke if, The stuff was just tke glue, It ‘squeezed in your boots up your logs and at tines it was a foot deep. Tanks care to a stand sill and lorries Were usoles in twas tertble stuff and we had to try end walkin it and wren we had the chance, sleep in ‘About once a month we wore given a copy ofthe forces newspaper, was called ‘The Union Jack’. This told us how the war was progressing on all the diferent fronts, also how the folks were getting cn at home. ‘Some ofthis news didnt go down very well with the lags that had folks living inthe towns that were geting = testing from the German Air Forca, The American troops had a similar paper called "The Stars and Stripes | laced this one because haf of twas ike a comic, There was another choice of reading material we could read this was in the form of German propagands leaflets. These were dropped from planes or fred in shells. These leaflets told us how badly the war was going for us and that we would soon be saluting the German way. Sit we «dd find @ goad use for them; they were just the right size for toilet paper. It seems sily now but in those dark days 8 nice piece of bum paper was worth 3 lot of money. We had 8 noice come round the camp esking I ‘anybody wanted to join the Army on regular basis, This was for me because | kod the Hein the Army 2nd | ‘could not see myself going back to the bake housa. So signed to go before @ selecting board. But events inthe very near future wore to change al thet. The War was going very wel fr us, we were moving up tly ute fst | was once offered « couple of stripes but had enough trouble looking after myself without leaking after 186 of blokes. Having the Bren gun brought me a few hairy moments | sivaye seamed to be stuck out inthe riddle of nowhere, withthe feeling that every German in italy could see me, But it was @ Very goOd gun, very accurate. The ideal gun when we were fighting form house to house, a good burst from it. | ait mind going through a doorway but one had tobe a bit careful because the procedure was to kick open the door and spray inside with ¢ couple of bursts, then dart inside end finish what we started. | have known Germans to be hanging trom the raters with the bullets going underneath them: In these cases one had to watch out If we had enough to spare, a hand grenade was chucked in the room fist Hospital days in Italy ‘We had moved up to @ new positon, in the distance we could see the Gity of Florence, We had moved up at night andthe troops we relieved were the Argyle and Sutherland, Cur quarters were an old farm house Me and som of the lacs were in the bar. In the barn were a couple of big axon, We were having @ cup of tos ‘and e bt of grub when one ofthese oxen decided to gle birth. | enjoyed this but couple of lads decided they ‘der want their breakfaet, more for me.Now, our position was on top of Ite hil. In front was a large valley and then ancther hil witha village ‘on top. This was held by the enemy. Well, early inthe morning 8 lorry carrying our water mistook this hil for ‘ours. Drove right through it. Did’ see anybody a al, so turned round anc! found us on our hil. Having told their ‘story tothe Officers it was decided to sond outa patrol to see if there were any Germans inthe vilage. Now, | don't know iit was good or bad luck that | wasn't picked fortis job, The Gren guns were to postion themselves: along the top of our hil fo give the patrol covering fir, if needed. | was told to hide behind what looked to me like a big bundie of pea sticks, about 100 yards from the bern. “There were three cheps in @ Bren group. My Corporal was our butcher, my No 2 was a Welsh man by the name of Dia Chapel. When the oreer came to take our positon we ran. There was.no cover til we got to our ee etek. So belleve me, we ran. I's a very funny thing but during the many mes I have had to run to get out of trouble | remembered @ litle saying my father use to say. it wae, hury up logs, your bodies in danger’. We rade i all right and setied down the valley. But somehow we dict feel right stuck up there on the hill with no cover. It flt as if the whole German Army could see us, nobody said anytring about this but we had served together toc ng not to know what the other fellow was thinking “There was a funny feeling about this place, there wasr't any noise. There wasnt anything to be seen moving about. Fer too quiet for my king, But it didnt stay that way for long, The patrol was stil in sight, just ‘20out 10 start up the oppose hil when it happened. The Germans had been watching us right from the beginning. They opened up on that patrol with their ol fevourt, tho mortars, plus machine guns and rifles. We could eee that one machine gun, it was called a Spandau, was being fred from insie @ house. | wasn sure which window they were fring from, so | puta burst through all three windows. That cid it, next thing we knew was we were on the receiving end of those mortars. They were using the sobbing sisters, six et a tine. We weren't dug in and our pea sticks looked fimsier than ever. | counted about three diferent lots of sbves, But me rev lo that came over, | didnt count them all, | dt hear them al go of “The naxt few minutes were a lfotime, The whole of my body went num. It felt asi | had been droppes from @ great height. There wasnt any sharp pai, just this numb feeling, The pain was to come lter. It tues cut | had been hit in three places A litle damage to my hand, the butt cf my Bren gun was smashed to pieces, ‘Strapped on my back was my trenching too! and a lump of shrapnel had smashed into it. Boy | wes very lucky there, I hen looked at my lags and one of them was at a very funny angle with biood coming cut of somewhere for other. | honestly thought it was biown off, It's funny what goes through ones mind at a time lke thet. | remember saying to mysolf (I may have seid it out loud I dont know) “i move the top part of my leg and the bottom half comes with it then it Would stil be attached". This | did very slowly and fnal tall moved, thank ‘90d for that, says |, Even though Dia was lying beside me, fora few minutes | had forgotten about him but now | turned my attention to him. He was a mess. The whole of his backside looked Ike a butchers shop. Al blood But even though he was badly hurt without saying @ word he took off one of his webbing straps and put it ightly ~round my leg to stop the blocd. That's @ mate for you. Our Corporal was In a bad way. He hed been ripped through the stomach, remember we had been laying on the ground. So this lump of shrapnel must have tkimmed elong the ground and went into his stomach. But worse was to come, as we lay there wondering whet 10 dp, he started to crawl away. His head was just outside our pea sticks and Wham, his head almost

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