91热爆

Early Days - Italy - Romance (nearly) - Casino - England

Training
I was called up, at the age of 28, on the 4th. January 1941 as a 2nd. Lieutenant, Royal Army Ordnance Corps (Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) and told to report to Kettering for a month's training to become an officer.
I was later asked if I wanted to go for four months training at Bury in Lancashire but I didn't want to go and went instead on a six weeks course to Kent.
As soon as the course was finished I was mobilized to go abroad with the 87th. Heavy Anti-aircraft Ack Ack Regiment workshop. I had anti-typhoid and anti-tetanus injections.
October 1941, I took a church parade of 400 marching men. Very difficult, I didn't know how to control or stop them!

October 1941 we left Nottingham by train to an unknown destination that turned out to be on the Clyde and boarded the "STRATHALLAN" anchored in the Bay.
We set off in convoy sailing North West until we reached Newfoundland when two of the ships in the convoy hit each other in the fog.
We left them behind. Sailed due South to Freetown, Sierra Leone in Africa passing the Azores on the way.
This circuitous route was to try to avoid German U-boats. Passed the spot where, two days before, the German U-boats had sunk part of our convoy carrying A.A. guns and vehicles.

Travelling to The Middle East
We spent three days in Freetown, which was very humid. Then on to Cape Town that was wonderful because it was all lit up. Such a contrast to the blackout in England.
After three days of entertainment by delightful girls at the Orange Grove Restaurant we set sail for Bombay where we anchored in the "Lanes" (a very wide area where they allocated the boats).
It was very humid.
We then sailed across the Arabian Sea into the Gulf of Oman and up the Gulf. On up the Shatt al-Arab river to Basra which was very bleak.
Here we disembarked and took possession of a piece of desert outside Basra . I had carbuncles on the wrist and head and, later, in the middle of my back.

After a few days I was told to go to Baghdad and Habbamyah on the Euphrates, passing Ur the oldest town in the world, in preparation for the workshop and the Regiment.
Stayed at one of the best hotels in Baghdad just beside the Tigris Bridge and travelled 40 miles through the desert to the RAF camp at Habbamyah on the Euphrates.
Wewent up the escarpment to claim a piece of desert where there had just been a battle between the Iraqis, and ourselves they left behind a few bits, such as fingers and billions of flies.
I can still remember bathing in a very salty lake.

Iraq
Our Ack Ack Regiment's job was to protect the oil fields of the Iraq Petroleum Company from the Germans who were just North of Iran - we were just South of it.
The oil fields were at Mosul and Kirkuk about 100 miles apart. The Captain took half the workshop to Mosul and I took the others to Kirkuk.

We arrived, in November 1942, on a sandy desert plain on a slight slope near the IPC. Headquarters where they had a comfortable mess for eating and we slept on camp beds on the sand.
One night it started to rain and I looked down, there were a few inches of water flowing through my tent. In the morning it turned to snow and everywhere was freezing.
Our gun towers had London bus engines and were called Associated Equipment Company Matadors, they had frozen radiators and cracked cylinder blocks that meant we were immobile and so our fitters tried welding the radiators and cylinder blocks with some success.
The Chief Engineer of IPC. gave us some welding rods and took me to Kermondshar to try to obtain some more.
En route we passed the blind beggar a man who lived in the middle of the desert and cried out "Allah is good"!
Eventually we got the Matadors going again.

One problem in Kirkuk was cooking. Plenty of eggs from the locals. Oil was oozing out of the sand and nearby the oil was continuously burning. It had done this since Biblical times in the hills behind.
We had an oven and a large cotton tent, so we devised a can of oil with a drip outlet that we let fall into a metal cup below, set it alight and so cooked hundreds of eggs.
On Christmas Day (1942) we served the 50 men, by a miracle we didn't catch fire!

We left Kirkuk and travelled back to Habbamyah, near Baghdad and from there, back across the desert on a track half a mile wide, until we came near Transjordan and a proper road and green grass as we dropped down below sea level to the Jordan Valley.
Across the Allenby Bridge near Jericho up to Tulkarn where there were oranges on the trees.
Moving Northwards to Beirut, we stayed for a few months in a flat with four other officers including an M.P. who entertained us with his stories.
One day a little old lady, a Druze, came into our flat about 5 a.m. I woke up just as she was attempting to steal my wallet. The Military Policeman stopped her at the front door and threw her down the steps. Later on I caught a fever and collapsed breaking my front teeth.
The medical orderly sent me to the New Zealand Hospital for a week to recover.

Tobruk - December '42
Our 87th. A.A. Regiment arrived in Tobruk soon after the victory of El Alamein and we met Captain Bernard Gaccon, a jolly fellow, who had been in Tobruk a few months earlier when Germans surrounded it.

Our job was to set up four 3.7-inch static guns. The tank transport duly arrived. However, we had no facilities for unloading we had to devise our own method.
The guns weighed 35 tons and rather top heavy.
We had some angle iron supports and two 8" by 4" girders 10 feet long which were bolted to the gun, long enough to extend beyond the tank transporters.
We placed four 10-ton jacks under the girders and drove the tank transporter forward leaving the gun supported on the four jacks that were gently lowered to the ground.
Fortunately, there was little or no wind, and the operation went off smoothly.

Soon after this I was promoted to Captain and posted to Cairo in charge of 90 men and equipment of the 99th. A.A. Regiment and workshop.
To my surprise on my departure I was given a leather brief case.
I was soon on the train to Cairo. Unfortunately the train was derailed at Mersa Matruh and I had to carry my gear some way to the replacement train.
Anyway after a few weeks I was ordered to take a convoy of 400 vehicles, all with unknown drivers, across the desert to an unknown destination.
We set off in the afternoon across the Suez Canal and stopped when it got dark.
Those who had rations ate them after which we set off again until about 23.00 hours when we stopped at a transit camp. There we stayed until 03.00 hours when we set off yet again.

At dawn, about 05.00 hours, there were wonderful scents from the few flowers along the track that were truly delightful. At about 06.30 hours we came to a crossroads.
There was no one to tell us which way to go!

After about 10 minutes a flustered M.P. on a motorbike drew up alongside and told us we had gone the wrong way!
We had about 100 vehicles to turn around. I told him I would report him. Finally we arrived at Beirut. The vehicles were loaded into a cargo ship and I went on board. We set off for Alexandria (near Cairo) and later to Augusta on the East coast of Sicily where I met up with the rest of the Regiment and workshops.

Italy 1943-5
We travelled northwards to Mount Etna, across the Messina Straits and upwards to Foggier near the North coast of Italy opposite Naples and San Severe, which was just to the North. The Regimental RSM found us accommodation in an abattoir, very greasy and certainly unpleasant. We stayed one night and then across the road to a meat factory which was a little cleaner.

About this time the Colonel produced a 3 tonner that he said he wanted us to convert into a caravan. I told him it was very difficult getting work done when we had to move every two or three days so the Colonel said he would leave us behind for a few weeks.

The war moved on and we were trying to capture Campobasso some thirty miles on.
The Germans were in the North of the town and we were in the South so the Colonel decided to bring us up into the middle of the town.
We arrived through constant shelling and took over a garage full of Italian cars.
They had to move out as we moved in.
At the same time I was having a row with the Colonel over our priorities.
I maintained that it was more important to keep the guns and equipment in action than to make a caravan for him.
When he threatened to send me back to base I gave the caravan priority!

There was a train, damaged and stationary in the station, so we decided to canabalise the pipes and water tank and put them in the caravan.
Within a week the caravan was complete and ready for occupation.
The Colonel was delighted, no more talk of change of job.
He kept the caravan until the end of the war.

After Campobasso we proceeded up Italy until we reached the Sangro River staying in Atessa (a very small place) with the workshop on a fairly steep hill down to the Sangro where it started snowing.
This was Christmas week and I well remember having a fight with a fellow officer, the only fight I have ever had. He got me in trouble with the Colonel and very nearly got me the sack.
However, we had a good fight rolling on the beds and the result was a draw. I remember later sleeping on the floor, and watching the snow come in under the eaves.

Next the Army Commander called a halt to our advance and there was the last town to capture, Casoli, a hill town with one street. We were located in a Doctor's house on the top edge of the hill looking across the River Sangro to where the Germans were occupying Guardiagrele on the other bank about a mile away.
They shelled us every day for the whole winter. The Colonel believed his workshop should fight the enemy and the next town one mile away along the ridge was Toricelli, a small village where the Germans had occupied the church tower as an observation post. Our regiment shelled the tower regularly.

Italy romance (nearly!)
The Doctor was young and pretty and we used to hold hands at night across the tiny charcoal stove - the only heating. One day I had a high temperature and went to bed. She produced an enormous pill that I could hardly swallow but it worked and I was O.K. again in no time.

After a few weeks the Army Commander gave us permission to fire our 3" Italian gun (the Italians had capitulated by this time) at the German occupied town of Guardiagrele.
Then he decided we were too close to the enemy and the whole workshops was sent back about two miles to the cross road of Archi where the 327 battery were employed.
This was when I spotted a slight incline on a narrow path down to the Sangro and slept in my truck and had my meals and even our pay parades just outside my truck.

After about a week the Lieutenant R.A. in charge of 327 Battery asked me to join his billet, my driver drove my vehicle out, and I went to new billet just round the corner and my signals truck decided to go where I had been, when the driver stopped at my old location there was an almighty explosion and his truck disintegrated, pieces landing a hundred yards away.
An anti tank mine had been detonated at the exact spot where I had been. The driver needed medical attention, but lived.

Winter In Italy '43
I had to go to Army H.Q. to see the Colonel, Commander of REME. up a mountain and on a narrow road with a hairpin bend.
My driver Aggio took me in our Morris pickup. After our visit we were on the way down when Aggio declared that the brakes were not much good.
We managed to negotiate the hairpin bend travelling fast when we spotted with alarm an open jeep travelling up the hill containing the army General, Sir Oliver Lease (commander of the whole of the 8th. Army), with two staff officers.
Fortunately, there was just room to pass but the Army General turned round in his seat and shook his fist at us.
We couldn't stop and went careering down the hill until we were out of sight. We expected a summons to Army H.Q. but, thankfully, none came.

A few weeks later in early Spring the Regiment was pulled back about fifty miles to Calvi (a small town) which gave me time to drop down to Salerno to see my brother, Harry, at his workshop (Harry was in charge of the base workshop at Salerno).
Arrived to find Vesuvius in eruption and Salerno covered in fine grit which choked the roads and lay about 6" thick on everything.
On the way back a yellow sulphurous cloud covered everywhere and we were pleased to leave.
Back at Calvi the Colonel decided we should have a Regimental Parade. I was very worried but at the last minute it was called off because the Regiment was ordered to Cassino.

Cassino
We found a field about five miles before Cassino and told we must protect the bridges in front of Cassino (on the Rivers Garigliano and Liri) with smoke to hide our crossing of the River Liri.
So our role was to take the jeeps loaded with smoke canisters to the bridges and successful we were.
In the meantime we had to support the Guards with 4.2" mortars just after Cassino.
A signals friend of mine, said he wanted to see some action, so I took him in my jeep to an area we had just captured that morning and went down a narrow track until we met some anti-tank gunners who told us the Germans were in a wood just ahead with tanks.
A Nebelwolfe (type of German multi rocket) had landed in our track and affected our steering but we managed to disentangle ourselves and went back a mile and found our Guardsmen with their 4.2" mortars. We then went back to our bases.

Soon after Cassino we travelled North to Florence and winter of 1943/1944 was again with us.
We halted just North of Florence and we had an easy time with local leave in Florence and a few weeks on an art course at Florence University. Then 99th. A.A. Regiment was demobilised and went back to Naples but I was soon involved in the war again.

I was adjutant to Commander REME. Ist. Armoured Division when we attacked the Germans on the Gothic line.
We had 500 tanks and 25 lb guns. The Germans were well dug in and retaliated in strength and so we made little progress and many of our tanks were hit and put out of action.
At one stage we had 300 tanks out of action.
I had the busiest time of the war working to midnight night after night.

Much of the Division became ineffective and the Army Commander said we must withdraw and demobilise the whole Division of 15,000 men. We found ourselves at Numana and went to a transit camp for our next posting.

Posted to 6 Armoured Division as Adjutant to REME. in the middle of Italy.
We had the problem of crossing the mountains to the River Po where there are huge barriers about 20 feet high round Ravenna.
Slowly we overcame them and we were then free to make for Klagenfurt in Austria.
As we went North there were streams of men travelling south bound for Italy from Austria where they had been prisoners of war.
In the towns we picked up discarded German clothing, badges and Nazi arm bands etc all the way until we reached Klagenfurt where we halted near an S.S. Barracks. We went in to Seisz-Inquarts' (a notorious and most unpleasant German Commander's) house and used it as an Officers Mess.
We were near to Worther, the warmest lake in Europe where we had some superb swimming and arranged one morning to leave for England for the first time since October, 1941.

Back In England
We returned to Klagenfurt and were then posted to England and ordered to go to Andover to join an ordnance depot.
There I found 450 men and 15 officers of which five were REME. ladies.
One of them was rather nice and when we declared our engagement, the quartermaster, Major Agar gave us the Mess Table.
Note this table is still in use today! I was demobbed in June 1945 and got married to the "rather nice" REME lady officer Janie Benvie Salmond.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.