Spr. Ronald Keith Cleave Military Medal 256 Field Company Royal Engineers
My Father enlisted at Collompton in Devon on the 19.10.1939. He was 19 at the time. He had happy memories of training camps where local villagers would supply the troops with tea and buns or on passes out of camp they would be bought pints of beer in a local pub. One time I know he and a mate nearly missed the train taking them to their next posting while being entertained by some local villagers in the pub. They made it by the skin of their teeth.
Dad's company was posted to the Orkneys around Christmas time where their job was building the huts that the troops following on behind would use. It was bitterly cold, not much cheer that Christmas. Once their posting there was finished they travelled back by train. My father talked about how slow the train travelled, they could pick wild flowers on the trackside at times. There were stops at stations where buckets of tea were provided.
My Dad also talked about being involved in laying booby traps on the beaches to prevent an invasion of the South Coast.
Like lots of other troops Dad served in Africa. They travelled by ship and landed in South Africa and saw the Table Top mountain. He also experienced the Colour Bar when he went into a local pub and was told he was in the wrong bar, he was in the black's bar. The landlord tried to order the other men out, but My father insisted they stayed. I don't know how long he was in South Africa, but he ended up in the deserts of Iraq.
While he was in the desert my father spoke of how every week they would all have to take their beds apart and debug them. Every morning before putting on his boots he had to turn them upside down and bang them on the floor so that any scorpions or other poisonous creatures fell out.
Travelling in the desert was hard, very hot by day, very cold by night. The armoured vehicles broke down or overheated at times. Drinks of tea were made by using water from the vehicle's radiator.
As an engineer my father was involved in laying mines and defusing them where neccessary. He also helped build the Bailey bridges which were used to create quick routes over rivers and gorges. Often these were to replace previous ones which had been destroyed by the enemy.
After the Africa Campaign my Father was sent to Italy. He won his Military medal there in Callibreto. He defused some mines while under enemy fire. While in Italy he saw Venice and didn't think much of the canals which were rather dirty at the time. While in Italy he developed a love of Opera or to be more exact Opera Houses. Dad found they were often the only place that he could get a beer.
On the 20.6.44 my Father was taken ill with pneumonia and was off sick for a few weeks. I remember he told me that while sick he was given M+B tablets which he thought was a type of penicillin.
For a while my father was stationed in Austria which he loved. The beautiful scenery and the majestic mountains enthralled him. He stayed at a place called Seeboden and worked for 6 months building hutted camps and hospitals. Sapper Cleave left Austria from Villach station on 17.02.46 he was bound for Calais and then Blighty. Dad was demobbed in 1946, but remained on the reservist list till the day he died in 2007.
Amongst my father's effects I found a letter he wrote to PR Sgt. dated March 2nd 1945.
Subject. Loss of bayonet.
I beg to report the loss of my bayonet which occurred during training on March 1st '45. A large area of ground was covered during this training and a search proved of no avail. I beg to deny the loss was through my neglect.
My father enjoyed telling his stories of his time in the army. He never told of awful things, just the interesting and happy bits. It wasn't until he was in his 80s that we found out the truth behind his Military Medal. He seemed to enjoy the camaraderie of army life.
