224549 Cpl. Sydney William "Doug" Aster British Army C squadron 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) from:Hackney, London My brother Sydney Aster was called up in about 1941 and trained at Bovingdon Camp in Dorset. He served with the Queens Bays in North Africa, Italy and was at the battle for Monti Casino.
At one time, together with a sargent, he was captured and made to sit one side of a camp fire. When all of a sudden the sargent jumped up and took hold of the brazier, which held the fire, and lifted it up all over the Germans and they both ran like wild. Needless to say the sargent suffered from burns on the hands, but was a brave man.
Being at the front of the action in the desert, whilst they had a short rest, they could see dust in the distance and were ready for action, only to be confronted by two old dears in a tea waggon. They shouted out would you like a nice cup of tea boys. Everyone was amazed at how they got there, part of the area was mined, the waggon had lost its way, they would loved to have said yes please, but the enemy was very close as they were in the front line!
One old dear said is that boy all right round there, they told her yes he is sleeping, but really he had been killed in action. They quickly rounded up someone to escort them quickly back well behind the front lines. Lets hope they made it!
It was not very often that friends could be made, for as soon as replacements came up they could be killed the next minute. He often took up position of Tank Commander due to the causality list.
As with all the brave men he never talked very much about the war, he was wounded in Italy holding a bridge and was hospitalised for a time at Zabratha, where he remembered wandering amongst Roman Ruins. I wish he could have told me more, but he passed away in 1976.
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