236326 Pte. Charles Henry Moneypenny British Army 16th Battalion Durham Light Infantry from:London Dad, Charles Moneypenny was called up by the Army in 1939 at the age of 19, his army medical examination revealed he had a murmur of the heart and he was advised that he could decline army enrolment, he chose to enlist.
Dad spoke very little about his time in the Army but did mention a few things, I will endeavour to recall his memories as accurately as possible as he told them to me, they are not in any particular order.
It wasn't uncommon for soldiers to take refuge in bombed buildings. I don't know where he was at this time, he may have told me but I cannot remember. He was with his unit in a bombed and deserted house. The men were hungry and eating their rations. There was no running water in the house so my dad went outside to find some water. Almost immediately after he left the building it was hit by a bomb throwing dad to the ground. Dad was unharmed but all the soldiers in the building were killed. Dad lost all his comrades in one moment in time.
Dad returned home in 1944 for a two week R&R, he married mum then returned to his unit. They were sent to Greece
He couldn't remember the name of the place he was sent to, just that it was high in the mountains. Greece was on our side at that time and were friendly with the soldiers. One night, dad was talking to one of the Greek boys, a teenager. Dad gave him a cigarette and the boy said to him, today you are my friend, tomorrow you will be my prisoner. The following day Greece switched sides in the war and my dad and his unit were taken prisoner by the Greeks. They were marched for days further up into the mountains where they were thrust into a shack with sacks of hay scattered over the floor, that was their bedding. Dad was a prisoner of war in this shack until the war ended, a period of just over one year. The men were frightened to sleep because during the night the rats came and bit them, their food consisted of dry biscuits which, according to dad, were as hard as bullets, they drank only water. They were covered in fleas and other parasites having to be deloused when they were finally released.
Meanwhile, back in the U.K. my mum had received a letter from the War Office, your husband is missing, believed dead. Dad walked back through her door at the end of the war, she had received no warning that he was coming.
After a week-long battle (maybe more, time didn't mean much to him) and heavy losses on both sides, dad was walking through the battle field. He turned a German soldiers body over to see if he was still alive. The German had a massive hole where the middle of his torso should be, it was filled with wriggling maggots.
There were many times when the men were completely exhausted. This particular time dad was on guard duty at night, he fell asleep from exhaustion. He was caught in the act by his sergeant and court-marshalled, his punishment was peeling potatoes with a knife in the cook house for the troops, a job he was not good at and they ended up with more peelings than potatoes.
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