Pte. Anthony Clark
British Army 5th Btn. Sherwood Foresters
from:Bubwith, Selby
Anthony Clark was my father. He joined the army as soon as he was old enough. After training he went out to Tunisia or Egypt in time to take part in the invasion of Italy. He landed with the second wave in Salerno and moved with the fighting up Italy, crossing the Volturno River and on to Monte Casino. Before the fall of Monte Casino he was invalided out to Naples with TB. He was on HMHS Aba when she was bombed by stukas and narrowly missed being killed when one of the bombs went through the floor in the corridor near his cabin but failed to explode. He clearly remembered Mount Vesuvius erupting and the deck being covered in ash.
He was returned to the UK where he spent several months in a sanatorium in the south of England, and was not expected to survive. Happily he did survive which is why I am here to write this. Unfortunately he died early at the age of 59 from a heart attack. As a child he tended to only tell the more light-hearted stories such as the time he was put in charge of 3 German prisoners. My Father was the platoon Bren Gunner and the prisoners were very interested in the weapon. Dad showed them how to strip it and rebuild it, which was fine until he let them have a go, which was at this point when one of his superiors arrived. Dad said these guys were just like him, they didn't want to fight a war and he saw nothing wrong with being friendly with them. Of course that was not an acceptable excuse and he was put on a charge. Dad never let on about the horrors of war but on this occasion he let something slip that indicated what a hard time he must have had. He said the charge was not followed through because they were short of men and there was only three of them left out of his platoon and they were needed at the front.
