Gnr. John Mellard
British Army 8th Survey Regiment Royal Artillery
from:Nottingham
My father John Mellard was a coal miner and, as such, exempt from military service. However, he got a transfer from the pit face to a surface job and re-applied and was enlisted on 30th of October 1940 into the Royal Artillery. After completing his training, he remained in the UK until 5th of February 1943, when he was shipped to North Africa aboard a Dutch luxury liner that had been used as a troop carrier called the Johann van Oldenbarnevelt. I recall that he participated in battles in many places like Mersa Matruh, Medjez-el-Bab, Katmattyfoo, Wadi El Kabir. When Rommel had been driven out of North Africa and the war had essentially finished there, my father started training for the invasion at Salerno. His training was completed when Operation Avalanche began.
My father had an old magazine which he showed to me as a child. It contained a photo of him running down the gang-plank from a landing craft. I still have that photo. The irony is that I have been doing some research into my father’s military service and recently found a book called Operation Avalanche which covers the Salerno landings, and the front dust cover is the very same photo of my father running down the gang-plank that he had shown me. My father has been immortalized in a book!
