Recollections of wartime service with Royal Army Service Corps.
When the Second World War started I was employed in a reserved occupation as a livestock driver for a company near Chichester West Sussex. Distribution of livestock was strictly controlled by the Ministry of Food, and I worked long hours delivering livestock to various locations in the South of England.Many of my friends had been called up and I decided that I would enlist. After a few weeks training, I was posted to Egypt with 509 Ammunition Company RASC, part of 44th Infantry Division, travelling by troop ship via Freetown and Cape Town to Port Said. There we reformed as 454 Divisional Troops RASC. Our role in Egypt was to support the Infantry and Artillery by delivering ammunition, fuel and other stores. Our vehicles were Bedford trucks which, being only two-wheel drive, were inclined to get bogged down in sand so progress was often difficult. The sand also had a terrible effect on the engines and carburettors and few of these vehicles lasted for more than 10,000 miles.
After 9 months the El Alamein campaign started, on 23rd October 1942, my 20th birthday. The heavy artillery required huge quantities of ammunition as there was a massive artillery barrage in support of the Infantry whose job was to clear paths through the minefields to allow tanks to pass through.
After the campaign, we were based on the Tobruk escarpment where the African Pioneer Corps were engaged in breaking sandstone rocks into small pieces which were then used to form the foundation of the runways on a new airfield, which was later to be used as a base for bombing Italy.
After Tobruk, 454 Company was disbanded and we were sent to 258 General Transport Company (Heavy Duty) in Palestine where we drove 4-wheel drive Chevrolet trucks which were much more suitable to the terrain. Among our tasks were trips across the Syrian border to buy fruit and vegetables. We also made one trip across the desert to Aqaba (driving on a compass bearing as there were no roads) to relieve the British detachment there who had been cut off by flooding.
After 3 years in Palestine I was repatriated to England and posted to Dumfries where I was Corporal in charge of a motor pool at a POW camp at Galashiels. I was finally demobbed in 1947 and returned to my home in West Sussex
