North Africa

An Innocent Abroad

After the breakthrough we followed up the army's progress to Tunisia and subsequently Sicily and...

South to Africa: John Side 5

On July 2nd I caught a train at midnight from Euston railway station in London; this took me to Dewsbury...

RAF Wireless Operator Air Gunner Egypt (1) - Sign on and Training

My maths not being up to much I was offered the post of W/Op Air gunner and was asked what I thought...

What Did You Do In The War Daddy? -Part 7 (chapter 8 continued)

A particularly memorable day was when we got stuck in soft sand on the edge of the Qattara Depression, a...

Emille Baudot Part III

Other than that, we had three two-day stops at sea to do repairs to the boilers before we reached Bombay...

H. D. Hugill SGT Story

On one side of the station was the river Euphrates then out airstrip then a plateau of hills which took us...

Doug Chandler: Dunkirk and Beyond: With the Royal Signals

From Catterick my unit was moved to Derbyshire prior to embarking from Portsmouth to Le Havre in France. I...

My Introduction to War

There was dust visible ion the distance and the officer told us we had no time for breakfast, every vehicle...

An RAF LAC and his Luftwaffe Counterpart?

My father used this man's camerato take photographs of himself in the same locations in Tripoli where...

The Sinking of the Latona

I had been thinking about returning below ship when I realised that my steel helmet was missing, while...

Sid’s Story Part 2 - Eighth Army

Sid was posted to the Eighth Army and set sail from Scotland in the Queen Elizabeth for twenty-eight days....

Army Beds

Another variation for Tank crews, was to slump over the main gun for a few if not forty winks, providing...

My Dad and "Friendly Fire": 10th Field Ambulance in Tunisia

My Dad, Walter Emm, served with the 10th Field Ambulance in Tunisia, Italy and Greece....

Airborne: Memories of an RAF Navigator/Radio Operator

We had been airborne at extremely low level over the North Sea for 1.5-2 hours with the pigeon in a...

My Desert Rat Mate, Alec.

From behind his wheel coverage, Alec saw Daisy just standing there with his hands on hips while bullets...

Sixty years on, The First Army remembered

The task of First Army, together with the Americans who were landing in Morocco and allied naval and air...

Desert Rats, Scorpians and Ditches!!

Dad has told many stories about his time as a Guardsman on guard duty at Buckingham Palace in 1938. My...

WW2 through My Mothers Eyes

At one point my Auntie went to work in an ammunition factory nearby whilst my Mum looked after the children...

Arthur Sawyer's War - as told by his son John

My name is John Sawyer and this is my Dad's story - 4919457 Pte. During training he became friends with...

Blown Up in Nth Africa (56 Recce)

I was serving as a Driver/Mech and an Anti Tank Gunner and was sitting in the rear of the vehicle which is...

Some Machine Guns and a Military Medal

We fought the Italian army in the desert and beat them, but this time Hitler had sent the German army to...

Memories 3b

Load the Regiment's guns and trucks, including “Patricia”, my pride and joy, on to the...

Saving Comrades, Losing Comrades: Service with the Royal Engineers

I found this bloke wounded and I put him on my back and we walked along and we came across an Italian...

My Dad: Jack Longworth

Like many men who served in World War II my Dad Jack Longworth was always loathe to talk about his wartime...

RAF Wireless Operator Air Gunner Egypt (5) - Shalufa and 2nd Crew

Geoffrey Simpson, Jackie Horrocks Bernard Myers and Tom Smith. One of the interesting incidents with this...

Fred Hirst's Part 2 Serving with the Sherwood Foresters in Tunisia 1943 and Capture by the Germans

Fred Hirst's Part 2 Serving with the Sherwood Foresters in Tunisia 1943 and Capture by the Germans. As...