RONS WAR

Ronald Hunter Dailly is my father in law. He joined the TA in the late 1930's, then not wanting to miss the action joined up in 1939. After initial training he was selected to be a Radio Operator. Sent to his Squadron in Devon he was then posted to France in 1940.
After a short time, having been sent to France he was 'volenteered' to the Army as they were short of Radio operators.He was posted to the 2nd Field Regiment Royal Artillary where he found himself directing coordinates for Howitzers based at 'Hill 60' (As it was known in WW1) in Belgium. Having gone to his C/O to complain about the noise that the guns made when trying to hear the coordinates on the radio his tent was blown up whilst he was away. After having sandwiches from the cook he was sat behind a lorry and overheard two Officers talking about spiking the guns and distroying the ammunition and marching to Dunkirk. After a days march he was given a number that was where he would be in the queue. He spent three days on the beaches avioding bullets and bombs. He says he ended up in the shallows up to his nose "as it was safer there." When he was picked up by a Distroyer tender 'The Germans were still trying to bomb him.': He was 22 years old.

Returning to England his training as a Radio Operator led him to North Africa. RAF operators were used by the Army for the 'intercepts' that led to the code from Inigma being broken.

His war moved on to the Middle East to set up a radio school in India and then Burma.
Ron readily talks about what he did after the war but never much about Dunkirk. Having seen some scenes from those few days on the programme on BBC2, as one of the few RAF men there, I'm not surprised he he doesn't want to relive them. Seeing the end of the programme might give us a better insight to the early years of his life.

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