Life in the Army- Chapter 19

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Arthur Ward, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Refer to Chapter 1-- A4345544 -for links to other chapters.

LIFE IN THE ARMY

by
ARTHUR WARD

Chapter 19 — Back to North Africa

BACK TO NORTH AFRICA
September 21, 1943
The Marigot was very uncomfortable for the troops, and it only travelled slowly.

The second day we anchored in Valetta Harbour in Malta and what a sight we saw. The greater proportion of the Italian fleet was anchored in the harbour with all their guns depressed (pointing down to sea). The Italians may have had a poor army, but they had some first class ships. The motor torpedo boats looked very modern and fast. Also included was the battleship "Theodore" which was about the best they had.

We left at noon on the following day in a convoy escorted by 2 destroyers.

When approaching our destination, Bizerta, we were passed by a convoy passing the other way, and in later years, I found out that in the convoy was a small aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn, and my brother Eric, who was in the Fleet Air Arm was on board. They were on their way to Salerno. This was the nearest we had been to seeing each other since I left home.

In the harbour at Bizerta were dozens of allied ships including cruisers, and a monitor with 2 - 15" guns (massive). It certainly looks as though another invasion is imminent.

We unloaded and travelled 4 miles in trucks to the area of 1st Armoured Division at HQ of 4th RHA Regt.

We erected tents, Sergeants' mess etc., and we had very bad thunderstorms which lasted on and off for 3 days with very heavy rain.

We then cleaned up all the area and put stones round the tents and footpaths, and they had to be all painted white.

We saw a show "Flying High" and a film of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in "The Road to Morocco".

October 01, 1943
I played football for ‘A’ Battery against ‘F’ Battery 4th 1 RHA and we won 3-1.

During the match I pulled a muscle in my right leg.

October 02, 1943
I had to report sick to the MO and I had to massage and rest my leg.

We had an inspection and ‘A’ Troop was said to be excellent by the BC.

This was Nessie's 21st Birthday so I wrote to her.

Sunday - Football. I could not play due to my bad leg.

‘A’ Bty 4 v KRRC 2nd 3
2nd Team 3 v KRRC 2nd 1
3rd Team 2 v Royal Corps of Signals 1

Wednesday - We were challenged by Kings Royal Rifle Company and 110th Field Battery RA who have 8 professional footballers in their ranks. I was picked to play, but both matches were cancelled due to heavy rain.

October 05, 1943
Small amount of mail arrived. I had a letter from Jim Dalgleish.

Saw 1st Armoured Division concert at 4 RHA HQ.

We were now playing football every day as we did not have much else to do.

We saw several concerts at Queens Hall. Heavy rain most days.

One day we went to the Sgts'. mess at ‘C’ Bty 4th RHA where we had a 6 course dinner and plenty wine, and we were entertained by a pianist and an American all coloured band.

The dinner was called "Farewell to Texas", as this was the name given to the area.

Two days later we moved, and a large amount of mail came up for the Regt. There were 14 mail bagfulls. I received 14 letters and a parcel of newspaper (from Auntie Francis).

We moved by truck to the railway station at Bizerta. We boarded cattle wagons and I was in charge of one with 26 men crowded into it. There was one coach (with seats) for the officers. We travelled by stages for 4 days via Mjez El Bab, Setif, Duvivier and arrived at 04:00 hours at Maison Carree, which was 5 miles from Algiers. We boarded trucks and travelled 15 Kilometres to a farm in the Sidi Moussa area.

The gunners all slept in a large white painted building which was used for making wine. We all had a look round at some massive vats which held the wine and presses which were used to squeeze the juice from the grapes. The Sergeants slept in tents in the orchard. The orchard had apples, pears, lemons, oranges and large grapefruits.

We dug trenches round the tents and made tables etc., as we could be here for a long time. We constructed a large Sergeants' mess from 50 gallon oil drums, all stood on end, then fixed timbers and draped canvas covers over to keep out rain. Being a bricklayer, my job was to build a fireplace with bricks.

We fixed up electric lights so we were more comfortable here than we had been for a very long time.

The next day, a truck load of us went to Algiers for half a day. We went to the pictures and saw Noel Coward in "In Which We Serve" - a war picture. We went to a canteen and a vino (wine) shop and a restaurant where the French owners charged us top prices.

Another day we went for a walk around the shops, but everything was too dear for us and coupons were needed for most things.

On these visits to Algiers, I went with Sgt. Bob Pace and Sgt. Tiffy Smith.

On this visit we met 3 sailors from HMS Rodney, a battleship which was in the harbour. They were waiting to go home on leave. We then went to the Splendid Cinema and saw Tommy Trinder in "The Foreman Went To France". The film started at 21:00 hours and we caught the truck back at 23:00 hours.

On Monday night we met the sailors again and all had a good ration of drinks, mostly Muscatel.

The sailors had more than us and they "passed out". We tried to carry or drag them to the docks, but the Naval Shore Patrol saw us and they arrested them and took them to the Navy 'clink' - We did not see them again.

One day we had a big session of drinking, then went to the pictures but when the film started, Smudger Smith and I just about passed out, but Bob Pace managed to get us back to the truck where we slept all night, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

The mail was still very poor, very little getting through to us.

October 25, 1943
Had an air-letter from my mother on 25 October 1943 posted on 20 October, which was quicker than any others received and it said that our Eric was home on leave after they had supported the Salerno landings on the Unicorn, which was a small aircraft carrier.

October 26, 1943
Played football at Rivet and we beat a Troop Carrying Co. (RASC) by 4 goals to 0. The RASC team had Bullock (ex Wolves) and Davey (ex Birmingham) and a Rugby International playing for them.

November 01, 1943
2 letters from home and 2 from Nessie, mail was now improving.

I was made No.1 of ‘B’ Subsection in the absence of Sgt. Reed who had to go to hospital.

The sub now is:
No.1 L/Sgt A Ward
Bdr Beach
Bdr Nicholls
L/Bdr Pridmore
Gunners:
Cox
Gregson
Woodward
Ross
Signaller Simms

November 02, 1943
A very heavy rain storm. The days were getting cooler and we were issued with battledress, so we had the job of sewing on stripes, RA flashes and Rhinos (1st ‘A’ Div.). We saw several films, James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at the Star picture house, Ginger Rogers in "Tom Dick and Harry at the Rio", Jack Oakie, Don Ameche in "Something to Shout About" at the Olympia and in the camp we saw 2 training films, a Popeye cartoon and Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in "Caught In The Draft". I had 3 inoculations for Typhus.

I played in football matches:
‘A’ Bty 2nd 0 v RHQ 1
‘A’ Bty 1st XI 2 v ‘F’ Bty 4th RHA 1

One day I had a walk to ‘C’ Battery of 4th RHA and saw Norman Paley (ex 70th ), he left on November 12, 1943 to go back to Blighty.

I received another air letter from home which only took 4 days - different from times in the desert when a letter took 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. We were now visiting Algiers every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

We had a usual routine, had a walk in the park, tea at the Sgt. and W.O.'s club and then to a cinema. We were not drinking as much vino now as we realised it was not doing us any good, also at very inflated prices.

More pictures were "The Moon Is Down", "The Lady Vanishes".

In the park we usually saw a French nurse, aged about 23, who took a baby for a walk. We chatted to her in broken French but I am afraid we did not do very well. I was disappointed afterwards that I had not used my knowledge of French, learnt at school, more, but I was too shy to say much.

One day we went to a cinema near by Bau Farick and saw "Parachute Battalion".

Football: ‘A’ Battery 1 v Queens Bays Regt. 0 This was a good match 100 men from the Queens Bays were entertained by our gunners.

We invited 10 Sergeants to our mess and we all enjoyed the night until 01:30 hours.

I played for the Regt. and we drew 2-2 with 76th Anti Tank Regt.

Another big match 11th (HAC) RHA 2 v Sherwood Foresters 2. This was an excellent game (away) there was a very big and excited crowd of spectators. It was for the Divisional Knockout Cup and we had to play extra time in which no team scored.

December 01, 1943
This match was replayed and Foresters won 2-1, but the Regt. was under strength as A Battery (me included) were away at a firing camp.

To fill in our time, we had to attend various courses and I was on a MT Course for vehicle maintenance. I was lucky with the questions and received 96%.

‘A’ Bty. 2 v RHQ 2

‘A’ Troop 0 v ‘B’ Troop 2. In this match near half time the ball burst and we hadn't another one.

Now we were having heavy rain and very strong winds.

Pr-BR

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.