Remembering VE Day - John's Story
War in Europe
When the war started, I was called up as a regular soldier at the age of 17. I was excited; in those days you thought it was exciting going to war. I was a gun layer and saw through the Blitz in London, as part of the Anti-Aircraft Battery. During the first week of the war,a German Dornier Do flying boat came over on a reconnaissance mission and I had to lay the gun to fire at it. I didn’t hit the Dornier, but knocked a kitchen chimney down. I wasn’t very popular and we weren’t given any breakfast that morning!
In 1943, my regiment went overseas, but I couldn’t go because I was too young. I was transferred to the Essex Regiment. We went on Operation Torch and landed at a place called Bône [now known as Annaba] in Algeria. I got the job of machine gunner, as well as being a radio operator. They poisoned the water in Algeria and I ended up being hospitalised. When I came out, I went to a transit camp to be sent back to my unit. It was at this time they asked for volunteers for the Raiding Support Regiment for the Special Air Service and Partisans. Being young and stupid, I volunteered.
I did my parachute training in Palestine in 1943, jumping out of Wellington bombers. Then we went on Operation Avalanche, in Salerno, Italy. After we’d cleared the Germans out of that area, I was sent on a course to freshen up on my Morse code.
We did operations across the Adriatic coast: Albania, Yugoslavia, Montenegro and Greece. I went on Operation Floxo, in Yugoslavia, in 1944. We landed at Dubrovnik and joined up with the Partisans to help get the Germans out, then moved up to Montenegro. I was given the job of teaching the partisan girls how to use a new radio. We all slept in a big wooden cabin. I had a partisan girl sleeping next to me – she had a belt covered with hand grenades around her!
JOHN, IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE. DON’T TRY TO KILL ANYBODY.
During my time on the Adriatic Coast, I got very friendly with ‘Blondie’ Smith who was in the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). On the way to pick up the Christmas mail, we had a few jugs of the local spirit - raki - not realising how strong it was. We took the wrong turn and realised we were driving through a German-held village. Blondie said to me, “John, it’s Christmas Eve. Fire over their heads, don’t try to kill anybody. Just frighten the life out of them.”
The next operation was in Albania. I was asked to go up a hill and send ‘fire orders’ back. The Italians had a transit camp in Saranda and the Germans were stopping there to refuel. They took us prisoner in a concrete blockhouse with a guard in front. Luckily, my colleague had an automatic hidden in his water bottle. We managed to unsolder the bottle, make the guard open the door, tie him up and get back to our lines. After that, I developed a case of malaria and I had to be evacuated. While I was in hospital, my unit went to Greece and a lot of my friends got killed. I felt very guilty about that.
