Didn't you once go past a cinema that was bombed?
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'Aye, me and Cookie.'
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Norman Cook, also from Thornley and also captured at Sedjenane in March 1943.
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'We were going down to the range at Hythe, I think it was Hythe, there was a big range down there, used to fire out to sea, the Channel, and we used to go from Winchelsea to Rye and then to Hythe. Well, me and Norman Cooke we were on the back of the truck and we went through Rye and, just like the Ritz'
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A cinema built in Thornley just before the war.
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'They'd just built a new cinema there--you know, in the Thirties. So we were going through Rye and we were looking out the back and I says, "Oh, there's a good film on there. Is the on owt tonight?"
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'He says "Nor." I says, "I'm not either. We'll come down and go to the pictures." "Aye, if we get back soon enough."
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'Anyway, we went through. We were on the range all day, it was an all day job, firing and taking your haversack
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rations with you. They had these dixies of tea when you had your sandwiches and that. You used to eat them. And
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then when we came back at night, the bloody picture house, the bugger was flat! They'd dropped a bomb on it during the day. There was a few killed I think, cleaners, the manager.'
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Didn't General Montgomery have his HQ in the same area?
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'We used to see him regular. Why aye, he was stationed there, he was in a big house in Winchelsea. His staff used to come into our NAAFI. We had like a little bungalow thing, that was the NAAFI, and they used to come in there, his drivers and ATS. He had a big staff. The jeep, used to see him coming along the road.'
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And you had to salute?
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'Oh aye. The officer was always in front of you. Used to have to give the 'Eyes right' as he went past. Of course, you could see who it was, with a sergeant driving him in the jeep. Oh, we used to see him regular and then they all just disappeared. The next thing we knew he was out in North Africa.'
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And when did you know you'd be going overseas?
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'It was about September time, October time and we all got seven days leave, seven days Embarkation leave. Well we all knew we were going abraod when we got back there.'
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But did you know where?
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'We hadn't a clue. We knew we were going abroad. That was it. And then we got back down there and we went to Camberley, near Aldershot. We were there a couple of weeks. Got inspected by the King. The whole brigade, three battalions, maybe the whole division. And then we entrained, at Farnborough, I think. Kitbags and everything. Night time. We all got on the train, a special train and finished up at Liverpool on the docks and then stright on the ship. It was a troop carrier, MV Staffordshire, a motor vessel. Oh, it was a big 'un, maybe 12,000 tons.
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And how many men would have been on it?
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There were three ships all together, it was a fast convoy, three or was it four troopships? They were all big 'uns.
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Christmas Day we set sail, about half past eleven in the morning.'
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Did they let you go out into the town on Christmas Eve?
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'What! We were on the bloody ship there!'
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For how long before it sailed?
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'We were on two nights at least.'
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And you weren't allowed on shore?
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'You got off the train and you were straight up the gang plank!'
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NEXT PAGE: CQMS W ‘JIMMY’ JAMES’S MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS DAY 1942
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