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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Chris Comer of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Fred Hirst and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Fred Hirst was called up at the age of 18 and joined the Army at the No.7 Infantry Training Centre on New Burton Road in Lincoln on 12th February 1942. After eight weeks basic training Fred applied for a further eight weeks specialist driver/maintenance training. He was subsequently posted to ‘B’ Company of the 11th Training Battalion York and Lancs Regt., based at Otley in Yorkshire and later transferred to A Company in Egglescliffe, near Stockton on Tees before route marching with them the 20 or more miles to Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

In August 1942 he joined B Company in the 2/5th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters in Kent. Fred seemed to find the atmosphere much more congenial with the Sherwood Foresters.

“In fact all the officers in B Company, Foresters were, perhaps with one exception, human….. There did not seem to be so many petty restrictions, NCOs were not forever nagging and criticising unnecessarily…. But the training was hard….Lt. Col. Stott… told us that we now belonged to and were part of the 46th Infantry Division, which was preparing for overseas service, destination as yet unknown….. I would have done anything to earn praise from Corporal Herbert Littlewood…the leader of our section. Herbert used to call Sissons and me his ‘young soldiers’. We were treated like sensible young men rather than rebellious imbeciles.”

Whilst still in England one day in November Fred heard all the church bells ringing. When they enquired off a local farmer what was going on they heard that a famous victory had been won by the Desert Army at El Alamein and that the enemy was in full retreat.

As Christmas approached in 1942 rumours began to fly that the Company was due to be sent abroad. Fred enjoyed 10 days embarkation leave but by 23rd December 1942 he had boarded the HM troopship “Derbyshire” in Liverpool and on Christmas day they headed out to sea to a destination unknown. Conditions on board were fairly primitive with the men sleeping below decks on hammocks suspended above tables where they ate. As many succumbed to sea-sickness the conditions got worse.

“Many of the troops on the ship were extremely ill and the ablution areas were horribly overflowing…. The smell from the toilets below, which were flowing with unimaginable fluids, was almost unbearable and many of the men stayed up on the main deck for the whole of the trip. The mess tables were empty except for the one or two who were immune from sea-sickness. But gradually men began to trickle back to try a taste of food which slowly became more appetising to them as time went by”.

Fred and his companions speculated about where they were headed. Possibly North Africa in pursuit of the retreating Germans or Burma where troops were suffering dreadful conditions as they fought the Japanese or possibly Tunisia where a battle was raging as allied troops fought to retain a foothold in the hills around Tunis. It turned out to be Tunisia.

Fred Hirst wrote a book about his experiences called ‘A Green Hill Far Away’ Extracts from this book have been reproduced with the permission of the author and the publisher.

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