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There is nowhere quite like Naples, but it was to be a long, sometimes cold, sometimes dusty and sometimes dangerous road for me before I would be able to bask in its sunlight and bath in its magical atmosphere.

My journey started in October 1937 in the depression when there was little work to be had, even in London where I had grown up and when I enlisted in the Beds and Herts Regiment.

After 6 months training at Kempton Bks, Bedford I was posted to 2nd Btn at Milton Bks, Gravesend.

I applied to transfer to the RASC and after attending Driving School at Feltham, I was posted to 11 Coy at Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain.

With mobilisation in August 1939, 11 Coy increased from 38 Drivers to 500 all ranks almost overnight.

It was not long before we were boarding the Duke of Rothsay at Newport bound for St. Nazaire. After our arrival in St Nazaire we motored north until we reached the area between Arras and Doullens where we were to spend the cold 39/40 winter and the spring of 1940.

We settled into a routine but everything changed in May 1940 when, faced with the whirlwind German advance we moved forward. Our move forward was short lived however, because we soon found ourselves falling back on Dunkirk in organised chaos.

I was evacuated from the Mole and then experienced quite a hair raising journey back on the heavily ladened destroyer HMS Montrose.

Returning troops were distributed to different parts of the country and I soon found myself in the Vale of Evesham where I met the lady who, two months later, became my wife.

After the initial shock, order returned and the vehicles and equipment we left in France was gradually replaced.

My unit was moved to the South West and I spent much of the next two and a half years in and around Devon.

In 1941 my wife started four years War Service at the Munitions factories at Blackpole and Diglis in Worcester.

In 1942 I left the South West and Christmas Eve 1942 found me at Grennock, aboard the Nea Hellas, a Greek passenger liner, bound for Algiers.

During the voyage, my section was offered the chance to volunteer to serve the ship's secondary anti aircraft armament which meant we slept in cabins on the upper deck.

I spent the greater part of the next year firstly in Algeria and then in Tunisia with the First Army, some of the time serving alongside the Americans.

I first arrived in Naples in mid October 1943. I spent the best part of a year there before being sent to join Ffloyd Force in Yugoslavia in September 1944.

After spending the autumn and winter in the Dubrovnik area in February of early March 1945 we packed up and embarked on landing craft for an overnight crossing to Bari.

I spent a few days in a dreary transit camp before settting off back over the mountains to Naples.

Gradually it became clear that the war in Europe was coming to an end and there was an air of change.

There was a need for Infantry to perform occupation duties. I was posted to a Training Camp and transferred to the London Irish Rifles.

After a few months of security duties, at the end of October 1945 I was sent to a transit camp near Naples airfield.

I returned to UK in a stripped out Liberator. I spend most of the next few months at Keele Hall Camp, North Staffs. The camp was a very large establishment holding personnel from all Irish units awaiting demob.

My number came up on 25th March 1946 when I was demobilized and transferred to the Reserve.

Like most people I was very relieved, but at the same time, it felt rather strange after having been provided with accomodation, clothing, and food et. for so long.

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