Dedication This book is dedicated respectfully to the memory of all those whose 1939-45 lives are documented in the Second World War Experience Centre in Walton, near Wetherby, in North Yorkshire, and to the continued secure development of the archive for the nation First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Pen & Sword Military an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Peter Liddle 2011 ISBN 978 1 84884 233 5 Print ISBN: 978-1-84884-233-5 ePub ISBN: 9781844687381 The right of Peter Liddle to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset in Sabon by Phoenix Typesetting, Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire Printed and bound in England by CPI UK Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction SECTION ONE – THE THIRTIES 1 Wilfred Shaw – Poverty and the Search for Employment 2 Humphrey Prideaux – Eton, Oxford, Germany and India with his British Army Regiment 3 Annie Millar – Working Class Upbringing in Glasgow 4 George Savile – The Education of a Gentleman 5 Joseph Reck – An Orphanage Upbringing in Preston 6 Barbara Castle – Labour Party Conviction and Activism in Oxford and Bradford 7 Peter Hill-Norton – Dartmouth and the Making of a Naval Officer 8 Oswald Mosley – Fascism in Britain SECTION TWO – 1939–1945 AT SEA 1 Loftus Peyton-Jones – Arctic Convoys, Battle of the Barents Sea, Submarine Loss, Capture, Escape, and Successful Evasion 2 Frank Arkle – St Nazaire Raid, Severe Wounds and Captivity 3 Vernon Upton GM – The Merchant Navy in Wartime and Leadership in Lifeboat Survival 4 Henry Leach – Loss of his Father at Sea, the Sinking of Scharnhorst 5 Clarence Smith – USS West Virginia and Disaster at Pearl Harbor IN THE AIR 1 George ‘Ben’ Bennions – Battle of Britain Pilot 2 John Cunningham – Night-Fighter Pilot with Radar 3 William Reid – Lancaster Bomber Pilot VC 4 C.K. ‘Tuck’ Belton, American Air Force Pilot – Shot Down Over Europe, Successful Evader and Work with the Dutch Resistance 5 Heinz Migeod – Luftwaffe Pilot and his National Socialist Beliefs ON LAND 1 Chandos Blair – Capture 1940, Escape 1941 2 Roland Gibbs – Retreat and Advance in North Africa 1942/3 3 Eric Wilson – A Victoria Cross in Somaliland 4 James Dunning – Commando Training, the Lofoten Islands and Dieppe Raids 5 Richard Wood – The Management of Personal Disaster in North Africa 6 Joachim Ronneberg – Norwegian Leader of the Telemark Raid 7 Mike Gibson Horrocks – Infantry Action in Italy from Cassino Northwards 8 Gerhard Kaeppner – A German in the fighting for Cassino and Normandy 9 James Bradley – Prisoner of the Japanese, the Siam/Burma Railway, Escape and Japanese Retribution 10 David Smiley – Household Cavalry in the Middle East and North Africa, SOE in Albania and Siam 11 Sidney Scroggie – A Scot's way to Triumph over Disaster in Italy 12 Tony Younger – Dunkirk 1940, D-Day 1944, Crossing of the Rhine 1945 13 John Killick – Arnhem, Capture and Captivity 14 Rodney Percy – Factory Work, Home Guard and Burma ON THE HOME FRONT 1 Mary Blackmore – Hull Blitz, Women's Land Army and Bletchley Park 2 Irene Broughton – Mill Girl, Wartime Bride, and Pregnant Widow 3 Madge Wear – Overseas Evacuee Escort and Bermondsey Blitz Re- housing 4 Bill Wootton – Bomb Disposal in London 5 Frank Robinson – Bevin Boy in a Yorkshire Pit 6 Joan Bright Astley – In Corridors of Power 7 Fanny Hugill – The Wrens, D-Day and Admiral Ramsay 8 John Bishop – A Conscientious Objector 9 Maria Jankowska – A Polish Woman and Resistance, the Warsaw Uprising 10 Manya Stern – A Polish Jewess, Life under German Occupation, Forced Labour, Bergen-Belsen 11 Patricia Solk – ATS Driver, Mechanic and Dispatch Rider