A few weeks later whilst we were on a training exercise in the mountains of South Wales we suddenly found ourselves on embarkation leave. Mother was very worried about me, but I did my best to assure her that I would be alright. When I got back to billets rumours were rife as to where we were to be posted. We traveled by train from Regents Park Barracks, London, to Glasgow where we boarded a stinking hell hole of a troopship, which eventually landed us at a port in Algeria. We moved from Phillipville to Bone where we guarded Italian Prisoners of War, then to the outskirts of Constantine where we carried out some very hard training in the surrounding mountains.

In November I applied for leave to visit my brother Charles grave at Medjez El Bab, this was granted and I was given three days leave from 19th to 22nd November. Traveling the two hundred odd miles from Constantine to Medjez El Bab by train where I found my brothers grave together with several more “boys” in a cactus grove. I slept the night of the 19th in the open on the railway station and in the morning scrounged some breakfast and started to walk to Tunis some thirty miles away. Fortunately I was able to “thumb a lift” in an army lorry and subsequently found a bed in a Forces Hostel for a couple of nights, which enabled me to see the sights of Tunis before returning to Constantine to join the Battalion.

On December 3rd we traveled by lorry back to Tunis, a distance of 260 miles and then on to Carthage, where we set up camp near the beach. It was bitterly cold and snow fell from time to time and living in tents was most uncomfortable. We were confined to “Barracks” and again rumours abounded. Eventually we found we were guarding President Roosevelt, General Eisenhower and others who had been attending a Conference with Stalin and Mr. Winston Churchill in Teheran, Persia.

On the 9th December President Roosevelt and his party departed and on the 11th December we were prepared for another V.I.P. this time it was the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill with a whole retinue of high ranking officers and the Prime Minister’s daughter Sarah. Later it emerged that Mr. Churchill was suffering from pneumonia. There were all sorts of scares and fears of attack and we were constantly on guard. Christmas cards had already been sent in home by airgraph in November but the Christmas of 1943 was spent like any other day, on guard. On the 27th December the Prime Minister was now able to travel and a guard of honour was formed early that morning when he left, we were given five days leave in Tunis.

Charles Cross at Medjez El Bab

On 29th December a remembrance service was held in St. George’s Church, Tunis and I was most upset when I saw brother Charles name on the memorial. We eventually returned to Constantine for further training and then on the 3rd February, 1944 embarked for Italy.

 East Anglia Network

ron@britain-at-war.org.uk