The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

217302 Patrick Mahoney British Army Royal Army Service Corps My Dad, Patrick Mahoney served in the RASC. Here are his words from a piece he wrote for a computer course he did when he was 80 years old. My Dad is now 92 and has just gone into a nursing home. I so hope this may be of interest to people finding out information from the whereabouts of the RASC. 'In 1938 got my first driving licence and with the threat of war with Germany, joined the Territorial Army giving a false age. Called up in 1939 I found myself for a short time riding a bike commandeered from my firm. Being too young(even with my false age) to be sent abroad, was posted to another transport unit and was in Manchester until 1941 including the blitz when we were supplying the gun-sites with ammunition and other supplies. After the Battle of Britain most of our unit were posted to the Middle East, where I was sent to an independent transport company. With this unit I was to travel many miles and do a variety of jobs. These included twice crossing the Arabian Desert, first from Suez to the Iraqi oil wells at Kirkuk in winter, lots of snow and bitterly cold, second to Persia (now Iran) in summer in extreme heat. This trip saw us bringing back Polish women refugees who had crossed the Caspian Sea and were en route to Palestine. Soon after this Tobruk had fallen and we arrived in the Western Desert, where we carried troops, ammunition and all manner of supplies in preparation for the well known Battle of El Alamein. When this was won we followed the Axis troops across North Africa to Tunis, again doing a variety of jobs from carrying front line infantry to a field bakery. After this all our vehicles were given to other units for the invasion of Sicily and we had to take a load of worn out lorries to Egypt for repair. We made tow bars from railway lines, anything that would run towed those that would not and from Tunis to Suez was a long long way!! We then went to Italy, landed in Taranto but our repaired vehicles went to Naples from where we eventually sailed home to prepare for D-day. From D day + 10 until demobilisation in 1946 it was service across Europe from France to Germany, the main job being a shuttle run carrying coal from the Ruhr to Hamburg'. I truly hope this gives some history to people tracing the foot steps of relatives and of interest to others. My dad is a remarkable man and I wish him a happy and long stay in his new home. Amanda Hayes Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps Operation Husky - Sicily Siege of Tobruk D Day and the Battle of Normandy Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.