Wally MacKenzie was born on 30th May 1921, and grew up in Irlam, Manchester
Late 1941 saw Wally receive his call up. He enlisted on 8th January 1941 in Liverpool, in the Army. Stripped bare he was A1, at 4 foot 7 inches in old money (140cms ish) and 82lbs, 35 1/2" chest.
He was then put into a room with all the "odd ones" as he put it, but eventually trained as a cook with the Army Catering Corp (part of the Royal Army Service Corps). He was issued with two service chevrons on 28th April 1944. ACC was dedicated to cooking and providing food to keep the rest of the Army going.
In basic training, he quickly learned that to get training runs at his pace, he had to volunteer to lead. His attitude owed much to leaving school at 14 to play in a band in London and tour the UK. This gave him a street wise approach to being away from home comforts, which was invaluable. So he wasn't homesick as many of the other recruits were.
A low point (pun) was when he had to request assistance to remove his bayonet from the straw dummy.
His cookery training was in Wrexham, as part of 4,500 cooks that were needed for the invasion of Europe. He remembers the training to be thoroughly professional, done by Army cooks teaching him everything he needed to know. His training completed, his pay was increased by thrupence (3 old pence) a week as he had passed the course. Then came the waiting and he moved around from camp to camp. Aldershot is remembered, with not much cooking being done, but training in the art of being a soldier continued.
In July 1944 the order came to get into lorries with all kit and two days' rations (not to be touched, on pain of death). It was raining.
In Portsmouth he climbed over boat decks to reach their ship, a tank transporter, and Wally was ushered down in to the bowels of the ship and the hatch slammed shut and locked. Now it was at this moment he decided he wanted his mother. Wally is claustrophobic and I can testify he is to this day.
He had been issued with a Canadian Roche rifle which was as tall as he was, without the bayonet! At the end of the journey the landing craft ramp dropped onto the beach. It was still raining. Frank, his best mate, offered to hold the rifle as Wally jumped off the end of the ramp, which he did. This was all very British, even though Frank was Welsh.
The Battle for Normandy started on 6th June 1944, D-Day, but Wally was not needed till 54 days later. He landed on Gold Beach on 30th July and marched on into a barbed wire enclosure with everybody else, somewhere near Bayeux.
Caen had yet to be taken and Wally did what he was trained to do for the troops now arriving. It was a transit camp for troops passing through and moving forward. As part of the cooks pool he was not fixed, but went where he was told. "Mackenzie report to the RASC for placement" was the usual order. Food was not easily acquired locally as most of the rural area had already been stripped of anything that was edible.
He went to issue points with a chit for food, for a certain number of men. There was an issue of corned beef regularly, the boxes were stamped 1918! Sell by date? Bread was nearly non-existent and stale when there was some.
A most important piece of advice from Wally would be, bring your own can opener, it's difficult and dangerous opening so many tins with a bayonet.
His main base, after landing, was outside Caen and he learned to speak French with a Normandy accent, pointed out on a few occasions on later returns to France.
He had strong ties with families in France and was adopted as a son, which says volumes for his compassion and understanding. The last card he received was in 2005 from a local family, now deceased.
Caen was eventually taken and Wally moved forward into Holland. Holland was eventually passed, though he left his appendix in Brussels and discovered the other side of war. The German soldier in the next bed used to hold Wally on the side of the bed so he could pee. The guy had half his face shot away.
Germany was with a tank recovery unit with the kitchen in the middle of a fuel dump, with two very nervous cooks feeding 30 men. Then on to Hamburg and, wonder of wonders, a proper kitchen at the headquarters.
Wally never knew where he was except in the most basic of terms - he blames it on the Army for not telling him. He had cooked his way across Europe with the only comment It sometimes got a bit naughty with the shelling. He was demobilized in 1946.
