245707 Cpl. Terence Maurice "Ted" FitzGibbon British Army B Coy, 6th Btn. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from:Slough, Bucks. I know very little of my father Ted FitzGibbon's war-time experience, except that he served as part of the 8th Army under Montgomery and was part of the invasion of Sicily.
He mentioned once having to hoof it back to camp in Egypt because the allied soldier's bad behaviour on the local buses had led to a ban on the bus drivers taking the troops back to camp after a certain hour.
Passing an obviously drunk Aussie soldier at the bus stop, and well past the cut-off time, Dad advised the soldier to not wait to which the Aussie replied that he knew the bus would be making an exception that night. Knowing the bus was soon to pass that stop Dad decided to wait a few minutes just in case.
The bus soon appeared and, judging by its approaching speed, clearly had no intention of stopping. At the opportune moment, the Aussie staggered to his feet and hurled a rock straight at the windshield, which shattered and prompted the driver to stop, mopping the blood and rock residue from his face.
"Told you it would stop tonight", said the Aussie, "Let's get on".
One other anecdote which Dad told me, thousands of British troops were marshalled in Egypt in the run-up to the battle of El Alamein. The army occupied them with drills and other work in the hot desert sun. Hoping to avoid this fate, Dad and a few friends volunteered to repair the dance floor of an air-conditioned dance club that had been turned over for use as a temporary officers' club. The vibration from bombs had sprung the oak planks. None of the workers had any experience repairing a dance floor they had lied about their qualifications. It took perfect timing to complete the work immediately before they left for the front secretly burning several planks they never could get to fit.
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