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Pte George William Chapple
British Army 91st Field Bakery Royal Army Service Corps
from:Blyth, Northumberland
George Chapple was my grandfather, he was born 23rd February 1918, he was a master baker at Charlton’s Bakery in Blyth and was a keen footballer. George was married to Hannah Ainsley on 23rd of July 1939, he was planning to change his occupation and go down the pit as a miner but as this was a protected occupation he was advised it would look better if he joined up first.
He enlisted on 23rd of January 1941 his trade is Baker class 1, Corps R.A.S.C No.9 training Btn (D). On 23rd May 1941 he was transferred to 38 Field Bakery (mobile). On 24th June 1942 he transferred to 72 Field Btn( mobile). He then transferred on 3rd November 1943 to 91st Field Bakery (mobile) and he embarked into the field on 14th of July 1944 with the 21st Army Group. He would have arrived in Normandy, France and traveled through Belgium and Germany. He embarked back to the UK on 10th July 1946. Testimonial on his papers states "An excellent baker, Reliable and trustworthy a first class man in every way".
According to my mum he spoke little about the war, she remembers a few stories. He had a friend, a Welsh man, even though my grandad was only 5ft 3" himself he called him short. He couldn’t reach the pedals on the truck and had to have blocks put on them so he could drive, sadly one day on the road he hit a land mine and was blown up and killed instantly, my grandad was directly behind him and he said there were Germans all over. He turned his truck quickly off the road and across the field to get away. He smashed his head on the steering wheel and slit both of his eyebrows.
Another occasion he said they were exhausted and fell asleep in a cemetery, in the morning when they woke up they were not alone and a group of German soldiers were also waking up. Luckily the Germans put up their hands and became prisoners of war, he said they were hungry and ready to give up.
I am looking forward to finding out more about his time in the army.
