Second World War Lives by James Goulty

Author:James Goulty [Goulty, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Military, World War II, reference, Modern, General, Genealogy & Heraldry
ISBN: 9781848845022
Google: wapTLwEACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2012-11-15T23:25:05.620950+00:00

Chapter 7

An Infantryman on the Italian Front – Bill Titchmarsh

During the Second World War the Army ‘absorbed nearly three million men, three-quarters of whom were conscripts’.1 These men came from a variety of backgrounds and had to be moulded into effective soldiers. Bill Titchmarsh was one of those who experienced life at the sharp end as an infantryman, particularly at Anzio which he later described as a ‘slaughterhouse’.2

Bill was born in August 1921 and was one of seven children whose father was often away at sea. Educated at the Royal Merchant Navy School Bearwood, Berkshire, he was destined to follow suit but seasickness prevented this. In the early 1940s he lived with his family in Southampton and worked as a ‘cardex clerk’ at the Supermarine Spitfire works at Woolston, ‘during the day all the tools required were put on a chit and signed by the foreman and passed to me and I would write it on the card index system and then the supervisor used to check them and do the ordering’.3

Soon he experienced the war at first hand as Southampton’s aircraft industry became a target for the Luftwaffe. He had joined the LDV as a messenger boy equipped with a bicycle and rifle but no ammunition. During one air raid the string holding his rifle to the bicycle snapped and went through the spokes sending him flying. He was very lucky. The next bomb fell 150yd away and the blast would probably have killed him had he still been upright.

At Woolston there was a sandbag emplacement with a Lewis gun. Bill used to be allowed to sit there provided he told the LDV Sergeant in a nearby pub if there was any trouble.

One night a Jerry plane came down river . . . gliding about 500ft, engines cut out and I could see the people in the plane but I didn’t know how to fire the gun. I could have shot it down like that! I followed it all the way round . . . I dashed in and told the men but they didn’t believe me of course.4

Bill witnessed the effects of the bombing on his local community. He had to help a friend’s father, who suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis, into their air-raid shelter. While 200yd from his house a school suffered a direct hit.

Owing to the bombing aircraft production was dispersed. Subsequently, Bill was sent to a factory at Trowbridge, Wiltshire. He didn’t enjoy it. When his call-up papers arrived instead of handing them in to be marked as a reserved occupation he posted them back. A fortnight later he received an envelope containing a rail ticket and a 1s postal order for lunch.

The train from Southampton stopped near Weymouth owing to a landslide. Everyone had to walk to the station. With around twenty other men, Bill was met by soldiers who herded them onto trucks destined for Bodmin. Here they were to do their basic training with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.

After a few days Bill was promoted squad leader and summoned to a meeting about the mess.

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