Gilbert Clark

At the beginning of the war I joined the local Defence Volunteers here in Froyle. After receipt of Calling Up Papers I was summoned for a Medical at Knolls Hall, Knolls Road, Aldershot - passed A1. Then requested to report to Devonport, Plymouth to join the Army, where I underwent 6 weeks training. After this I volunteered for the Commandoes at Hillsea Barracks, Portsmouth, for 3 months training. After this training I was sent to join the Tank Corps at Castle Donnington and was assigned as a driver of Sherman Tanks. Then the Unit was sent to Tunbridge Wells and then back to Wesber Green, Petworth, to enable the drivers to waterproof the tanks and have white stars painted on them ready for the invasion. We were then sent to Southampton and embarked on landing craft. We were then 5 days in the English Channel until d-day, when we landed on the Normandy Beaches. We fought through France, Belgium and Holland, crossing the Rhine at Nijmegen to back up the Airborne Forces at Arnhem, then on to the Black Forest in Germany, from there on to Breman. I was here when the Germans surrendered.
I came back to England and came home on 14 days leave. Was then sent to Tripoltamia in North Africa, then on to Ciro in Egypt and then on to Poona in India. We were on our way to fight the Japs when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and they surrendered.
I then stayed on in India, 51st Mountain Division, training the Indian troops, until I was demobbed on B. release in 1946.