My Father

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steve_pickstock
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My Father

Post by steve_pickstock »

My dad was in 5th Bn Sherwood Foresters, initially in N. Africa then he spent the rest of the war making his way up the Italian Penninsula, before spending some time in Greece and Austria.

Dad did talk about his war time experiences but not much, he was shot at by the Eoki B in Greece, bellowed at by RSM Brittem on the parade ground of an ex SS barracks in Innsbruck, and he was stunned by the Ghurkas passing through his battalion lines on the Volturno without anyone in the battalion knowing that they had been there, which earned his admiration until the day he died.

After his death in 1989 mum spent a lot of time working on the regimental history with other correspondents, amd she showed me a letter once from one of the battalion officers about a time when they suffered a prolonged mortaring. The officer mentioned one of the soldiers as suffering badly from the sounds of the mortars and explosions, and she felt that that soldier was dad as he was never comfortable with loud noises and loud bangs. (unlike me - 38 years in the Sealed Knot and ten years as a pyrotechnist). Which only increased the respect I had for the man.

Dad was a modeller, and in the 70s started making 1/12 and 1/8th scale model farm carts - not just the 'turnip cart' model you see in cahrity shops, but Sicilian Carettas, a Handsome cab, a tub gig, a cart for transporting bulls, various gypsy vans, and a brewer's drey and my own favourite an Iron Age British chariot with steam bent ash side posts and single steam bent ash wheel rims. He and mum took these around Britain to steam rallies and they'd show them off in aid of Riding For The Disabled.

It was because of his love of steam shows that I went with him to exhibit at a Vintage Machinery rally at Malpas in Cheshire, ended up joining the Sealed Knot and my family ended up - my mum and latterly my sister - running the model tent at that rally.

The picture is a brilliant image of an M10 in Italy and my dad told me that he was the man behind thefourth Infantry man in the file of soldiers, you can just see the right hand side of his head.
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