Maurice goes down memory lane
0 Comments | Herald Express; Torquay (UK), Jun 26, 2010 | by GLENN PRICE
SECOND World War veteran Maurice Redgers will make special trips to commemoration sites and museums in the south of England, courtesy of the Big Lottery Fund.
Maurice, from Newton Abbot, received a grant this week enabling him to visit sites in Portsmouth and Plymouth. He is one of 1,285 veterans, spouses, widows and carers to benefit from the Lottery’s Heroes Return 2 programme since it was launched in April 2009.
Maurice’s wartime story began in 1942 when, as an 18-year-old, he joined up with the Fleet Air Arm. After undergoing special training courses in woodwork and metalwork, he became an air fitter responsible for maintenance and repair of fighter aircraft. In July 1944 he was posted to an aircraft maintenance base on Gibraltar.
He said yesterday: “We were very busy and always on the move. There were plenty of aircraft passing through, from all over the world, some really badly damaged. Tragically, some planes would crash on their way in. There were always new planes coming through from the American carriers.
“Some aircraft arrived as kits in packing cases and had to be assembled. Then they had to be tested and I was always quite keen to fly, so I got a chance to go up a few times.”
Maurice was then posted to Malta, where he celebrated the end of the European war.
“Everyone was singing and dancing in the streets,” he said. “We didn’t know when we would be going home, but it didn’t matter because we all knew that we were.
“I was very lucky. I had an easier time than a lot of others.”
However, war with Japan still raged and Maurice was scheduled to join operations in the Far East — but the atom bomb was dropped.
He heard the news en route through Egypt and was posted back to Malta and then on to Marseilles, where he boarded a train for what was going to be a very interesting and long journey back home.
He said: “It was an electric train. We were put into a carriage with hard wooden seats and we were all trying to sleep, but it was impossible.
“But the scenery was wonderful as we passed through mountain ranges covered in snow. We changed at Toulon and then went on to Paris.
“As we travelled through northern France we saw terrible destruction. A lot of the places we passed through were in ruins and all the bridges had been completely blown.
“We had a few very dodgy moments as the train wobbled about while it crossed makeshift pontoons
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