Extracts from English Hartwright Reminiscences about life during
World War II 1939 -1945. 

Wartime as seen by a young man who became a Captain in the RASC

From Cecil George Hartwright’s Reminiscences

Capt. George Hartwright	Monty’s inspection – George 2nd from right

In December 1939 I volunteered and joined the Royal Engineers and went to France in January 1940.  In June 1940 we came back from St Malo and in 1941 I was commissioned in the RASC now the Royal Corps of Transport.  I was in Algiers and Tunisia in 1942/43 and instead of going to Italy we were sent back to England to wait for the Invasion. Most were sent in convoy out wide into the Atlantic heading for Liverpool or Scotland while the rest including myself were on two tank landing ships escorted by a destroyer which set off across the Bay of Biscay to Falmouth or Plymouth.  We were needed back quicker as the lower deck of our ship was used to land tanks on beach heads.  At 3 a.m. in the morning our ship LST 362 was torpedoed, out of forty-three of my men in the workshop platoon eight of us survived.  I was on the half that stayed afloat and I could not swim! At dawn it sank and along with two others I clung to a lifebelt in the cold waters until we were picked up by a destroyer.       I have memories of a sailor washing me after we were fished out of the sea.

In about June 1944 I went through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany right up to Kastrup near Copenhagen in Denmark, which had been occupied by the Germans.  I was in charge of Workshops, that involved the maintenance of about 200 vehicles, supplying transport, petrol, ammunition etc.  Base depot would provide parts such as radiators, but those fashioned of wood we made ourselves.

We were often not far from the front line and I recall that on the road between Caen and Bayeux we were shelled by 88 mm German guns.  We had to be very careful not to raise any dust when crossing the Rhine as the Germans had got the measure of the road.  It was during that part of the War that I was mentioned in despatches. I think it was in Belgium or France.

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