Written by Jack Frizzell
.....After returning to the UK 'Jack' continued in the Royal Army Service Corps as an Ammunition company driver until the end of 1940.
Following a technical course in Luton he was transferred to the Royal Army Ordinance Corps as a Craftsman. With his new unit he travelled in 1941 in an Atlantic convoy via Sierra Leone, Cape Town and Durban to Egypt where he served in various technical units working on transmissions and engines of American General Sherman, Grant and Stewart Tanks in the Desert Campaign.
In October 1942 the Royal Army Ordinance Corps became the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers REME, and rising to Staff Sergeant Armament Artificer his desert service continued until 1943.
From North Africa he joined the invasion force on Salerno in Italy in September 1943.
He continued with the invasion force up through Italy with the REME Advanced Workshop Company to Naples where he witnessed the 1944 eruption of mount Vesuvius then onto Monte Cassino and Rome in June 1944.
He remained in Rome until August 1945 with the technical unit. He then returned to the UK on a Lancaster bomber. On arrival at Peterborough having spent most of the last six years of his life out of the UK fighting for his 'King and Country' he was asked, by a waiting customs officer, "Anything to declare?" We can only guess at his true reaction to this but we do know that he took it as a bit of an insult.
Historical Footnote by JGF:
"Mr Marsh", Blamed in this manuscript for inveighing the Austin Apprentices into the Territorial Army, was hoist by his own Petard, joining our unit as a commissioned officer, and becoming a legend for his inability to map read, when in Belgium in 1940, he had to be prompted by following vehicle horn signals whenever he took a wrong turning.
Major Marsh was captured later in the war by the Japanese and imprisoned in Changi POW camp - where, according to Russell Brandon's book, "Behind Bamboo", ..."'blue eyed' Major Bert Marsh was the life and soul of the camp, organising what entertainment there was". His last known sighting in later years was when he became Secretary to the institute of Directors.
