Nerves of steel and a heart of stone
I joined up on the sixth of August
My Regiment Number is 740
971898 is my Regiment Number now
As a soldier of the Royal Artillery
While stationed in England and Wales
Off duty time we spent togather
I was transferred to the 166th
I was shipped of to Italy
While doing battlefield duty in Italy
If I survive this brutal war
On the second of February in 1943
There was no comfort for me there
When the vechicles and guns arrived
The shell fire it lit up the night sky
For every bullet has a name
Many hardships I have experienced
The fighting for me now is over
I returned home to Newfoundland
I do not want to talk about
My wish to see my new born son
I long to see him before I die
BY: Yvonne Legge
I wrote and dedicated this poem for my Uncle,
Is what the Army recommends,
If you want to enlist
To be one of the fighting men.
In the year of 1942,
Never could I have imagined
The hell I would go though.
I was discharged on the 28 of February of 1943,
Then I re-enlisted on the first of March
To go overseas.
And a soldier I will become,
I am in the 22nd Battery of the 59th
I am in training for Heavy Guns.
I was stationed at Hildenborough and Newtown,
Also at Tonbridge and Royal Tunbridge Wells
We sure did move around.
A lady I chance to meet,
She was in the British Army Training Service
Her beauty and courage could not be beat.
Between us all was well,
Just a few months later she discovered
That she was with child.
Q-Battery, Royal Artillery,
They were sending me to Naples
Where I would fight in Italy.
The date was the 20th of December in 1942,
Aboard the HMS Ciccassia
Across the ocean blue.
My precious son was born,
I wanted to be there for his birth
From my body my heart was torn.
My only wish would be...
To kiss the girl that bore my son
And see my son, Anthony.
We arrived at Bone,
I marched for four and one half miles
For 23 days this would be home.
The cold, hard ground was my bed,
My overcoat became my blanket
And my boots as a pillow for my head.
Orders were given to move out,
Action we would soon encounter
For me, there was no doubt.
Bullets whizzed overhead,
Many of my friends were wounded
And many fell over dead!
For each one that passes me by,
I hang my head in sorrow
For a friend that will soon die!
Happy times during war times were few,
For I was there to fight the enemy
And that's what I will do.
I will soon be homeward bound,
Where my family is eagerally waiting
In my home town.
On the 22nd of August, 1945,
I was one of the lucky ones
That managed to survive.
The bloody, brutal horrors of the war,
Just remember why I was there
And what I was fighting for.
Did not come true for me,
For when the war was over
I was sent home from Italy.
For Anthony means the world to me,
And to let him know
That in Newfoundland, he has a family.
George Howell. He was born in Green's Harbour,
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. He died at The Health Sciences
Center at St. John's, Newfoundland. He was a veteran of World War Two.
This is a factual account of his life during the war.