MEMORIES have been rekindled this week of "the two British armies who never seem to get a mention"... and the soldiers once nicknamed "the D-Day Dodgers".

Roy Howlett was prompted to share his experiences of the Second World War after reading a letter in the Echo from Tom Jones, of Shelbourne Road, Charminster.

It was Tom who wrote about "the two British armies who never seem to get a mention, the 1st and the 8th".

He added: "They fought in opposite directions across the whole of North Africa, then went on to capture Sicily." And he asked: "Can we please spend a little time to remember the lads who Lady Astor called The D-Day Dodgers?"

Roy, 92, who lives in Littledown, chuckled as he recalled the nickname. "That's right," he said. "A lot of us didn't get back until a year or two after the rest."

He said: "I was in the Royal Armoured Corps. We were sent to Thetford Forest to train on Churchill tanks, then to Tidworth to learn gunnery. From there we went to Dumfries in Scotland to do commando training, running up and down mountains.

"Then they put us on a boat out of Greenock, and we were in convoy out in the Atlantic. German U-boats were soon after us. We were below decks, in hammocks, and packed in so tight we could barely move.

"I heard one of the ships was sunk, but because we were down below the whole time, it was impossible to be sure.

"We went through the Straits of Gibraltar, and came ashore at a place called Bone in Eastern Algeria.

"We were billeted in tents, and we were told to sleep with our rifles, Enfield 303s, because the locals were quite nifty at pinching them.

"Our first battle was at a place called Banana Ridge, more hills than mountains.

"We were 1st Army, the 8th the so-called "Desert Rats" were already there when we arrived.

"Our objective was to shift the Germans out of North Africa. I remember one incident very clearly. We had to push the Germans off Banana Ridge, but one of our tanks had broken down, and I was sent out in a scout car to try and get it back to be repaired.

"We could only do it at night, the Germans were sending mortars over.

"There were minefields either side of the route, marked with white tape, and we went into one of them. I realised quite soon what had happened, and had to jump out to get us back on track. Luckily, we got back safely.

"Our Churchill tanks weren't suited to desert warfare. The Americans' Sherman tanks were much better."

Roy went on to fight at Monte Cassino in 1944 ("the Germans had Tiger tanks, much superior to ours, we used to dread coming up against them"), before ending the war in Austria.

He still has a copy of the pocket-sized soldier's guide he was given, which includes advice such as: "It is no good expecting Austrians to be punctual and reliable, as we understand those terms... they are not made that way", and, "rank and file Nazis will remain... some of them are extremely unpleasant characters."

Roy has five children and several grandchildren from two marriages. His military service medals have been donated to a grandson in Australia.

"I didn't want to make too much fuss about the war," he said. "I've never really talked about it, not even with my family.

"But it's a relief to have got it off my chest at last."