My Story  Marine Don Webber - PLYX111872

I joined the Marines at Exton Devon in 1943 when it was tin huts and the round coal stove in the middle of the hut, and hot water was a luxury, many times my mate and I walked back from Exeter along the railway lines to the camp. I joined with fairly long hair and there were civilians working in the camp one said to me give the civvie barber a tip and he wont take to much off, well I had it cut and the R.S.M said go back and get it cut again, well I had two more hair cuts before it was accepted. so I think the Barber was on a good thing with the Rookies. This may sound strange but I was with  an Armoured Marine Unit of Bren gun carriers going up through Germany and took over the German Submarines as the war finished four men to each Submarine, to search and keep an eye on the Germans as they had to de-prime and unload the torpedoes on to the docks, we had to search there belongings and one had a revolver hidden in a Piano Accordion, I am 74 years old now and remember the good old times serving, there are so many tales I could tell... 

I joined  on the 23rd  March 1943 and went to Lympstone Barracks, what a dismal place it was then, not so now as I have driven past on our way to holiday in Exmouth. In 1943 it was tin nisson huts the showers were in unheated huts as was the Dhobie room ( wash room). There was a old round stove in the middle of our living quarters which we had to feed with coke and light with wood from a pile, after doing a forced march we would find the wood was damp lots of cursing going on. We had armed guards on all the time, one night I went to Exeter with my mates on the Cider which was all we could afford and missed the last train back which was about 10 pm then so we walked back along the railway lines by the camp the assault course used to be we crawled on our bellies, as the armed guards patrolled luckily we didn't get shot so we must have had good training, we were supposed to be in camp by 10pm. 

On the 11th May 1943 I went to a worse camp called H.B.LR.M. Camp Exmouth on the moors only Elsan Toilets which were nearly always full, and sleeping rough, death slides and sleeping in slit trenches cut a seat in the end of the slit trench and let the rain trickle down inside your trench coat. I then went to a camp near Towyn in N Wales . I shall never forget that great hill outside the camp 6am it was outside and run up over this hill we had one lad collapsed and died. the people in Towyn were not very keen on us. I then went to Combined Operations( Copra)  myself and a few others went to this river near Southend-On-Sea which was building up  area for the invasion we had these small support craft which had a double ' 5 gun in a perspex closed in pod on the front of the boat when we went out on training in the channel on a rough day you were firing into the waves, and the cordite fumes were very strong, anyway we were all keyed up for the day but the weather was not suitable for our craft. I was the sent to Dalton in Furness for a Tank driving Course. 

 I went to a training course on tanks but it was to be able to drive Bren Gun Carriers, when the Unit formed up they asked for Motor Cycle dispatch riders to escort the column as we were going up to Germany , as I had driven a motor cycle in civvie street i was given the job with a 250cc bike. We went up though France .Belgium . and into Germany when I had a puncture in the back tyre, so they left me behind surrounded by loads of refugees, so I rode to Luneburg on a flat tyre to an army supply unit they fitted me with a new tyre and tube , but I had to take a letter on to my Unit Officer, I joined the unit in Kiel and had to pay for the tyre and tube out of my pay, the War then finished and we took over the Docks, and as the German Submarines came in to surrender we had to go on board and search the crew for S.S. trying to get away on the subs, and we had to stay on the subs while the crews unloaded and de-primmed the torpedoes, one of the crew had a black case so I went to take it off him but he didn't want to let go until I pushed my Sten gun in his stomach. When I took it back to our bombed house billet it was an Accordion but it rattled and inside was a nice ladies revolver and cartridges. 

One night I looked out the window onto this square and this old man ran across and dumped this blanket full of things into the crater so I went over and it was all new Nazi swords daggers medals etc so I think he must have had a shop and didn't want anybody to know his connections. We had the Russian service men there and they broke into a big warehouse on the docks and it was full of Vodka, we had bottles and bottles but the Russians were shooting Germans in the streets and the Russian women soldiers were as bad, still we had a good time with them, we couldn't keep up with the way they drank. the German subs were full of good food stored below deck. all we had was tinned sardines and hard biscuits, but on the black market a tin of sardines could get you anything, and I mean anything!  

I rejoined the Marines in 1947 on a bounty scheme which paid us money for signing up for three years, this time I joined 42 Commandos, in the war I was in the Marines only, I did my training at Exton , after they wanted mechanics to work and drive so I was driving a troop carrier, we were then sent out to Malta, then we were sent to Tripoli to do Dessert training, my mates name was Harvey we dug our trench in the sand with our groundsheets over, I said to Harvey one morning lets turn our groundsheet and bedding over underneath were two scorpions, we used to make a ring of fire with petrol and put two in the middle to fight. We went on then to Egypt in a camp on the Bitter lakes by the Suez Canal, which we shared with the Army, we all used to go in the camp Naffi on the beer , I can play the piano so I got in touch with the army entertainments, and we were sent drums a violin and trumpet, so when I started this going they Called me Spike and his city slickers, one night after the boys had their share of drink the M.Ps came in to stop the music at 10-30 so the boys picked up the piano and we went out through the gate into the sand and carried on playing, we had a mate named Bill Kemp, I wonder if anyone remembers his song, ( An Englishman a Frenchman and a Hebrew )  and all the other dirty songs. 

We went back to Malta then to Palestine, I remember on the outpost near Jerusalem we were in tents on the side of a hill just above was a Nail factory locked up so we got in and started up the machines nails were flying all over the place, we were asleep one night and this Marine was running down the hill shouting he had been bitten by a snake luckily it wasn't poisonous. When we had to do a rear guard for the evacuation on the road to Haifa docks, we went to Haifa Railway Station and took it over, our officer slept in the booking office, we slept anywhere. all the army lorries pulled into the big car park in front of the station. I went around Haifa town on the Scrounge as I was helping the cook and getting some egg powder and flour and we made about 200 doughnuts ,I gave some to our officer he knew what I had been doing, I don't thing I had better tell you how we got the Rum

These lorries parked in the car park had to go or they were left behind one had gallon jars of rum on so I will say no more why it would not start, We went back to Malta after then we went on H.M.S Ocean, Aircraft carrier to Hong Kong, in Kowloon Barracks. One day our officer said the trucks need painting, so I went to Kytak  R.A.F Base and got a compressor and the top part of a spray gun and fitted an old brass fire extinguisher to the bottom, and the paint from the R.A.F khaki green. Well our Officer was so pleased he made me a Corporal, but  I was to friendly with the boys. A week after I had to get the drivers up early to get the ferry to Hong Kong but they would not get out of bed. So I had to go in front of our C.O. he said you are to friendly with the boys so I don't think you would make a good Corporal. Anyway as the Korea war was on I was kept in the service for another year terms of the rejoin scheme, then I went back to Exton taking the Recruits out on training and firing on the range.