Six Years of My Life : Notes from the Wartime Diaries of Sergeant V.G.(Bill) Coady

Vic Coady volunteered for active service as war was declared in September 1939 and joined the Royal Army Service Corps. He kept a chronicle of his experiences, both highs and lows, until his demobilisation in 1946. Most of the time he seems to have been cold, scared, wet and hungry, even in the first few weeks of signing on before being shipped to France. He lived through the British Expeditionary Force and evacuation at Dunkirk, being torpedoed in the Mediterranean on the way to Tunisia and then the assault at D-Day, the bitter fighting around Caen and the German retreat across Northern Europe. The diaries are a very frank account of the war: the horror and hardships and occasionally the fun. Vic worked and played hard. He was not an easy command and was openly critical of his superiors, coming perilously close to a court martial on one occasion. But he was a survivor and the writings paint a vivid account of his experiences and an insight into his character. They contribute to our knowledge of the day to day life of a private during WW2 and chronicle the organisation, equipment and operations of the Royal Army Service Corps in support of the fighting formations on the front line.