Victor Robert John Voller's World War 2 service

Victor was born in 1918. He enlisted in 1939 and served until 1945, completing eight years of service.

He didn't talk much about his experiences. He spent a lot of time in the Western Desert and was evacuated from Crete. He didn't get on the correct ship and joined another one. The 'correct' ship was hit. He survived and joined another unit. He really respected General Montgomery.

At one point, he buried all the ammunition in the sand because they thought the Germans were going to capture them. They were fine but couldn't find the ammo afterward.

He wrote a diary, but it's hard to access his feelings; it's very matter of fact. He stopped writing a diary because it got very hectic. It must have been very traumatic because he had bad dementia later in life; he got confused and would think people had been shot. He had a bad head injury from being hit in the head by a gun that misfired due to an officer's incorrect order.

The contributor's mother was 14 in 1939. Her father was sent to work on ships in Scotland. Their family witnessed German planes coming over to Portsmouth. The family went to a cinema on a Sunday, and there was an air raid warning. The contributor's grandma said it was because they shouldn't have been in the cinema on a Sunday.

The contributor's parents met because they were in-laws; their mother's sister had already married their father's brother.

The contributor's paternal uncle didn't serve. Another uncle witnessed concentration camps.