On a moonlit night in June 1942, Private Neville Wood and three soldiers drove out into the Libyan desert in wagons loaded with mines. They were heading for an Allied defensive box, and knew that they would pass perilously close to the Germans’ lines.
Halfway into the journey a howling sandstorm engulfed the wagons, but they kept driving. As the sands cleared, they emerged into the gunsights of two Panzer tanks. The men were captured and taken behind enemy lines.
The following morning, Neville observed three German officers examining a map. One took his cap off, and Neville realized that it was the Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel.
Suddenly, RAF bombs began to rain down and the British soldiers saw a chance. They jumped into a German ambulance, and drove off amid heavy fire.
Just when they thought they were safe, another tank came into sight. To their utter relief it was a South African Valentine, and its driver held fire on the ambulance. Neville and his comrades were at last taken to safety.
This is one of many astonishing anecdotes in the war diaries of Neville ‘Timber’ Wood. They have now been transcribed and collated into a book by his son Mike. A Soldier’s Story covers Neville’s war from when he enlisted in the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division in 1939.
“I was very close to Dad and he was a loving father,” Mike says. “He told me stories about the war when I was young, but only the funny ones. I had no idea of the bitter conflicts that he endured.
“In the 1990s, he presented me with his war diaries. It was an honour to receive them. I began to transcribe them, and this led to long conversations with Dad about his war.”
Neville was a butcher’s son from Hull who enlisted when he was only 18. After intensive training, he became a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps, which transported ammunition, high explosives and supplies. The casualty rates were very high.
Neville saw action in some of the most horrific campaigns of the Second World War. He was one of the last soldiers taken off the beach at Dunkirk, after waiting three days in the sea under heavy fire.
He served in the North African campaign from 1941 to 1943, often driving for days in intense heat and with no sleep. “Dad witnessed the opening barrage at El Alamein, and said it was like hell on Earth. The guns could be heard from 60 miles away.”
Neville was at the vanguard of the invasion of Sicily in 1943 before returning to Britain. On D-Day, the 50th Northumbrian was one of the first divisions to land on Gold Beach. As Neville recalled, “The sea was red with blood; shells were exploding all around and snipers were picking off locals and soldiers.”
When the Allied soldiers journeyed across France they lived in constant fear of ambush. Neville remembered that “the smell of death was everywhere”.
“Dad was very close to Belsen when it was liberated, and was sent there on a supply detail. He said he stood and wept.”
After the war, Neville returned to Hull and married Peggy Taylor. They had three sons: Stephen, David and Mike. “I presented the transcribed diaries to Dad in 2006, and he was tremendously moved. After I retired in 2013, I decided to write them up as a book.” Sadly, Neville did not live to see its publication, dying in 2015 at the age of 94.
“My heart swells with pride when I think of what he endured. Dad was an ordinary soldier but an extraordinary man.”