Frederick Salter
Frederick Salter aged 99 in 2010.
Recollections of service in North Africa, Italy and Yugoslavia.
'I said to my wife, 'Goodbye''
Born in 1911 Frederick experienced both the First and the Second World War. Evacuated as a child during the First World War, Frederick served in the Armed Forces throughout the Second World War. Frederick was called up in 1939, ‘I got my mobilisation papers and I reported to the Tower of London by midday and then we went to Chelsea Barracks to join our different regiments.’ Although the Regiment initially remained in Britain, it was eventually despatched overseas:
‘We didn’t know if it was going or not so we had to pack all our kits up at Chelsea and get ready when the orders came to move. I said to my wife, ‘Goodbye’ and then one day we was off up to Scotland and we settled down in up there for about a fortnight and then we boarded ship.’
'That was our job'
As part of the 24th Guards Brigade, Scots Guards, Frederick served in North Africa, Italy and later Yugoslavia. In Italy he took part in the battle of Anzio:
‘About 4 o’clock in the morning we come in to the beach and out of the water and as we did so...they sent the panzer division over to us...[T]he 24th Guard Brigade was a spearhead [so] we had to run up the beaches but as we was doing that saw these panzer division come over...[W]hat we had to do was the road going from Florence to Cassino we had to break that...so the Germans couldn’t last down to Cassino. That was our job, which we did, at the loss of hundreds of men.’
'That's your father!'
Frederick returned home on 10th October 1945, his son’s birthday:
‘When I come home, I knocked on my door. My son said, ‘Mum, mum!’, ‘What?’ He says, ‘There’s a black man at the door’. She says, ‘Black man? That’s you father!’ See, cos he hadn’t seen me, he’s only a little tot. She says, ‘That’s your father!’’