A Waggoner's War

by Fergus Fulton
Woodfield Publishing, 2011
137 Pages, £9.95
ISBN 1-84683-116-4

A Motor Transport Driver’s Experiences in North Africa and Italy with the Royal Army Service Corps 1942-1945.

This remarkable, unpretentious document of life in the R.A.S.C. is taken verbatim from Fergus Fulton's diaries, which he meticulously maintained, strictly against orders in case of capture, in a number of small notebooks. After the war he wrote them up in a single volume, put all the parts together and added relevant historical context to create a cohesive whole. He kept a detailed log of dates, places and incidents, and built up a journal of strange lands, colourful characters, fear, sadness, friendship and, of course, the soldier's constant search for decent food, drink and a comfortable place to sleep.

There are plenty of military details and 'action' here, but it's the quiet moments that stay in the mind: the routines, the landscapes, the quirky moments of humanity. There are no glorious heroics or breathtaking acts of valour. It's the story of an ordinary young man, one of the hundreds of thousands, doing his duty in an extraordinary situation in the great adventure of his life. It is guaranteed to trigger vivid memories in the surviving veterans of these famous campaigns.