WWII Diaries of an Ordinary Joe

The Experiences of A REME Engineer in Madras: Private Joseph Whittle Edge

By: Paul J.C. Edge, Joseph Edge

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This short account documents Joseph’s tour in India in the closing days of World War Two, based on his diaries and letters to his wife Mary, the account is augmented with some of the stories he loved to tell us.

This is not a tale of high adventure, nor an intricate analysis of the battles and politics in WWII. It is the diary and missive of an ordinary man being plucked from his home and wife at the tender age of 23 to be deployed in a country which was completely alien to him. There are three phases of the story, shock and bewilderment at the living conditions he faced, learning to adapt and then sheer frustration at the tardiness of the de-mob process and how long he was forced to stay apart from his family after the war had actually finished, and what he and the other men chose to do about it.