Ernie Milner and others - No.2 Commando 4 troop

Ernie is seated. Photo courtesy of his son Ernie Milner Jnr. who adds the following :

As for my father, Ernie Milner, he had the proudest recollections of his wartime life with No.2 Commando, I rather think that nothing much came to match it in civvy street. He originally enlisted with 5 Kings (Liverpool) regiment on 17/1/1940 and his army number was 3775340. Ernie would, in later life, gloss over the grimmer experiences more often choosing to describe the lighter side; during a training show for the top brass, for example, he remembered the embarrassment of his backpack filling with water whilst crossing a water-filled quarry when the rope which supported him (and others) was too slack! His strength as a back-stroke swimmer then coming very much in handy! Apart from the losses of comrades and friends in action, one of his saddest memories was the cruelties inflicted on one another by partisan groups in Vis, Yugoslavia and his unit having to "about face" whilst summary executions took place in their presence. Ernie was wounded twice, once slightly from grenade shrapnell and then, more seriously from a single gun-shot wound in the shoulder. The latter put him out of action for a while and it occured, I think, in August 1944. I have his AB64 (Service and Pay Book), which doesn't unfortunately inform very much, but it does record his medical downgrade for 6 months, following, I assume, his GSW; and the award of 28 days leave and dispatch to a special reception centre on repatriation in October 1945. What is lacking in the official content of his AB64 is partly compensated for with hand-written notes: compass and side-arm serial numbers for example and useful phrases in Serbo Croat such as "do not shoot, I am English".