Looking Back continues the war-time story of the late Burnley historian Leslie Chapples, who left his new bride at home when called up to serve his country.

Leslie is now on board the SV Denbighshire one of 40 troop ships being escorted by 30 from the Navy.

Via Cairo, Leslie eventually found himself at Allenby Barracks in Jerusalem, where he was allotted a space in a barrack room and enjoyed the luxuries of a bed, sheets and light.

This Syrian war lasted just six weeks but after nine months in the Holy City, Leslie was beginning to wonder if his unit had forgotten him, until he was posted to GHQ in Cairo.

Serving there from July 1942 until March 1943, the army lost Tobruk and were in full retreat until reaching El Alamein. With the locals cocky and impudent, all ranks were advised to carry arms and 50 rounds of ammo wherever they went, even to the toilet.

"At GHQ, papers and documents were made into bonfires in the yard and all our heavy kit was taken into storage ready for evacuation if necessary.

"The grapevine told us we were done for if Cairo fell. But as the world knows Rommel's armies were held at Alamein and then thrown back in disarray."

During the next couple of years, Leslie served at various bases in North Africa and finally Italy, where he ended active war service in a small village on the outskirts of Udine in May 1945.

"I was informed that I was being repatriated to England after four years and four months.

"I can't say I was ever in any great physical danger that I knew of during my service, although in Italy I inadvertently walked into a minefield when I went to answer a call of nature!"

Waiting in Naples to return to England, Leslie was coerced to assist backstage at some Ensa concerts, serving cold lemonade to performers.

He said: "The cast of the show was predominantly female and when I went to their dressing rooms they were in varying stages of undress and completely uninhibited. This was the most enjoyable task in my five years and seven months in the British Army!

"We were in Naples for three weeks before being told we would be embarking on a converted troopship. I found I couldn't get over-excited, because I found it impossible to believe.

"However, embark we did, and I found my bed for the 10-day journey home was at the top of a three-tier bunk. I felt as if I was sleeping on a trapeze."

Elated when the ship tied up in Liverpool, he was even more excited to reach Burnley Central.

"I let myself in home with a latchkey I had carried all the time I had been away.... and so the war ended for this very reluctant conscript!"

l Leslie and Phyllis were married for 52 years and had one son Steve. Leslie worked for nearly 50 years as a linotype operator and after retiring in 1976 devoted the next 14 years to local history. He had 16 books published.