The Angel Of Mons

This book, written over a period of four years due to the amount of research required, is the biography of my father  Clifford Maurice Pillings from the age of one, through
his youth in Surrey during the great depression of the 1930s and to the time in his midteens, when he joined the Territorial Army. It then moves on to him being called up and
going with the British Expeditionary Force to France, where he saw The Angel of Mons.

Following initial fighting with the Germans in Spring 1940, he eventually escaped safely from the beaches of Dunkirk.
I then covered him meeting my mother Emily Watson, when he was billeted in the Yorkshire mining village of Askern.

After a few months he was moved around the country, with experiences in the Home Defence forces, until being posted to Africa, in January 1942.

The bulk of my book covers his many battles and experiences with the East Surrey Anti-Tank Regiment, as they fought first at El Alamein, then across Libya and up
through Tunisia. After that he landed with the Americans on Sicily and after the island’s liberation, he went on to land with the Americans at Salerno, Italy. Eventually they fought their way North to Monte Cassino, then Clifford was sent to land at Anzio, again with the Americans. It was to lead to a long slog up through Italy, with visits to Rome and Venice, before ending up in Trieste, the hot bed of activity after the war ended, due to the Yugoslavs wanting to take control of the City for the Communists. He was tasked with the directive from the Allied Forces of keeping Trieste Italian which meant fighting armed gangs, until February 1946 when he was finally sent home.

My book ends with his marriage to Emily in 1947. Clifford passed away in January 2011 at the ripe old age of 90, just as The Angel had promised him when he was 19 years old. The biography is based on word of mouth from my father, during the last few years of his life, plus assistance from the Archivist of the 57th Anti-Tank Regiment.

When I was around 12, I was sent down to our village
electrical repair shop to collect a toaster they had been repairing for my Mum & Dad. To my surprise the owner would accept no payment, instead he said “Your father is the
bravest man my brothers and I have ever known. When my brother was in Italy he got shot and was laying injured on open ground. Your Dad ran out under fire and pulled
him to safety and never thought anything of how brave he had been, he just felt he was a Sergeant looking after his men”.

Publisher - Independent Publishing Network

Language - English

Case Bound - PPC

Contributors

By author

Stephen Pillings

Jess Pillings

Published Date - 2026-10-12

ISBN - 9781806451296

Dimensions - 21 x 14.8 x 1.5 cm

Page Count - 170