大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War site by Nadine from the People's War team on behalf of Douglas Renwick. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Then word came in, 鈥淕et ready to move out.鈥� No one knew where. It turned out they were shipped up the Red Sea to Port Tufiq on the Suez Canal. Alexandria and Cairo were to become familiar places to young Douglas Renwick, as familiar as Galashiels and Carlisle. But the cry on this occasion was 鈥淔alse alarm.鈥� They had gone to Egypt anticipating some action only to be turned around and shipped back to Aden. The second sojourn in Aden was no better than the first. Word came through again, 鈥淲e鈥檙e moving out.鈥� This time it was back up the Red Sea on the S.S. Duchess of Richmond to Suez. Then an overnight rail transfer to Alexandria and on into the Med on the Steamship Dumana. The destination was Crete. Dougie disembarked at Canea in Suda Bay. The island of Crete was the front line in the Mediterranean. British forces in Egypt faced the axis forces of Italy in Greece. Allied forces got as far as northern Greece before they were forced out of mainland Europe by the advancing German armies. Egypt too was coming under pressure from Rommel鈥檚 Afrika Korps. Crete stood in no man鈥檚 land. It served as a forward observation post and radar was needed to provide an early warning system for Egypt. Dougie noticed how green the island was compared to Aden. However, there was no time for that, they had to disembark and make their way ninety miles east to Heraklion. The roads were narrow tracks and the going was slow in the five-ton Crossley trucks. Once in Heraklion, they stayed at the Greek barracks. The next day they had to move on seven miles south, up into the mountains, to the site that had been designated for the radar unit. The roads here were even worse and they had to widen them with picks and shovels to get the trucks up. Once there they set up their base. They had to dig out bays in the mountainside and camouflage the trucks. German reconnaissance planes were active. Conditions on Crete were primitive, a little better than Aden, but still rough and ready. Trenches had to be dug around the tents to stop the water that was running down the mountains from the melting winter snow. Finally, the men of AMES 220 got to do what they had been trained to do. With the fifty-foot mast in position, they knew their station was operational and they were on active service. On days off some of the lads would catch the liberty truck down into Heraklion. Places like the Mina Hotel offered a cheap, basic meal of omelette, olives and grapes and plenty of vino. Many of the lads just stayed in their tents and played cards. Dougie took the chance to visit some of the sites of antiquity and was able to take part in some excavation work at Knossos. 鈥淲hadya wanna do that for?鈥� they would ask, 鈥淚t鈥檚 just old stuff.鈥� Dougie saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As spring came in German raids started up. At first, it was only a few planes with machine guns and bombs. Then twenty or thirty planes at a time would come over from Greece and canon, machine-gun fire and bombing intensified. Even then, no one expected what happened next.

The noise from the generators and the men on duty meant that a good sleep was practically impossible. Some of the lads used to take their groundsheet and blankets and climb up the hillside a little to sleep among the olive groves. There, conditions were more conducive to a good rest. Early one morning after a night duty Dougie and Frank Humphrey made their way up to the grove. It was peaceful under the Cretan dawn and they soon got off to sleep. But this morning, Tuesday 20th May 1941, the unthinkable happened. Dougie and Frank were awakened by the boom of anti-aircraft fire. They immediately leaped under a small bridge over a gully where the small stream had now dried up. They didn鈥檛 know what was going on. Then, to their shock, someone else jumped in beside them. It was a Cretan peasant. He spoke no English but was gesticulating wildly. With arms widespread, hands palm down and fingers spread, he was motioning up and down. What did he mean? Rain? But it wasn鈥檛 raining. A plane down? Dougie and Frank peered out from under the bridge and looking up over the retaining wall on the hillside, they saw what the peasant meant. It was an incredible sight, one that had never ever been seen before. Thousands of parachutes filled the morning sky. It was the first mass air-borne invasion in the history of warfare. German paratroopers filled the sky and were coming down all around. Some were coming down between Dougie and Frank and their radar unit. It was a time for cool heads and swift action. By the time they collected their wits the first German paratroopers were hitting the ground. As the invaders formed themselves into their units Dougie and Frank crept along a ditch to avoid capture. German paratroopers seemed to be everywhere. On their bellies in the grass, Dougie and Frank could see the boots of the Nazi paratroopers through the undergrowth. Making the most of what cover the landscape and the vegetation provided, the two made their way back to base.

They found the camp in a state of uproar. Above all, the radar equipment, the nation鈥檚 top-secret weapon, had to be protected. Their orders were to destroy it rather than let it fall into enemy hands. As the situation reached crisis point and prospects were looking bleak the unit set about destroying all the equipment. An Omega pocket watch, which acted as the unit鈥檚 timepiece, hung on a nail by the installation. 鈥淪hame to destroy that,鈥� thought Dougie slipping it into his pocket. It would be a souvenir he would carry throughout the war years. But right then there was no time to think about it. The AMES team was not a combat unit but they had to prepare to meet the enemy. Rifles were issued. Their orders were to fall back and join the lines of the fighting units. They comprised Australians, New Zealanders, English troops of the Yorks and Lancs and Scottish troops of the Black Watch. At one point Dougie鈥檚 unit was resting. Many of them were sitting on a low wall when, crack, a sniper鈥檚 shot rang out. Next to Dougie, a lad called Len Nash slumped backwards. A single bullet hole was visible in his forehead. He was dead. That would remain with Dougie a long time. Again, there was no time to think about it. A Black Watch officer asked him 鈥淲hat鈥檚 wrong son?鈥� Dougie motioned and said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 my pal, he鈥檚 just been shot. 鈥� 鈥淣othing we can do about that now. We鈥榣l try to come back after dark for the body,鈥� said the officer. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hemmed in on three sides. What we鈥檒l do is open up with everything we鈥檝e got and you lot take off, up that escarpment, every man for himself.鈥� The word went round 鈥淧repare to evacuate.鈥� The radar boys were not frontline soldiers and it was important that they lived to fight their particular fight another day. Troops of the Black Watch were to see them to the evacuation point. Pandemonium broke loose as the Black Watch laid down covering fire. Dougie made it back to safety. Back in the lines, a Black Watch officer made it plain there was no extra food for RAF personnel and that they were just an added burden on the Black Watch soldiers. They took shelter in caves but there was work to be done. By night, Dougie and Frank Humphrey carried mortar shells up to the front lines. By day, under the banner of the Red Cross, they stretchered the wounded out. The terrain was rough and it was hard going. They also had to fetch water from a well. German snipers had it marked so they had to take cover in a nearby slit trench and pick their time very carefully. In the trench one day, a lad, Ginger, said to Dougie, 鈥淟ook out and see what鈥檚 happening.鈥� Dougie said, 鈥淚f you want to see what鈥檚 happening, you look out.鈥� It was a desperate situation and Dougie and his mates had to endure for eight days before they were evacuated on the 28th of May. They were among the last to be taken off the island. When the word came and they marched down the rough, dusty, stony tracks of the Cretan mountains, a horrific picture emerged. Lorries and jeeps had run off the road, their drivers slumped over the wheel, dead. German paratroopers lay dead and dying. Their cries for 鈥淲asser, wasser鈥� were haunting. Bullets, mortars and light shells were still flying. It was total carnage. As they approached the shore, they took cover. 鈥淩ight, follow me,鈥� rang out loud and clear above the noise. The words were barked out by a Black Watch sergeant. 鈥淗e got up and marched down the road like he was on the parade ground at Aldershot,鈥� thought Dougie. All the others followed on. The man had no fear as he marched his charges towards the evacuation point. Once in sight of the goal he said 鈥淩ight, on you go and I鈥檒l give you cover.鈥� His job done, he marched off back into the fray. On the beach, it was chaos and it seemed there was no order, no one in command. The Royal Navy was the only hope. The sailors remained cool under intense pressure. Captains of frigates and destroyers brought their vessels as near shore as possible. The discipline and bravery of the navy men was re-assuring. Once aboard, the men were ferried out to the larger ships lying offshore. At midnight, Dougie was taken aboard the Kimberly, an Australian destroyer. One army lad said 鈥淪tay on the destroyer; it鈥檚 less of a target than the cruisers.鈥� But Dougie had to stay with his unit and further out, they were transferred to the cruiser HMS Orion, the flagship of the task force. HMS Ajax had been the flagship but she had been bombed on the way out to Crete and had to return to Alexandria. Dougie noted the time - it was 3:30 am. He said, 鈥淲e鈥檝e made it.鈥� A sailor soon corrected that impression. 鈥淛ust wait till dawn!鈥� He was right. With the dawn, the situation went into a new phase. The fleet had to run for Alexandria in Egypt. For the first part of that voyage, they were within range of enemy dive-bombers, the dreaded Stukas. It was touch and go. At one point the ship took a hit that caused the rudder to fail. The Orion went out of control and got turned around, facing back to Heraklion. The escorting destroyers came alongside and managed to turn the ship back towards Alexandria. Dougie鈥檚 experience was not one he would remember much about. Stukas were everywhere, dive-bombing at will. Ships were trying to fend them off with anti-aircraft fire. The nature of the battle had changed but not the intensity. It was absolutely hellish. The captain was wounded by shrapnel and Frank Humphrey carried him to the ship鈥檚 hospital. Then the hospital suffered a direct hit and Captain Back was killed. Admiral Rawlings took over command of the Orion. By then Dougie was down in the stoker鈥檚 mess. It was only later that he would learn that a bomb penetrated the deck and exploded in the depths of the ship. In the midst of a deck crowded with men, the blast took a terrible toll. The smoke was awful and the flooding threatened the ship itself. The explosion rendered Dougie unconscious. With water flooding in, the admiral gave the order, 鈥淐lose the hatches and seal the watertight doors.鈥� There were some protests, 鈥淏ut sir there are men alive down there.鈥� The order was repeated, 鈥淐lose the hatches!鈥� It was a difficult but necessary decision. It was a matter of the sacrifice of those men against the survival of the ship and the rest of its company. No matter how hard the decision it was a rational transaction. Dougie was only one of those down in the depths of the ship. He lay there, alive but unconscious. There he would have died but for his friend, Frank Humphrey. Two minutes had been secured to see what could be done about the wounded and the survivors. But those minutes were all the rescue teams had, maximum. Then the admiral鈥檚 orders, delayed for a few moments with his permission, would be implemented. Frank Humphrey tied a rope around his waist and gave the instruction, 鈥淟ower away.鈥� The stairs had been blown away. Down in the belly of the great warship it was a grim picture. Amid the carnage, Frank found Dougie, tied the rope around his waist and gave the signal to hoist away. No sooner had that occurred and they were clear, the order came, 鈥淪eal off the deck, now!鈥� The fate of any wounded still below was sealed. It is estimated 260 men died either from the blast or by drowning. Thanks to the courage of his comrade in arms, Frank Humphrey, Dougie had escaped death again, this time by a whisker. Of his fifty comrades in the unit, only nineteen of them came out of Crete alive. It was a dire episode. Frank would later tell Dougie that padres conducted short services at the stern of the ship and then the rail was lifted and the bodies were swept off the deck. Frank told how he saw the canvass body bags churning in the ship鈥檚 wake. As HMS Orion came into Alexandria listing forty-five degrees, Admiral Cunningham, commander of naval forces in the Med was there to meet her. The loss of ships on the evacuation was enormous but when questioned about the advisability of going into Crete continually it was Admiral Cunningham who said, "It takes three years to build a ship, it takes three hundred years to build a tradition." The Royal Navy had performed its duty heroically.

Dougie vaguely remembers being on a stretcher on the quayside at Alexandria and a Royal Navy nurse speaking to him. He was losing his sight and he could barely see her. 鈥淐an鈥檛 get air,鈥� he said. 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, you鈥檒l soon be in the hospital,鈥� she said. He blacked out again. When he really came to, what he remembers is that he couldn鈥檛 see and he couldn鈥檛 move. What was happening? 鈥淚鈥檓 blind鈥� he blurted out. The doctor told him 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not blind. Your sight will come back. You鈥檙e just suffering from absolute fatigue and exhaustion.鈥� 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe,鈥� he continued. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got cordite fumes on your lungs,鈥� the doctor said, 鈥淭hat鈥檒l gradually clear.鈥� He added, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we had to strap you to the bed head in a sitting position, so you could breathe more easily. You鈥檝e been through a rough time.鈥� Slowly but surely Dougie recovered. Three officers, one army and two navy took a statement from him regarding his experiences during the evacuation. Then one day Dougie said to a naval doctor 鈥淒octor I feel like I鈥檓 just taking up a bed here that somebody else could use. I feel that I could move on.鈥� 鈥淣oble sentiments鈥� replied the medical officer, 鈥淏ut I鈥檒l decide when you鈥檙e discharged.鈥� A few days later, he was released or at least transferred. 鈥淲e鈥檙e moving you to an army field hospital,鈥� he was informed. That took him from Alexandria to Cairo. Accommodation there was under canvas and there were a lot of Anzac troops. They were attended by Aussie doctors. After a further period of recuperation, he was given some rest and recreation. This took an unusual form. His new lodging was aboard a houseboat on the River Nile. The accommodation was both stylish and comfortable. Egyptian servants waited on the 鈥榞uests鈥� every wish. The wives and daughters of British diplomats made visits to the boat. They chatted, organised dances and generally built up the moral of the men. Good days were to follow too as he visited the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and other antiquities.

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