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This Story has been submitted to the ‘People’ War’ Web Site by Betty & Don TEMPEST of Lancshomeguard on behalf of Mr Fred TATTERSALL and has been added to the Web Site with his permission.

‘Escape on a Door’.

I was a Pre-war enlistment in the Army and I served initially with the 1st, Sixth Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. In 1937 I transferred to the Regular Army, serving with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. I served continually with that regiment until my discharge 1n 1946.

The Battalion, before the war, was part of the Third British Infantry Brigade and our Commander was Brigadier B.L.Montgomery. At the outbreak of war he was promoted to Major General and was given the Third Infantry Division, which comprised the 7th. Guards Brigade and the 8th. Infantry Brigade, which was the Suffolk Regiment, the East Yorkshire Regiment and the South Lancashire Regiment.

The 9th. Brigade was made up of the 1st. Battalion Kings Own Scottish Borderers, (which I was in) the 2nd. Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles and the 2nd. Battalion Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and it was commonly know as the International Brigade.

We went to France initially with the First British Expeditionary Force, sailing from Southampton on the 30th. September 1939.

When the balloon went up on the 10th. May 1940, we went through into Belgium to try and meet up with the Germans and we had our first encounter with them at Louvain. We did our best but they outnumbered us and from then on it was just one continuous withdrawal. Digging in, then retreating until about 23rd.or 26th. May we finished up at a place called Bullscamp. It’s roughly 6 or 7 miles from Depalm. The entire Division held that line against the main German attack to allow evacuation to take place. We should have there for only three days but we were there nearer six.

On the night of 30th. June/1st. July, we pulled out and were told to head for the beaches and get on the boats.

Well, we got to the beaches, but there were no boats. We waited around, during the day making ourselves as inconspicuous as possible, and at night we looked for a boat, but we knew there was little chance of finding one.

My colleague, Tug Wilson and I, decided to go and have a look around in a nearby village called Lapanne. We found an abandoned Bren Gun Carrier, which worked, and we drove around in it. Looking for boats, anything. We found some large Storage places at the back of some abandoned houses, and these Storage places had large wooden doors on them.

We pulled one of these doors, which measured about 10feet by 8feet, from the storage place and put it on the back of the Bren Gun Carrier. We drove back down to the beach and the tide was fully in, but it was quite shallow. We decided to drive out into the sea as far as we could, until the door began to float.

Once it was floating we took it in turns to sit on it whilst the other one paddled, pushing the door with the ebbing tide. We changed over every few minutes, continuing to push the door out with the tide. It began to get dark and there was not way of stopping, we just kept going.
Suddenly a little boat came alongside and a very refined voice asked us if we were English. I said I was, but Tug Wilson said, ‘I’m Scottish’. The refined voice replied, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take you as well’.

We got on board the boat and were given a mug of steaming hot tea, it was wonderful!

After that I fell asleep and awoke some time later to the sound of ‘tapping’ which I thought was a machine gun. But it wasn’t, they were waking me up because we had arrived at Ramsgate.

We got off the boat and were looked after by the WVS and the Salvation Army. Then we were taken to the railway station and eventually back to our unit.

There were many other incidents during the war, but I think the ‘Escape on a Door’ was the most memorable.

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