´óÏó´«Ã½

A story of my service career as requested by those who I hope enjoy it.
As told by George Walker of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Chapter 6

There is such a thing as intuition. Once, before I was transferred to the Intelligence section, we had made an attack and captured a ridge, and as usual the first thing was to ‘dig-in’. The section Corporal told Archie and I to dig a trench in a certain area for the Bren gun, but I said I didn’t like it, preferred another position which I thought gave a better field of fire and we could see the country around better and also gave us more protection. However he insisted so we started digging. We had got about 3’ down when the officer came checking defences of the platoon.

He took a look and asked if we were happy with the position. I said no, so he said, why were we digging there then, when we could have a better one. So I told him what the corporal had said, and after all, orders are orders. He replied, use your own judgement and he would see the Corporal.

We had only moved and dug about 6 inches in the new trench when a shell landed smack in the middle of the one we had just left.

Another time after we had captured Longstop, I was put on guard duty half way down the slope of the hill in a trench there, as forward alert, if Jerry should counter attack. I’d relieved one man, and was told I’d be relieved in 2hrs. A long 2hrs and no relief. Another hour or so and dawn started breaking, and no sign of relief. I waited as long as I could and decided to go back to our lines. The Corporal in charge had fallen fast asleep until wakened by the dawn Stand-Too and was very apologetic. 10 minutes later Jerry started shelling & mortaring and one landed in the trench I’d left.

In one battle in Tunisia when Hamish had taken temporary command of the Batt, we were in a position when the Brigadier and Maj-general of the Corps came to visit to see how things were. I’d just brewed up. Now, we did not have mugs like most units, we made our own from tin cans from the ration boxes and used the wire to make handles. Hamish asked the ‘Red Tabs’ if they would like some tea and asked me to give them some. (Red Tabs - Red Collar tab on Senior Officer - also nicknamed ‘Red Flannel’)
I said we had no mugs, but only the makeshift ones, which they said was ok. I collected two from my pals and was taking them to Hamish’s party when I was stopped by an officer who had just joined the day before, and Hamish

Had put him in Batt HQ in that Battle for experience. He had just come out of Sandhurst officer’s training Depot in England and he was spic and span in his uniform, (and also wet behind the ears) and VERY regimental.

He told me to go back and find real mugs for the top officers, so I told him there weren’t any on which he told his batman to loan me two, and that I’d to go back and brew up again.

Now Hamish and the two top officers had seen this and Hamish called to me to hurry up with the tea so I carried on with the two makeshift ones. The two Red Tabs said they were fine and enjoyed the tea.
When they had gone Hamish had a quiet word with the officer.

During the couple of weeks after the fall of Tunisia, Hamish’s driver gave me one or two lessons in driving. The car he had been given was a Humber Staff Car, semi synchronised gears. It was out in the desert, and he said stop once which I did, so he said if I’d been on a test I’d have failed for not putting my arm out and signalling I was stopping. (No brake lights or indicators then)

When in convoy on leaving the area we went right back to Algeria, a day, night, and day drive. Each vehicle had two drivers to rest in turn. Hamish and Duncan were the drivers of the staff car. My job was to keep track of the convoy behind and also navigate when Duncan was driving. Hamish did his own navigating.

On the second day Hamish was resting in the back of the car, and Duncan became sleepy, so I took over to give him a rest, which I shouldn’t have done. I was doing fine until I came to some X roads and stopped to check the map, then I set off again. A voice came out of the back ‘How long have you been driving, Walker?’ I thought both Duncan and I were for it. But Hamish said, no don’t stop, you’ve been doing alright, carry on. And went back to sleep.

In the same convoy Arthur Childs was a Dispatch Rider on a motor bike. His and the other DR’s job was to keep going up and down the convoy to check it and report to Hamish if anything went wrong. Part of the journey was through mountains and the road had a sheer drop

On one side, no fence, only posts here and there, but at the bends was loose shale where traffic had piled it on taking the bend.
I was looking out through the ‘air navigation’ hole in the roof and saw Arthur coming along. He wasn’t taking the bend but was heading straight for the drop. He was too far for me to call out to warn him, but he got among the shale and the bike wobbled. He managed to control it.
He had fallen asleep and going among the shale had woken him. Lucky it was there.

Another time before Tunis fell; Hamish was taking a reconnoitring party along a road towards the German lines to see if a certain feature was occupied and plan fro an attack. He had a DR with us; there were about 3 officers and 2 men in the party. He needed the DR to come back quickly with any orders for the battalion. Something happened and the Dr was unable to go, so word was sent for a replacement. After a long time no one turned up, so the recon party went down the road alone. Just over a mile we noticed a figure walking down the centre of the road towards us, so we all went into the ditch, so we could capture him if he was German. After a while I thought I know that walk, and told Hamish I thought it was Arthur Childs. Arthur got a real shock when we came out of the ditch. Apparently instead of giving Arthur the map bearing he was to meet us, the NCO in charge had given him the map bearing of the place we were going to look at. Arthur’s bike had stopped so he was making his way back to arrange someone else to take his place. Hamish asked him questions and said ‘Good, if you’ve been there, and found no Germans, it saves us going.’ The Battalion moved on that feature without trouble.

DR’s wore a round helmet for protection similar to a paratrooper’s.

When I was with Intelligence section I was issued with binoculars and a compass, which came in useful when I was acting as runner or spotting. I was never asked to return them, even though Hamish knew I had them.
Stephen has the binoculars, but unfortunately Eva ‘disposed’ of the compass.

When I became Hamish’s Batman, in time I acquired a smart primus stove, which when dismantled fitting into a box which I strapped above my entrenching tool in the base of my pack. I also used to have a couple of water bottles, two makeshift mugs hooked in the straps of my small pack and one of the ammunition pouches contained tea sugar and powdered milk.
George Walker was ready for war.
Every stop we made there was a brew up if possible. The primus stove I brought home with the binoculars and compass. We used to use it when we went cycling and camping after the war.

July 1943. When we were invading Sicily I received a letter from Eva as we were crossing in the boats. In it there was a photo Eva had taken of herself on our third wedding anniversary. I folded it to fit in my paybook and carried it for the rest of the war. Hamish had not met Eva, and said she was a beautiful lady and looked forward to meeting her. (It was 1986 before that happened)

When we were near Mount Etna party of us reconnoitred the top, climbing over lava that had been spilt for centuries. Indeed, Sicily around that area was bleak & dusty from it; no way any trenches could be dug. We looked in the crater, bubbling & smouldering with hot red lava. We didn’t think then, and nobody told us, that the volcano was active. It has erupted about 3 times since I believe.

At a place called Adrano on the slope of Etna, the battalion took the town and went through it, just outside was a railway tunnel, so those near it thought it would make good cover from the German shelling. (they were at that time using ‘Moaning Minnies’ as we called them - 6 barrelled rocket guns - nicknamed after the sound they made. I was one of the party and we explored carefully for chance the Germans were still there. What we found was a great big gun on rails (like The Guns of Navarone) Jerry used to wheel it out, fire, then wheel it back in again.

Italy

On the 3rd Sept 1943 the 8th Army crossed the straights of Measura and the Battalion transport crossed shortly afterwards. The rest of the Battalion went by sea and landed with the commandos in Taranto in the heel of Italy and proceeded to BARI to capture that port.

It is worth mentioning that the Transport Platoon and the Carrier Platoon picked up a Sgt and a Corporal who had escaped from a POW Camp when Italy capitulated, and it was mere coincidence and odds of a million to one that the first British troops they saw was the carrier Platoon which they had belonged to when captured at Greenhill, Nov 1942. The American 5th Army landed at Salerno on the west coast below Naples and continued up the west coast of Italy, the Eighth Army went up the east coast, the mountains in between & the 8th captured Foggia and the Aerodrome, but ran into stiff opposition at a river crossing south of a place called Termoli. All the bridges had been blown and the British forces there were too weak to attempt a crossing by force.

3rd Oct, the Commandos were sent by sea to take Termoli and the battalion less transport sent with them in support.
The Commandos took the port, but the Germans were shelling even though 8th Army intelligence said there were few troops there. It turned out a Jerry Artillery officer was hidden out in the town for a day & a half, seeing everything that happened and directing artillery fire.

4th Oct the battalion was given orders to advance on a village called San Giacomo about 4 miles away. The Battalion went along the road against no opposition as they had been told, but half way to the village came under heavy fire, near a farm and some brickworks. The forward company Y sent word back to Batt HQ they were being heavily attacked and suffering casualties.

Unfortunately the wireless sets we had, had no batteries and were useless. Batteries had not been delivered since we came into Italy. It wasn’t known then that the battalion was against a whole Panzer Division, armoured which had come across from the Naples area for refit and rest.

The then CO, thinking he was against a rearguard continued the advance, with companies each side of the road, but the whole Batt came under attack by tank and infantry., two companies being missing and the HQ plus one company returned to the Brickworks where they came under severe shell, mortar and tank fire not only the Germans, but also the British Artillery, because of lack of wireless. The battalion managed to hold positions all next day.

There were severe casualties, including Maj Anderson VC who was killed, ironically, by our own shelling.

There were no troops behind us those two days so we had to hold on. On Oct 6 we were forced to retire but another two battalions had been brought in by sea, and three Sherman tanks had been able to cross the river.

Only about 150 men arrived in Termoli. It had been a close thing. Later the two companies that had been missing managed to get back and rejoin the Batt. We lost 5 officers killed, 7 wounded and 150 casualties in the other ranks. The CO got the DSO for the action.

We got a large draft of reinforcements from the Green Howards after a day, then 9 officers and 178 men from the Black Watch.
Then we went with the rest of the 8th Army up the East coast.
On the Adriatic side of Italy there were numerous rivers from the mountains to the sea. The Germans made good use of defence in them.

It became a saying for us ‘of one more river to cross’. The main ones to us were the Biferno, Trigno and Sangro. About this time it started raining heavily for days with an odd dryish day, and eventually we arrived at the Sangro River where the Germans had blown all the bridges and built strong defences for what we called the winter line across Italy (coast to coast)

Then began the system of patrolling, probing, raids in atrocious weather and flooded river to cross.

On the other side of the river was flat until about a mile from the river there was an escarpment which dominated the whole area, and behind the area sloped up to two towns about another mile. I can’t go into all the details of the battle, which started with patrols and trying to get a foothold the far side of the river from about the 5th Nov until the main attack went in Nov 29th. Too many incidents and it would take a whole book. I was wounded Nov 29th on the escarpment at a place called ‘Forman’s Folly’, taken back to Termali for operation then to Bari, Toranto and finally ended up in Algiers hospital.

I didn’t rejoin the battalion until February at CASSINO.

The day after I was wounded, the division was moved and took over various defensive positions in the central mountains during winter, then in February the division moved to Casino to strengthen the line. I rejoined the battalion just before the 2nd Battle for Casino. The Division was to follow and exploit any breakthrough the Indian Division or New Zealand division made.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.