大象传媒

Story 1.
I refer to the 鈥楤attle of the Bulge鈥� as my platoon and I were in retreat. I had on loan to me a black American lad. He was a good radio mechanic as he served and supplied our infantry with walkie-talkie radios.
As we were in trouble and being pursued by the Germans, I said to my black friend, 鈥淔or God鈥檚 sake, get moving, darkie!鈥� He then stopped and found a moment鈥檚 time to stare at me and say, 鈥淪ergeant, don鈥檛 call me darkie!鈥� I then apologised, and then we retreated very quickly. We went through the Ardennes and somehow I got separated from my colleagues. I continued on alone. It was 3am and I noticed a street in a town called St. Niklaas. The town had surrendered and white flags were in all the windows. The street was called Degraavisraas. I remembered some if the soldiers had been collected there during a lull in the fighting. I knocked on a door, number 76. A big, heavy Belgian woman opened the door, grabbed hold of my battledress and dragged me into her house. Not a word was spoken as she put her finger to her mouth. She then proceeded to take my motorbike into the front garden and never spoke, as the Germans were only 12 miles away. It was now 3.30am. at 5am my radio came on, and I then knew the Germans had been repulsed.
They were aiming to capture the Antwerp docks. I found my commander in Antwerp. He was pleased to see me as I was 鈥榤issing鈥�.

Story 2.
When I was in Belgium, I was asked by Maria (the lady who had taken me into her house) if I could take some food to her relatives in Holland who were starving.
The very day Holland was freed I went on my motorbike to the Monodyke Dam (Amsterdam) as this was the only way into Holland. Two military please followed me. We made a raft from some timber and got into Holland. A Dutch policeman welcomed us. I gave him an address and he took me to a house to meet Maria鈥檚 starving relations. They then read a letter telling them who I was. I gave them a lot of food which I had in the pannier on my motorbike. How glad they were!
I then returned to Belgium on the raft we had made.

Story3.
My Cockney mate, 鈥楽lasher鈥�, and I were freelance but always kept in touch by radio with my superiors. As France had capitulated, we entered a large chateau in the forest. We were due for a drink and some food rations, and we entered with great care. Slasher said to me that there was a noise coming from a cupboard. I listened and said, 鈥淐ome out with your hands up!鈥� I then opened the door and there were three of them. I said to them, 鈥淭hrow your guns and ammunition on the floor.鈥� I think they were glad to have surrendered. We took away their guns from the floor but they had no ammunition in them. I then proceeded to phone my superior officer on the radio to ask him to come and take them as prisoners of war. They arrived after twenty minutes and took them away. Slasher and I then stayed to have our rations.

Story 4.
After the Holland (Moor Aye) episode, I returned to my unit, The 12th Armoured Brigade, RE.M.E. Workshop. We made our way to Germany via Neigmaken. We crossed the Rhine at Emmerick with the Canadians who were very good soldiers. As we moved through North-West Europe, we attempted to capture a town called Sansdett. We were heavily attacked from aircraft above.
Slasher, my mate, and myself crouched down in a ditch. My commander phoned me on my intercom and said we had to take cover in a farmhouse as he did not want any lives lost. I said to Slasher, 鈥淵ou can stay here or come with me and go in.鈥� He said, 鈥淚 will come with you, Sergeant.鈥� We both went in and two German boys put up their hands, I was glad to see. The place was booby-trapped. There was an explosion and we were badly thrown about. I put my shoulder out.
I said to the German boys, 鈥淵ou can stay with me or go to your unit.鈥� They stayed with me and I was glad to have them. Lots of houses came down, and women and children were running everywhere. The German boys told them not to worry as we would not harm them.

Story 5 - the George Medal story.
We moved further into the town towards a railway line which was loaded with ammunition. Another explosion took place and brought down more houses. One house was so badly damaged that a couple could not get out as they were upstairs and the stairs were broken away. Slasher and I improvised a ladder from broken timber. The couple climbed down on our backs.
One German woman said to me, 鈥淭ommie, my son鈥� and pointed to him about 20 yards away. He would not leave his dead father who was the driver of the locomotive which was blown up. My officer then arrived and said, 鈥淐hapman, go and get him.鈥� The frau then said, 鈥淎chtung, minefields.鈥� The officer asked her for a safe route, which she knew, and I went and dragged him away from his dead father. I handed him to his mother. She hugged me and gave me a gold watch which she brought from her house. For this rescue event, I was awarded the George Medal.

George Medal
1698082 Sergeant John Alan Chapman
Royal Electric and Mechanical Engineers

On the 16th June, 1945, two ammunition trains in the marshalling yards at Sarstedt caught fire and began to explode. No sooner than the first explosion occurred than the cries for help were heard from the shattered houses alongside the track. Sergeant Chapman, whose platoon was situated 200 to 300 yards from the scene, immediately ran to two partly demolished houses and assisted in removing to safety three German women and children. After having done this, he was informed that an elderly couple were trapped in a burning house by the railway line. Admit continual violent explosions, a rain of falling debris in the shape of railway truck wheels, axles and other huge pieces of twisted metal, unexploded shells and masonry, and with a knowledge that some twenty full ammunition trucks were still intact, he went back. And on reaching the house, which had collapsed, he improvised a ladder to climb up to the window and succeeded in rescuing them and bringing them out. Yet a third time he approached the area, but an officer, seeing that the trucks were about to explode, called him back. Sergeant Chapman acted entirely on his own initiative, and by his own complete disregard of personal safety, he was an inspiration to others who assisted in the rescue work. Sergeant Chapman was ordered to male sure all intact trucks were coupled together. The officer, with the help of a Cockney infantry private called 鈥楽lasher鈥�, then towed the unexploded bombs out of the area to be made safe by the bomb disposal engineer.
Sergeant Chapman was then requested to go and rescue a boy of 10 years old who would not leave his dead father behind, about 50 yards away. Sergeant Chapman dragged him across a minefield and handed him to his mother. For this, she gave Sergeant Chapman a gold watch, which is now the property of his grandson, Kevin.

Gazetted 鈥� London, dated Friday 28th December, 1945
London gazette Number 37404 page 6275
Mentioned in the R.E.M.E. Museum archived at Arborsfield near Reading, Berkshire.

Investiture
Buckingham Palace
King George VI
68 Orders 8443
(C.2. Investitures)
28.12.45

Prior to the above, Sergeant J.A. Chapman was involved in the D-Day landings. Two of his platoons said, 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 come back and you do, would you place a wreath on the Cenotaph for our children?鈥�
Unfortunately they did not come back. Sergeant Chapman was wounded but survived.

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