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15 October 2014
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Stranded in Enemy-Held Territory

by Jenni Waugh

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Contributed by听
Jenni Waugh
People in story:听
Ronald John Truscott
Location of story:听
Normandy, 1944
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A6050107
Contributed on:听
07 October 2005

There was a time, as a sergeant in the Royal Engineers, when I invaded German occupied European country in 1944, albeit, inadvertently.

The liberating troops had to cross many rivers and where bridges had been blown or to avoid centres of population, and it was essential to cross such rivers where the enemy did not expect such an assault. Surprise is the key to success.

Crossing of the river Orne was one of these occasions, the river was rather wide and where the Brigadier wished to cross posed some difficulty as there was an island in the middle of the river. As his engineer support, we advised him of the likelihood of a sandbank that may extend from the island underwater and thus cause an obstruction to the propellers of the storm boat engines.

He instructed us to investigate the possibility, so at about 4am in the morning, trying not to wake the German forces on the far bank, we loaded a storm boat as quiet as we could into the river. It was flowing quite fast.

On board was an infantry major, a Bren-gunner, a sapper and myself. An Evinrude 50 hp motor is a powerful engine and makes a lot of noise when switched on. The quiet of an early summer鈥檚 morning was shattered as the engine started. Although the Germans could not see us they fired their machine guns in our general direction but without success.

With bullets firing about us we shot off. The storm boat was built to carry about 18 soldiers but there was only four of us and the front of the boat shot up almost vertically. The sapper had to crawl up the bow of the boat to try to signal directions but at that time of the morning he could see nothing.

The propeller fouled the sandbank and the sheer pin broke and therefore our mechanical progression ceased but with the weigh and the surge and the effect of the fast running river it landed us downstream on the far bank controlled by German forces who knew something was afoot. Their firing intensified.

The sapper scrambled ashore, grabbed the painter (the rope) and held the boat secure whilst we disembarked. Up the shingle bank we rushed to take cover. We were now isolated in German occupied country. In order not to identify our position I let the boat drift downstream. The major ordered the reluctant bren-gunner forward and he set up his gun in the firing position. He pulled out his pistol.

I hid between two large trees, emptied my sten gun magazine and filled it again ensuring the each cartridge rim was behind the previous one so as to prevent jamming when firing. As a qualified marksman, I switched to single shot firing for accuracy. Squeeze the trigger set on automatic one can fire all the rounds in a split second. It is more accurate to set the gun on single shot, fire two shots quickly, and re-aim before firing again. Two shot bursts each time.

So there we were, isolated in German occupied territory, in the middle of the night, with shots pinging around us. A thought occurred to us, what was to happen when daylight eventually came. Would we be shot or captured?

Fortunately the grass was lush and offered concealment if we kept our heads down. Daylight eventually arrived and we could observe the German light vehicles passing to and fro on the road that ran alongside the river but at some distance away.

By lunch time such activity ceased although the noise of gunfire increased. Eventually an allied vehicle came down the same road and the sapper jumped up to reveal our presence, I rugby tackled him to the floor. One vehicle spotted was not enough, a counter-attack could occur and we would be discovered.

At last, there were a sufficient number of British vehicles for us to advance from our cover to make contact. It appeared that the Brigadier had realised the position and crossed the river further downstream.

Our foray, into enemy held country, however unintentional, did not raise much comment. In fact there were very many that did not know that we, for a short while, had landed on enemy occupied territory. A bit of an anti-climax one might say.

[The story was entered by Jenni Waugh, 大象传媒 Outreach Officer, on behalf of Mr Truscott, who accepts the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.]

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