大象传媒

The Company left Faringdon on 14th January 1940 for Southampton and embarked on SS Amsterdam. From Le Havre. the journey continued by train, in wagons labelled "40 hommes ou 8 chevaux", to Caudebec-en-Caux. In the intense cold the contents of their water bottles froze. Because there was no anti-freeze available for the lorries, all movement by road was difficult. When the onward journey to Les Asturies began on the 20th January, the despatch riders had to be left behind because it was impossible for them to keep their motor bikes upright.
At Les Asturies his billet was a shared bedroom in a miner's cottage. When he caught influenza he had to stay this bare room with just two blankets, his kit bag as a pillow and no heating until a friend brought in a small circular Valor stove.
On February 1st the Company moved on to La Madeleine, a suburb of Lille and new billets, in a chateau, on the road connecting Lille with Roubaix Each morning they travelled to the Franco-Belgian border to construct concrete pill boxes, but in the freezing weather progress was slow. Applying pebbledash to the concrete, without trowels was a painful process.
On 10th May 1940 the Germans invaded Belgium and on the 14th the Company moved on towards Brussels. By the 15th May they had reached Vilvorde and were instructed to prepare bridges across the Albert Canal for demolition. At one bridge there was no time to lay charges because the Germans could be seen on the far bank and so the order was given to drive the 15 cwt truck loaded with explosives to the centre of the bridge and blow it up.
By May 27th the military situation had become chaotic. They were told to act as infantry and hold back the Germans. In a village called Comines they fortified a row of farm workers' cottages, by filling pillowcases with soil and putting them up at the windows, but leaving slits to fire through. Though there were no attacks there were casualties. Sergeant Hollis the section Sergeant, was knocked off his motorbike and badly injured across the neck by a piano wire stretched across the road. . After that all motorbikes had a piece of angle iron welded on the front.
On the 28th May the Belgian army accepted unconditional surrender. Now the roads were jammed by refugees pushing prams and trolleys, As they moved along they were frequently attacked by flights of Stukas which would peel off with screeching sirens and dive down towards them, machine-gunning and bombIng. After the attack lorries would be left burning, refugee carts overturned and people killed.
Later came the order to move back to La Panne, eight miles from Dunkirk. On the journey they ran short of food . Rations at this point were now down to half a mug of raisins each. When the lorries ran out of fuel they smashed the engines with pick-axes to prevent their use by the Germans.
On reaching La Panne, they were re-directed to Dunkirk but later the order was reversed and they were told to return again to La Panne where their task was to build a pier using lorries. On top of each lorry they lashed doors and floorboards taken out of hotels along the front. Often they were dive-bombed by Stukas, and each time had to run for shelter. One of the four casualties from the Company on the beaches was Corporal Ron Yeardley a man whom he admired.
By now the food had run out completely, but he and a friend Wal Downing managed to find a tin of six Oxo cubes and a tin of jam which they ate hungrily. Later he attempted to swim out to one of the naval boats offshore but they were too far away .and he had to turn back.
On shore again he found his clothes and his battledress jacket, containing a diary which he had kept since arriving in France and joined one of the long queues waiting for evacuation.
Eventually he reached a boat manned by two sailors but who were having great difficulty rowing, because there was a soldier, unable to swim, clinging to the stern. With progress very slow the sailors asked for a volunteer swimmer who could take his place and also help by pushing the boat. He volunteered.
When they reached HMS Gossamer, he was unable to climb the steps onto the deck, because his arms had got cramp from hanging on to the rowing boat in the cold water. Fortunately two sailors were on hand and they managed to lift him out of the water and up the steps. Down below he was given a hot cup of tea, some bread, .a towel, a pair of shorts and a jumper. It was only then that he realised that his battledress, containing his Diary had been left in the rowing boat. When he enquired he was later told that the rowing boat had been lost returning with more soldiers.
After a sleep he awoke to find the engines had stopped, but that they were still in Dunkirk. While he was below in the very packed hold there was a terrific explosion. All the lights went out and the ship heeled over to one side. They were in pitch darkness and thought that they were sinking. There was no panic and one chap started singing either "There'll always be an England" or "Rose of England" which he found very moving. After a while the lights came back on and the engines started up again. He later heard that a shell or torpedo had hit the water and bounced right over the bow of the ship.
They landed at Sheerness on June 1st 1940 and were given bars of chocolate , cups of tea and a card to send home before being put on a train that stopped at Birmingham New Street There was just enough time to telephone his parents, using money that someone gave him before the train moved off. The next few days were spent at Huyton where a few were given tickets to a theatre in Liverpool.
On 4th June the Company went by train from Liverpool to Bridport in Dorset where they lived in tents sleeping on the ground before they were given paliases. With no equipment or rifles they spent the time doing physical training and going on long route marches.
On 28th June they moved on again this time to Hursley Park near Winchester where there was a near mutiny because no groundsheets were issued and they had to pitch their tents on wet grass. On 5th August they moved to Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire but this time to be billeted in a requisitioned Hotel on the front, "The Grand Marine". At Barton they undertook bayonet practice laid barbed wire and constructed pill boxes along the cliff top ready for the expected German invasion.
One evening at the Grand Marine someone standing on the balcony shouted out that there were "a couple of smashers" passing by. He and a friend dashed downstairs and followed them along the cliff top. His first remark on reaching a pill box that they were building was " Are you interested in pill boxes?" The girls were Joy and Wendy Jones. At a subsequent dance in the Grand Marine he got to know Joy.
The next move for No 2 Section of 225 Company of which he was part was to Fordingbridge to prepare all the bridges over the River Avon from Salisbury to Ringwood for blowing. On September 5th 1940 the army had a yellow alert that the German invasion of Britain was about to start.
The Section then moved on again to Beaulieu to be billetted in a house owned by Sir Bernard Splisbury, Q.C. Their task was to build a top secret radar plane detection unit comprising a large area of perfectly horizontal chicken wire fixed on top of angle iron. While stationed at Beaulieu he used to cycle the 14 miles to Barton and back in order to see Joy.

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