大象传媒

Bert Haddrell鈥檚 role in the 4th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment was as Company runner, a responsible job, carrying out the requests and instructions of the Company Commander. Responsibilities included taking verbal messages (not written messages), and instructing men to move up if required during action. It was whilst carrying out these duties that he was seriously wounded.

"The morning of the 3rd August we were going into the attack and I was Company runner. We had started to advance when the Company Commander said to me, 'Where is No.2 Platoon?' I replied, 'Still in the trenches Sir', and I was told that they should be in the line of advance. I went back to where they were in their trenches where I stood facing them and gave them the Company Commander's orders. All the time the Germans were laying down a mortar barrage of six-barrelled mortars which fire six bombs in succession and were called 'moaning minnies', because they made a screaming noise as they were fired. They had a very demoralising effect on us and were very frightening. One bomb dropped behind me and knocked me out and when I regained consciousness I have been wounded in the back and was bleeding rather badly. All the men in 2 Platoon who were in the trenches and took the full force of the blast in their faces were dead.

After some time the stretcher-bearers, who were very hard pressed, picked me up and took me back to the medical post where they gave me emergency treatment for my wounds. All the time this was happening the mortar barrage continued and at one stage the Medical Corporal covered me with his body to protect me from further injury. I later learned that he too had been killed."

Lance Corporal William Anthony Malcolm Puddy, the son of William and Alice Puddy, of Parkstone, Dorset was killed on the 15th August 1944 and is buried in Tilly-Sur-Seules War Cemetery, Calvados, France.

When he came to Bert said a little prayer to himself:

鈥淧lease God, I don鈥檛 mind dying, but please don鈥檛 let me die in a foreign field.鈥�

Whilst lying on the ground wounded, waiting for stretcher bearers, Bert put his tin hat over his face in order to protect himself from the mortar shells that were still coming down! As he lay on the ground his outstretched hand found a jerrican nearby containing liquid. Thinking it was water he took a swig, only to discover that it was Calvados, an apple brandy that is a speciality of Normandy.

After being tended to by Lance Corporal Puddy, Bert was admitted to No.10 Casualty Clearing Station where the Unit Medical Officer diagnosed multiple mortar wounds back - penetrating chest. The medical report of the 12th Sept 1944 states 鈥渞eceived shell wounds (mortar) at 12.30 hrs鈥�. By 2300 hrs on the 3rd, Bert鈥檚 general condition had improved, despite being very badly wounded. On the 4th August Bert was transferred to the 25th F.T.U. (Field Transfusion Unit) and then to 43rd Field Surgical Unit, where by 1400 hrs he had received three pints of blood. From here he was evacuated to 79th British General Hospital on the 8th August where he was operated on. He remained there for 28 days.

"I was taken to a tent hospital near Bayeaux where I was operated on for severe chest injuries. After staying there for several weeks I was shipped back to the United Kingdom and landed at Southampton. After spending one night in hospital there I went on a special hospital train to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and eventually to a special chest unit at Bangour Hospital, which is between Glasgow and Edinburgh."

Mortar fragments had penetrated the chest and damaged a lung causing it collapse. This necessitated a tube being placed in the collapsed lung to wash it out every four hours. As a result Bert was unable to lie down in bed and had to remain sat upright. He was strapped to keep everything in place, recalling the pain when elastoplas was removed to change the bandages. Bert couldn鈥檛 sleep at night because of the discomfort and pain and would pray for the morning to come. There were several Germans at one end of the ward and Bert remembers them singing Silent Night (Stille Nacht) in German.

The journey from Bayeaux to Arromanches by Ambulance was particularly unpleasant as there was a chap in the bed underneath who was smoking.

Bert was transferred from the 79th British General Hospital in France to the United Kingdom on the Hospital Carrier "St Julien", disembarking at Southampton on 11th September. He was admitted to Royal South Hants and Southampton Hospital for an overnight stay before being transferred to Chest Unit, Cosham on the 12th. Bert had to be transferred by ship because his condition would not permit transference by aeroplane. The 鈥淪t Julien鈥� was built in 1925 by Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilders and was owned by the Great Western Railway Company, being used as a cross channel ferry between Weymouth and the Channel Islands. It became a hospital carrier in 1939 and was returned to its owners in 1946.

The hospital ward in Southampton contained both British and German wounded; the Germans being segregated at one end. The sister came on to the ward and spoke and Bert responded with 鈥淕ood Morning Sister鈥�. Her somewhat surprised response was to ask 鈥淲hat are doing here?鈥� as he鈥檇 been put in with the Germans.

On the 14th September Bert was transferred by hospital train to the Military Wing of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh (Thoracic Unit) and from there, on the 26th September, to Bangour Emergency Hospital, West Lothian (situated 14 miles from Edinburgh in hilly woodlands near Broxburn). There was a private railway terminus, Bangour Station, at the hospital at the end of a 1陆 mile branch line that joined the Edinburgh to Bathgate main line at a junction to the west of Uphall. Located 2 miles west of Uphall and 4 miles east of Bathgate, Bangour Village Hospital was officially opened on the 13 October 1906, as a Lunatic Asylum and in 1915 was taken over by the War Office as a military hospital. After the war, in commemoration of the vital role played by the hospital, Bangour Village Church was erected and opened in 1929. Bangour re-opened as a psychiatric hospital in 1922. However, at the outbreak of war in September 1939 the hospital transformed, once again, into the Edinburgh War Hospital, with an additional emergency medical services annexe built on the hilltop site. Five blocks, each consisting of eight wards, were constructed at the Annexe 鈥� as it was first known 鈥� identified as 鈥楶鈥�, 鈥楺鈥�, 鈥楻鈥�, 鈥楽鈥� and 鈥楾鈥� blocks (Hendrie and Macleod, 1991). Bert Haddrell was a patient in 鈥楺鈥� block.
Bert continued having washouts to take the fluids out of the lungs and Vaseline gauze was applied every day to help heal the wounds on his back.

"I received wonderful treatment from everyone in Scotland as well as in France鈥�.

Local families were asked to visit the wounded service men in hospital and on one of his regular visits to the hospitalised Methodists, the Methodist Minister, the Rev. Arthur Valle (who was afterwards transferred to Redfield Methodist Church, Bristol and helped officiate at Bert and Joyce鈥檚 wedding) explained to Bert that he knew a lady who worked in the shop down at the hospital and that he was going to ask her to come and visit. Bert didn鈥檛 get any visitors as he was so far from home, although his sister Alice and brother Cliff who stayed overnight before returning to Bristol once visited him in hospital.

鈥淚 remember three ladies coming into the ward dressed in fur coats bearing all sorts of gifts. This was a wonderful family, that were so kind to me and when I was better they invited me into their house.鈥�

Bill and Lena Baynham, Charles (Chic) and Bunty Fleming, Marshall and Nan Henderson, and Davie and Millie Henderson, who all lived in Bathgate, visited Bert during his stay at Bangour. It was Bunty who worked in the shop at the entrance to the hospital.

When Bert was able to get up and about after seven and a half months in bed he was transferred to Wall House, a large private house in Torphichen, for convalescence. Here, he was allowed to go out for the first time. Bunty was friendly with the Matron and would ring her up and ask if they could have Mr Haddrell out for the day. Bert on his visits out would be dressed in his hospital blue uniform with red tie.

Other trips out came as a result of invitations to the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday nights to see variety concerts and Isabol Bailey singing 鈥淢essiah鈥�. The patients were transported to and from Edinburgh and when they walked down into the hall the spotlight was put on them, as they were wearing their 鈥渉ospital blues鈥�. On another occasion, the girls at P.T.鈥檚 (Patrick Thompsons), a large store in Edinburgh invited the soldiers for a meal at their restaurant and then took them to see a show at the theatre afterwards.

Whilst at Torphichen two ribs, that had been operated on in France, where causing Bert some discomfort, so the Surgeon Mr. Noel Gray said for him to return to hospital where he operated chiselling out the jagged piece of the ribs.

On the 7th May l945 Germany surrendered and the 8th May was declared V-E day (Victory in Europe). On that date, massive celebrations took place, notably in London, where over a million people celebrated in a carnival atmosphere the end of the European war, though rationing of food and clothing was to continue for a number of years. In London crowds massed in particular in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall toBuckingham Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the Palace to cheering crowds. Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister, Princess Margaret were allowed to wander anonymously among the crowds and take part in the celebrations in London.

Bert鈥檚 experience of VE Day was somewhat different:

"My memory of VE Day is rather sad: like everyone else I was glad that the war had ended but it was a rather sad occasion for me. I was in a convalescent home in Torphichen, near Bathgate, West Lothian. I had been in hospital for a year (seven and a half months confined to bed) after being wounded in the invasion of France, but was making progress.

Whilst in hospital I made friends with another young fellow who came from Dunfermline (also named Bert) and as I came from Bristol I did not have many visitors. When his mother visited him, she would talk to me as well and invariably brought me some fruit, sweets, etc., which I greatly appreciated, being so far from home. When her son, Bert, went home for a weekend I was invited as well and she was very kind to me, making me most welcome as only Scots people can.

I met her other son, who was in the Army, and stationed somewhere in England. Soon after this he was on Army exercises, and was tragically drowned. I had only known him slightly but I think that, perhaps because I had been in the Forces, they asked me if I would attend his funeral. I felt it was the right and proper thing to do out of courtesy, and the funeral was fixed for what turned out to be VE Day.

I had to make my own way from Bathgate to Dunfermline by public transport, which was a restricted service, and took quite a long time. However, I did get there in time for the funeral and paid my respects. The family treated me very well, even in the midst of their grief, were most particular to look after me, and were very grateful for the fact that I had attended. After the service I had to make the return journey by public transport, and arrived back quite late at the convalescent home at Torphichen.

My VE Day memory was tinged with sadness, but it is a day I will never forget. The war in Europe was over, I had survived, though wounded, whereas many of my comrades had paid the supreme sacrifice, and looked forward to going home. I was just 20 years old, and was discharged as unfit for military service on the 26th July 1945."

Bert left Scotland after spending a year in hospital, including convalescing, and travelled back to Bristol by railway from Waverley Station, Edinburgh 鈥� and had to stand all the way.

Bert was discharged on the 26th July 1945 as 鈥渃easing to fulfil Army medical requirements鈥� with a 100% War Pension. Assessment - 100% for Gunshot (sic) Wounds Chest, attributable to War Service.
This was reduced as his health improved, but later increased for Bilateral Sensori Neural hearing loss due to Artillery fire.

His service with the colours was from 6th May 1943 to the 26th July 1945, and for his service in the North West Europe theatre was awarded the 1939/45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the 1939/45 War Medal, and the Defence Medal. He was also awarded the World War II 鈥楩or Loyal Service鈥� disablement badge, which he wears with pride.

Bert recommenced employment with H.J.Packer and Company in September 1945 as a clerk, who were very understanding and helpful allowing him to work part-time with no loss of wages. His medical history records in 1946 that Bert 鈥渉as a day or two off every couple of weeks because of pain and difficulty with breathing in close weather.鈥�

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