大象传媒

I joined up with the Wiltshire regiment on June 18th 1942.Soon i was sent to Holland on sea near Clacton to join up with the 5th battalion of the Wiltshire regiment, i stayed there for 6 weeks.Next i travelled to Castle Rock in Ireland where i stayed for 3 months.i had a good mate there who was nicknamed Thrush.
I was a first class shot and was transferred to the Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. I then went to Folkestone and on to Battle near Hastings we were now part of the 43rd Wessex.
Next stop was Newhaven and 12 days after D Day i was put on a boat for France. On arrival in France there were boats everywhere it was an amazing sight, we were dropped off in water up to our necks.I had a push bike and walked up the beach through a taped off mine field.We moved through Bayeux up to the front line , our commanding officer was killed in the first hour of battle. Ltnt Hooper asked me to lay a mine field and later said i did a good job. We were shelled continuosly., my friend Knight was killed but Jordan was ok. My seargeant Offord was hit and i put my whole pack of bandages in the hole in his stomach(it wasn't until recently that i found out that he died that night). I went to use my water bottle and found that a piece of shrapnell had gone straight through it saving me from injury.On the evening of June9th we had to rendezvous with another platoon ,I had to walk up the River Odon 100 yards in front of everyone with a grenade with the pin out,bloody terrifying.We were now with the Somersets July10th 1944 and we were told to attack and capture Hill 112 one of the key battles during the war.We were under the orders of Corporal Smith the shelling was terrible. As we were moving up a familiar voice shouted across ,it was Thrush i had a quick word with him and moved on . I never saw him again.
We followed tanks up the hill Ltnt Hooper was shouting instructions.At night the tanks moved back and we stayed in a double hedge near a copse.We were in no mans land .In the morning a whole line of Germans came towards us each carrying machine guns, Seargeant Smith and myself were immediately captured it was 5.30am July 11th 1944. Jordan ,hooper and six others managed to hide and were not captured. We were put into a truck with dead Germans . We were driven south to a small camp for a few days we had little or nothing to eat.Next on to Chartres and a bigger camp.Next it was on to Paris to the German head quarters, onto the station where we were put into cattle trucks 40 to a truck we were in there for 3 days we were now at Challon , back on the trucks after a couple of days and on to Trier German women spat in our faces.Our prison was called stalag 26b we were so thirsty we drank from a puddle in the yard.Soon it was back on the trucks along trip through the Black Forest to Saigon. We slept 30 to a hut there was a Russian prison next door ,It was here i won a draughts competition and 32 fags. After a month it was now Sept 1944 we went on a working party to Maulch sugar factory i became friendly with a chap called Cooper. We became friendly with some Polish women one brought me some flowers for my 21st birthday.We spent xmas there .
On Jan 29th 1945 we were told we were going on a march this was later to be known as the Death March, it was to escape from the advancing Russians. The snow was heavy it was freezing cold and we only had short rests we even slept outside on an open tennis court. we almost walked back to Saigon but ended up in Stalag luft3 we stayed for 3 days onto Leipzig and Dresden the night before it had been badly bombed we were not to popular.We marched into the Chtnitz mountains and after marching for 6 weeks we arrived at Hildershine.More working parties .We were cold hungry thirsty and worst of all lousy. I now had gangrene from the frost bite .Soon, as the allies advanced the Germans left us, a big coloured American soldier cut the wire to the compound and started handing out Rations , i had been a prisoner of war for 10 months.Seven of us who needed hospital treatment were moved to Hanover hospital but there were no medical supplies.
after 2 days i was taken to Paderborn airport and a plane home to Banbury.I was taken to Shrewsbury hospital for a month i weighed 7 stone. I was demobbed in January with new clothes i caught the train home to dorset .

Pte Ernest Tom Stokes
Army n.o5577555
POW No 70058
If you were involved in this story please get in touch
stokesderek@hotmail.com

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