大象传媒

Memories of a Sapper, Royal Engineers Part Three 鈥� From Bone, Algeria as reinforcement for the 56th Black Cat, London Division at Cassino, Italy 鈥� 9th September 1943.

Part three of an oral history interview with the Hon. Alderman Bill Astle conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

鈥淭he worst place I was ever at was Cassino, I鈥檝e got the book here. (Matthew Parker, 鈥楳onte Cassino: The Story of the Hardest Fought Battle鈥� ISBN 0-7553-1175-2).

I went from the Reinforcing Depot to the Race Course just outside of Algiers, a place called Husien Day. And in the Docks in Algiers was the French liner, the Ville de Oran and there were rumours that that was coming back to England and we all rubbed our hands with delight, we are going back to England! Not on your life! My Unit did, they came back for 鈥楧鈥� day (the 50th Division). We lined up as good as gold on the race course there with our kit bags, it was a Yugoslav M.O., a chap with a red star on his forage cap and he came along, he spoke English, he said, 鈥楨verything alright?鈥� 鈥榊eah鈥� we couldn鈥檛 get away from it quick enough and the next breath, and in the next breath they loaded us, sent us down to Bone, a place called Bone and sent us as reinforcements over to Salerno, sent us to the 56th London Division, so that鈥檚 it.

So that is the reason I didn鈥檛 get home with my previous Unit. They came home - they were round in England. They were round Diss in Norfolk before they went on 鈥楧鈥� Day. They landed on Gold Beach, they were the first Division on Gold Beach, the 50th Div. and the Victoria Cross was won by Stan Hollis, Company Sergeant Major Stan Hollis. They landed there. They came home and of course fools like me came out rubbing their hands with delight thinking I was coming back to join them, mind you I don鈥檛 know what would have happened to me if I had of done! You never know do you?

I was in 56th Black Cat Division at the time, 56th London Infantry Division and I was in the 168th Brigade and the Infantry in that were the 1st London Scottish, the 1st London Irish and the 10th Royal Berkshire Regiment, that was 168th Brigade. Later they did a stint on Anzio but sadly I went back to hospital, that鈥檚 how I didn鈥檛 go to Anzio.

Well, it was like the First World War, it was that horrible. It was for a long while it was a stale mate and grudgingly you had to admire the courage of the German Paratroopers who defended it because they got pounded from all sides but they exacted a terrible toll of people. That was then, part of the area of operation of the American 5th Army and I have to tell that there were more foreign troops in the American 5th Army than there was Americans! We had Moroccans, Moroccan troops, Algerian, Gurkhas, Maoris, New Zealanders, the Goumiers they came from the, the Goumiers, that was the Moroccan troops, they came from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. They wore a black and brown robe and both sides feared them because they had a habit of, if they killed a German they鈥檇 cut both ears off and put them on a string round their neck. They were tribesmen, but they were extremely courageous, extremely courageous. We were glad that they were on our side and not the other! Laughter! It was something for them, the same as it was for a Gurkha, to die in battle. Gurkhas are lovely soldiers, terrific, spotlessly clean, very, very correct, and they are lovely soldiers. And I am one of those like millions more like me who support the fact that when they retire and they go on pension they get the same as a British soldier. Which they haven鈥檛 done in the past - which is an awful way. Now of course they are shared out, some belong to the Indian Army and some - they are all volunteers they don鈥檛 have to belong to anything. They come from Nepal and they spend the first six months building them up because they are very undernourished most of them but they are a courageous, clean, tidy and immaculate soldier. Extremely courageous men of all Nations! We鈥檝e all got a terrific admiration for them.

That was the worst battle that I was in. We were on the left flank of the Second Polish Corp which was commanded by General Anders (Lieutenant General Wladislaw Anders) and those men that belonged to it, belonged to it now-a-days live in Bedford. Because this is where they were demobbed, they were demobbed at Chimney Corner, Bedford.

We were once in Italy it was in this sunken lane, the only indication we had got that there were mines in there was there was a donkey and cart and it had blown, it had injured the donkey and it had blown the cart up. Now that鈥檚 a handy indication in millions of instances like that I suppose and we subsequently found the mines that were there and I changed on the mine detector, I did my turn on there and another chap took over from me. He was making his way forward and I was way back, we didn鈥檛 get too near each other in case one of you went up. And he couldn鈥檛 hear anything, he had the headphones on. I heard the whistle of the mortar bomb coming and I threw, that鈥檚 what we used to do, we used to throw a stone at them if that happened so that if you hit them on the back they got down. But it didn鈥檛 work, so we never found a bootlace belonging to him so it must have nearly knocked him straight on.

The Germans used to leave fountain pens. In fact there is a photograph in the book there of a Sapper, that was what they called us, Royal Engineers, and he鈥檚 probing underneath a doll, that鈥檚 at Cassino because the doll is booby trapped. The doll has been left there, some poor blighter goes along, 鈥極h, what a nice doll鈥� picks it up and it goes up. And there is a picture of him getting rid of it, there is a picture there in the book of him getting rid of it and that鈥檚 what you had to do. (In the book by Matthew Parker as above).

Some of the things make you laugh, tiny little things. When we鈥檇 gone through Cassino, one of the chaps, he was - he came from a village in Suffolk 鈥� and he said, 鈥業鈥檓 glad we are going towards Rome, I always wanted to see the Vacuum City!鈥� That was a remark he made! Yes, a chap called Sweatman, well do I remember it, yes!

One incident, we were near a place called Tiano, going towards Cassino and we were mortared in a dip. And we ran for a little cave in the side of a hill and the Corporal was on my right, Johnny Moore, a Scotsman, er on my left was a chap from Hardingstone near Northampton, Benny Richardson and George Shayler, stretcher bearer and I was in the middle. Johnny Moore got a piece through the upper part of his leg, Benny Richardson had his shoulder taken away here and I didn鈥檛 have a scratch and I was in the middle, so I was a lucky man! George Shayler incidentally was our First Aid man and he ran through this mortar barrage to get a stretcher and the Major, the Company Commander put him in for a decoration. And he had a letter back from the powers that be saying they didn鈥檛 see where it was merited - he was merely doing his job!

I finished that tape of my memories up with a quotation from what was written not too long ago, 鈥楨urope鈥檚 Last Battle鈥� and it says 鈥�

鈥楾he men I knew were young
They鈥檇 always be young
But we who are left
Are left to be old and become a burden on society
And when the end comes
We won鈥檛 regret it
We鈥檒l welcome it.鈥�

There were about 60 of us in a Platoon I suppose and then we were split up into Sections. We were then split up into Sections, yes about 60. There was about 204 in a Field Company. One of those was the Head Quarters Platoon, that had the Quarter Master and all the Head Quarter staff, the clerks and people like that, the Adjutant, the Adjutant and the rest were in Platoons. They are not Platoons by the way now, it has all altered. They are not Field Companies any more they are Field Squadrons and instead of Platoons they are Troops, they are known as One Troop, Two Troop or what have you, Head Quarters Troop, all altered long since the war. That鈥檚 all done away with now.

I was in hospital three times. Another thing it wasn鈥檛 with a serious wound or anything like that. I went with once, I was in for a month I think it was with what they call 鈥榗linical dysentery鈥� it鈥檚 were you get a bug because you haven鈥檛 got the amount of water to clean things out. Water was in a very short supply and you literally passed blood, that鈥檚 what they call 鈥榗linical dysentery鈥�, it鈥檚 horrible. Another, at one time I had what they call 鈥榯rench鈥� mouth and that is your mouth all goes like a black jelly inside and the time I had that they put this acid stuff on a cotton wool and stuff between your lips and your teeth etc., with it. And at the same time I had of all places it should happen, at the same time I had that I had a wisdom tooth taken out at the same time. That was in Perugia, Italy in the hospital in Perugia and I had a wisdom tooth taken out. Oh, dear, oh dear.

Cassino, two months after the battle finished they came back and the bodies still lay on top, hundreds and hundreds of 鈥榚m. The reason they lay on top is it had got so many mines around there that it was absolutely dangerous to walk there. Thousands were killed at Cassino, thousands! There is a Polish cemetery there now and a Commonwealth cemetery and a British cemetery and obviously an American cemetery would be there. That鈥檚 the bit that makes you sad.

A Royal Engineers Unit coming up behind us - they came to deal with the mines and the War Graves Commission came too. They were a special unit, War Graves Commission, they came to take the bodies away. Most of them you buried them where you where you. If you go into France for example, the First World War and the Second World War as well, you can always pick it out France or Belgium. You鈥檒l see four poplar trees, like in a square, one in each corner and if you look in that space in between you鈥檒l find there鈥檚 about - there could be seven blokes buried there, or what have you.

In church yards, my own brother and father are buried in the same church yard in Belgium although it wasn鈥檛 due to the war. Well my brother lived out there and my father died on holiday out there. But at the bottom of the church yard are British and German soldiers buried, from both sides, both sides are buried at the bottom. It鈥檚 sad when you see the untold ones who gave the wrong age, when you see the ages, then 18 years old. The H茅nin Gate, the memorial there, there鈥檚 some on there 14years old who gave the wrong age. Yes. I think in - to perhaps bring us up to date, it comes home to when you see a disaster that has just happened. And in all fairness to the majority of Nations, no matter who they are, the Chinese are helping, it doesn鈥檛 matter which Nation it is and you sit and reflect and say - 鈥榃hy the hell can鈥檛 they do this in perpetuation.鈥� Why does some particular faction have to start wars and things like that, that鈥檚 what it makes you feel like. You know, people come together so marvellously to get aid and so on, they send doctors all Nations, relief workers and so on, the helicopters go there from different Navies. They all go there together in the cause of humanity and then some bloody fool starts wars. It makes you think doesn鈥檛 it?

In Salerno, Italy the nuns were trying to clear the street and our Platoon Officer said to the driver of the particular thing, 鈥楢ndrews go and get the D4鈥� that was a bulldozer, 鈥榞o and get the D4鈥� he says and he gave him the job of helping the nuns. He鈥檇 of got into trouble if anybody had known, he was given the job of using the bulldozer to clear the streets. Yes. I had lovely mates, great blokes they were. I lost touch with a lot of them after the war.鈥�

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