大象传媒

One of the many sessions organised by Thanet Libraries and UK-Online took place at the 鈥楪AP鈥� community centre in Broadstairs. Mrs. Wampach came in with the work of her late husband C. R. Wampach 鈥� Royal Engineers. He made the army his career and by the time the army decided he was of retirement age he had reached the rank of Major. In fact 鈥� had he not lied about his age when he joined 鈥� he could have stayed in the forces for a further 3 years. The account of his career is called 鈥楾he Memoirs of a Sapper鈥� and this is one of those memories.

Memoirs of a Sapper 鈥� Preparation for Overlord

In 1943 the main task of Southern Command was operation 鈥楤olero鈥� which was the accommodating of thousands of American troops. Hundreds of camps had to be constructed, mainly in the south west of England and all the work came under the control of the Chief Engineer. In September of 43 my friend Wally and I were summoned to see major Roberts. 鈥淵ou are both to be posted and are going to be involved in a most secret operation. You are posted to the PLUTO staff and will report to HQ21 Army Group at Wentworth Park.鈥� As we went back to the sergeants鈥� mess to sort out our kit we had no idea of our duties. Pluto to us was a dog owned by Micky Mouse! That same night we had a fabulous party in the sergeants鈥� mess in Wilton Camp. Not only was a good time had by all present but arriving late was a crowd from the US entertainment section. The group contained Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Colona, Betty Grable, Hedy Lamarr and Fred Astaire! We had the hangover of all time the next day. However we entrained at Salisbury Station on the 1130 train to London with orders to report to the camp Commander HQ Army Group. The same day my promotion came through to Warrant Officer 鈥� at just over 22 years of age I was the youngest WO in the Corps.

When Wally and I reported to Wentworth the planning of the invasion was still at an early stage. Here we learned from Colonel Arter that we would be part of a team to plan and operate a system of pumping 10,000 tons of petrol a day into Europe 鈥� this was PLUTO the Pipe Line Under The Ocean and our training started in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Very soon after we were joined by our boss, a civilian named John Heinemann of the publishing firm but in civilian life had been the Chief Engineer for the Asiatic Petroleum Company.

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