大象传媒

Chapter Three: Springtime in France

It was quite an uneventful leave, Jane was at work and although there were now more uniforms in evidence there was no-one among them that I knew. Everyone had a job. There was now no unemployment. Many women were engaged in war work or were members of the services, even Dad was in full-time employment after so many years of only casual work or the 鈥楧ole鈥� queue.
It had taken a war before work was available for all. The blackout was then complete, I wondered just how many people suffered injuries from bumping into lamposts or other obstacles in the dark especially after closing time.
I was fortunate to have Walt on leave with me, but at long last we were to be separated, for although he was also off to France he was to join a different regiment. We had a pint or two together before returning to Tidworth.
Once returned we were not long delayed before we boarded the train for our port of embarkation (I cannot remember where that was, or little of our passage over). What I do recall quite clearly was the scene on the French hillside just before we docked at Le Havre, in the clear, bright morning sunshine the houses there stood out so clean fresh and peaceful, it all appeared so remote from any resemblance of war in which their country was engaged. I wondered though what their fate might be if the Germans did begin a Spring offensive.
There were others now with me who were bound also to the Fife and Forfars; there was Wardie and Danny, the boy we called the 鈥楲ittle Corporal鈥� and I think about five others, in addition there was an officer and a couple of NCOs.
For us lads who had not the benefit of travel and certainly not in a foreign country it was an adventure as our train took us through France. Our ultimate destination turned out to be a village near Eveurue, which someone said was about 60 kilometres south-west of Paris. It was a tented camp, there was still the evidence of the winter鈥檚 snows in the hedgerows, duckboards were laid between the lines where everywhere was mud. Apart from the tents there was a wooden guardroom and cookhouse.
The men in the camp told us how uncomfortable it had been during the winter due to some very severe weather but now they welcomed a little improvement. It was a reinforcement camp and was to be our base until our regiments called for us. When our group inquired where were the Fife and Forfars we were told that they were 鈥榮omewhere up the line鈥�.
There in the base depot life was fairly easy-going, there were a few route marches and inspections, guard, picket and cookhouse duties, otherwise we were left to our own devices. There was little for us outside the camp but once a week we went down to the village Estaminet where we soon learnt how to order 鈥榲in Blanc鈥� and 鈥榰n oeuf sandwich, s鈥檌l vous plait鈥�.
What took our attention there was seeing some of the old soldiers leave their tables to go up the stairs one at a time, and noticing the young girls who came down with them, eventually it caused us to realise that it was also a brothel, it was very much an eye-opener for us youngsters.
The old soldiers in camp, particularly the Reservists, were very helpful, they were men who had served their time in stations in the Middle and Far East, all over what was then a vast Empire. Then after becoming civilians and in some cases raising a family they had been called back into service and had to leave it all behind, although some were bitter about it, most of them were not, and guided and advised us. To us they appeared as father-figures.
Danny, being a butcher, had been ordered to work in the cookhouse, a job which we all thought would keep him off a draft to the regiment. When he had been doing that duty for a week or so he told me to apply for the Mess Orderly position which was available. I did so and began working with him, cleaning tables, washing-up, peeling potatoes, and keeping generally busy. We worked hard but it was when looking back one of the most enjoyable periods of my Army career.
The extra meals which we cooked in the evening were really unbelievable, with eggs, steaks, tinned fruit, fresh bread from the village bakehouse, usually a bottle of wine, some of it Army rations but much of it we chipped in and bought. He we lived it up!
A base job there, I thought, would have suited me fine if I could have seen the war through from there, but of course I knew that it couldn鈥檛 last so made the best of it while it was possible. Sure enough it wasn鈥檛 to last very much longer because my draft came up.
The weather had improved considerably and a sports day was held on the Bank Holiday Monday, I presume that it would have been Whitsun (now called Spring Bank Holiday I believe). I鈥檓 not sure of the date but it must have been toward the end of April 1940 I ran in a sprint race and came nowhere. I boxed in a friendly sort of sparring match and made a close friend of a lad who had trained at Catterick, he was Jock McLeod and came from Edinburgh.
We crowded round the notice board when our Draft went up. In all, making for the regiment were seven Bren Gun carriers and their crews; among them were two NCOs and one young officer. I knew most of the crew members slightly, apart from my Tidworth mates. The night before we left there was a get-together, a few days previously there had been a NAAFI truck pull in so that we were lucky to be able to purchase a bottle of beer and a few luxuries. I was sorry that Danny was not coming with us but wished him 鈥榖est of luck鈥� at the Base.
Our party began with a sing-song with some of the popular songs of the time such as Gracie Fields鈥� 鈥榃e鈥檒l Meet Again鈥�, George Formby鈥檚 鈥楥leaning Windows鈥�, some of Flanagan & Allen鈥檚; then there were the soldiers鈥� old faithfuls like 鈥楤less 鈥榚m All鈥� and 鈥楻oll out the Barrel鈥�. There were the sentimental songs especially written for the time, such as 鈥楽omewhere in France with You鈥� and one very morbid one entitled 鈥榃hen the Poppies Bloom Again鈥�. Two songs which we thought were most inappropriate were 鈥榃e鈥檙e Going to Hang Out Our Washing on the Siegfried Line鈥� and 鈥楻un, Rabbit, Run鈥�.
As the evening wore on and the beer began to take effect the songs and our singing deteriorated and became crude and bawdy, with some downright filthy. It didn鈥檛 matter a lot, in the morning we were off to war and perhaps thought we could be permitted to use that as an excuse.
The officer in charge had been given a map reference of where to find the regiment. We travelled about sixty miles and on arriving there found that they had moved on. He obtained a new reference but again no sign of them there, this happened several times; whenever we arrived they had moved out, it was then that we learned that the Germans had made a lightning breakthrough. So it had really started, the war had begun.
It was obvious now that our regiment would either be in action or would be moving up into position in the line. That made it even more difficult to find them, as it was we were continually on the move but there seemed to be less and less chance of being able to link up with them. Eventually Brigade HQ attached us to their staff, from whom we received our orders and rations; we learnt from them that the Germans had occupied Holland after heavy bombing raids and parachute landings followed by the Panzers.
Belgium too had been overrun, both countries had decided to remain neutral but now our assistance was required, which caused the British and French forces to move in and attempt to fill the gap. Unfortunately it came a little too late because the enemy was already in occupation. The German advance had been so swift and backed up by large reserve forces, the word 鈥楤litzkrieg鈥� to describe it became universally known.
The first action which we were ordered to was in airfield defence where British and French fighters were operating. They were continually being bombed and strafed and there were fears that parachute landings could be expected.
We set up our guns on the perimeter of the field and dug our trenches inside the edge of a wood. The planes took off and a dog-fight took place overhead, then bombs began to fall. I was not on gun duty at the time but I could see that although the Stukas came in low our Bren guns were not a great threat to them.
This was our first taste of what war was like and had I been more experienced I would have been taking shelter with the other off-duty men in the trenches, but I stood in the open and watched in wonder at the scene being enacted above and around me; so much engrossed in all that was happening that I could have well have been at a cinema watching a film. That is until I was suddenly sharply bawled out by the sergeant, who told me in certain strong terms to get under cover, and that I would soon learn to keep my head down. He was right, it didn鈥檛 take long to find out that it was real warfare and we were right in it.
Our moves were quite frequent, sometimes by train, we guarded petrol or ammunition dumps or took up positions where it was expected parachutists were likely to land. Local rumour had it that they had already landed and in their panic would direct us to where, but it always turned out to be nothing but the fears of some alarmists.
On several occasion we were given the job of guarding bridges, to keep them open for the movement of Allied troops as it was essential that they got through but were so often hindered by the masses of refugees who crowded the roads, some of them on foot, some pushing loaded prams or wheelbarrows, those who could availed themselves of any form of transport, bikes, lorries, cars, horses and carts. All fleeing due to the rumours that were rife and no doubt circulated by the enemy to the effect that German advance patrols were only a few kilometres away, that in fact was not so.
Among those fleeing were French and Belgian soldiers with their families. All was panic and chaos with so many thousands of people on the move, but where to was not apparent to us. It seemed not to matter to them as long as they could put distance between themselves and the enemy. Many times we slept in ditches or in barn or hayricks. In one of the many uninhabited farms the cattle, horses and poultry were all left behind. We saw dozens of bloated and fly-blown animals in the fields.
There was one very pleasant bridge duty which we were given where we spent a day or two in a chateau on the banks of the Seine, with a large orchard and vegetable garden where there were chickens pecking away just ready for catching and cooking.
The cooks excelled themselves and delighted us with the meals which they produced making a welcome change to the limited varied bully beef concoctions. Meals were served up at the large oval polished table with decorative plates and beautiful cutlery. We slept in huge beds between silken sheets. One evening the corporal made his entrance into the dining room resplendent in full evening dress, including top hat and gloves. I am ashamed to have to admit that I was equally as irresponsible as the rest by sorting through all the cupboards for souvenirs. I didn鈥檛 take anything of any value, just a chain and cross, and some ornate miniature cutlery, the only consolation for any feeling of guilt that I might have had was that if the Germans ever occupied it they would certainly plunder it most thoroughly.
One night while billeted there the guard called us out from our silky beds, they thought they could hear tanks approaching and someone had become jittery and fired across the river. But after a while we stood down and returned to bed with all quiet and panic over. No-one could account for the disturbance in the night but thought it possible that it might have been the herd of cows on the opposite hillside, which was the direction which our trigger-happy marksman fired.
There was another very pleasant billet too in a small village where we were guarding a large ammunition dump in a forest a mile or so away. We were stationed in a wooden building on a bowling green, not quite a pavilion but served that purpose no doubt. There was a cafe where we could buy ourselves a white wine and sandwich.
I met a young girl but our friendship was short-lived as we were only there for about a week, it was agreeable while it lasted though. When not on duty I was in the habit of sitting on the grass verge in the lane which ran down to the village; she smiled at me as she passed and on her return I greeted her in my very limited French, something like 鈥淏onjour mademoiselle鈥� followed by the usual well-used phrase 鈥淧arlez-vous English?鈥� She sat with me and we conversed in broken English and French with many hand gestures and made ourselves partly understood.
I learnt that she was 鈥榙ix-sept鈥� (17) and that the young girl with her was her sister. Once, I gathered a bunch of wild flowers from the hedgerow, buttercups, cornflower, forget-me-nots and so on and presented them to her with the words 鈥渦ne bouquet pour vous鈥� at which the little sister laughed and was so amused that I had used the word 鈥榖ouquet鈥� and that we had found a word common to all of us.
The boys of course pulled my leg and talked of her as 鈥測our young lady鈥�; her name was Dernice and I to her was 鈥楳onsieur Fred鈥�. Then sadly the time came to move on, but it was one of those enjoyable interludes in the midst of war, I wondered how she fared during the Nazzi occupation.
One morning with our carriers supposedly camouflaged under a hedge in order not to be too easily detected by the enemy, and setting about getting something to eat, silently and without warning from over the opposite hedge and coming in low was a lone Stuka plane, so low that we could see the pilot鈥檚 headgear with goggles as he peered down on us. Then off he flew, hedge-hopping on his way; the surprise was too sudden that whoever were manning the guns were far too late to take action and the pilot must have been aware of that. We promptly moved off before he reported our position.
The encounter which we had with Stukas later in the day was so very different. The officer had asked for volunteers to go back to man a bridge where there was a lot of congestion caused by the great number of refugees jamming the road. Jock offered to go and asked Wardie and myself to go with him to make up a crew, that we agreed to do.
It was an important task because it was vital that a convoy of guns was allowed through, we just had time to set up our guns at the bridge when two Stukas came out of the sun with sirens screaming and firing their cannons indiscriminately down the road. Many people dived in ditches but there were bodies flung about and dead and injured lay everywhere.
We had been firing away but with no success, then before there was time to assess all that had taken place in such a short period they were back again, low and screaming, and that time they took us on and our guns.

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