大象传媒

The following is the second installment of the Memories of my Uncle Jim who served in the 1st and 8th Army and who as agreed them being posted.

CHAPTER TWO

I EMBARK

We were fortunate as we were at sea seven days and were not molested by submarines or aircraft. Conditions weren鈥檛 too good, the A/T platoon were in the fo鈥檆's'le right at the front and bottom of the ship. The men slept in hammocks when they weren鈥檛 being seasick. You had only to stand at the top of the gangway and the stench knocked you over. It never affected me because I slept in a bunk on a higher deck, but I went down for my meals and for us who could stomach it there was as much grub as you wanted. Some poor chaps really suffered. They would get to the top of the gangway, take a sniff and straight back onto the open deck.

I was Orderly Sergeant while at sea and I would no sooner get back to my bunk when the ship鈥檚 RSM would be on the Tannoy again. I must have been furthest away from his office, because every time I got there he would say 鈥淲e can start now, the Inniskillings are here鈥�.

We were at sea seven days so arrived in Algiers on Sunday 22nd November. We had never seen children in rags same as the Arabs who were on the quayside. We disembarked and loaded up with large pack, small pack, rolled blanket on top of the large pack, personal weapons, Bren guns, box of Bren magazines, trenching tool banging on your leg. We marched about fifteen miles in the heat to Baraki. We had done some long marches in our time, but this one was the most tiring. We pulled in to a French farm, where we bedded down in the open and it was really cold in the night. With the cold, and Algiers being bombed we got very little sleep. After four or five days the Battalion moved up to Bone in smaller ships. We with transport moved a few days later. From Bone, some went by train and the transport by road, to a place called Thibar. This was the first place that I set my gun up for action. In this place were dozens of tortoise and scorpions.

From here we went to Teboursouk where we took up our first defensive position. I was with A Company and set my gun up near to Company HQ. I remember going to an O Group at Company HQ and the subject was that we were going all out for Tunis. That night it started to rain and that put paid to the plan because the mud was so bad nothing could move. It was in this position that A Company had its first action and two or three men were killed. I was given to understand that the bodies were dug up and left naked on the top by the Arabs. They could often be seen going through our lines and going in to the German lines so obviously taking information. We soon put a stop to that.

I put my gun in a big clump of cactus, which had spikes just like needles. Myself and my crew had our Christmas dinner in that position, pouring with rain, trying to make a drop of tea on a little stove, bully and biscuits. I understand in the newspapers back at home that the 1st Army had had turkey, plum pudding etc. Maybe those back at base had these things, but the PBI did not. Also at this time our Lt Colonel and the Intelligence Officer were shot up from the air, the latter dying from his wounds. The Battalion was taken over by Major Allen.

When the weather improved we moved to a position on Goubellat Plain, where I set my gun up in the orchard of a farm. There we started to get what was known as Compo Rations. These were in a wooden box and contained enough for fourteen mean for one day. The contents were: tin of dry biscuits, cigarettes, bars of chocolate, boiled sweets, tea, sugar and milk mixed together, toilet paper, tin opener, bully or Spam, tinned bacon, jams, sometimes tinned fruit, tinned fruit pudding or rice pudding, M and V soup or oxtail soup 鈥� all the best. Needless to say they soon stopped these rations.

My box had to last more than one days as there were only five of us. My Lance Corporal said on the first day we had them 鈥淪hall we save so and so for tomorrow?鈥�. My reply was 鈥淣o, we are going to eat all the best today and if Jerry comes tonight he can have the bully and oxtail soup鈥�.

It was in this position that I fell and injured my left knee badly. I tore the ligament and displaced the cartilage. When the lads came to pick me up I though I had broken my thigh, the pain was that bad. They carried me to the Regimental Aid Post which was in one of the farm buildings. By this time my knee was very swollen and I was unable to straighten my leg. So the Medical Officer placed it one a wire splint which he bent to the shape of the leg. Incidentally I have not been able to fully straighten it to this day. From the RAP I was sent to the Advanced Dressing Station and from there to the Main Dressing Station, which was Thibor Monastery. When I got there the MO told the Orderly to put a lead and opium dressing on the leg and for several days he would come and say 鈥淚t鈥檚 much better鈥�. I couldn鈥檛 even move the leg.

The Orderly was a ginger-headed chap, and I wanted to go to the lavatory on day, but he said I couldn鈥檛 get out of bed. But I insisted but when I hung my legs over the side of the bed the pain was murder. He hopped me down the long room and put me in the lavatory, where I had to stop until he came to get me. Now plumbing etc is not the same as we know it here at home. I woke up one afternoon after having a nod and who鈥檚 in the next bed but 鈥淕inger鈥�. He had not come around at this time, and I always say he鈥檚 the only man to be wounded by a lavatory basin. Apparently he had been to the lavatory and somehow, I think the sewer gas had exploded doing him an injury. Also at this time a lance corporal out of my battalion died from the wounds. I was given to understand that his wound was on the left side of his chest, and in that pocket we carried a flat tin of solid chocolate which was an emergency ration. I鈥檝e just been looking at his name on the list of our dead.

After ten days I was moved to a school which was being used as a hospital in Souk Arras. When the MO came round he asked me how long my knee had been like this. When I told him he said to the Orderly 鈥淭heatre this afternoon鈥�. After a while at Souk Arras I was put in an ambulance and taken to a railhead where I was put on an ambulance train bound for Algiers, a distance of over two hundred miles. I was a sitting patient and managed to find a length of stick to help me to hobble about. BY the time I reached Algiers I felt really ill with my leg hanging down. A bus picked us up at the station and took us up to a tented hospital. I hobbled in to this ward and a doctor was sitting behind a trestle table. The first thing he said to me was 鈥淒o you think you are fit enough to rejoin your battalion?鈥� I immediately replied 鈥淵es Sir鈥�. I thought if that鈥檚 what you think, I can ride back into Tunisia and ride back again. Needless to say, I spent time there getting treatment.

From there I was sent to convalescent hospital at a place called Rivet. From Rivet I was sent to a convalescent depot or Sidi Ferrugh. When we enter these places you received a grade and every week you see the MO and if you improve you are upgraded till eventually you rejoin your battalion. I was in the Sergeants鈥� Mess when in came another sergeant out of my platoon. He had a blood poisoned hand. We went to see the MO and he went in first. When he came out his face was a mile long. I asked what was wrong. He replied he had got to go back up the line. Although I was still limping badly I said 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going so am I鈥�. The MO said to me 鈥淎re you sure that you can manage?鈥�. So he didn鈥檛 argue. From there we were sent to a camp at Fort de Leu where if you are lucky you are sent back to your own unit. I was, my mate wasn鈥檛. I next met him after the war in the Army Stores on Low Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield. He was working for Wakefields.

From this camp we went by a train of cattle wagons back into Tunisia. I arrived back at the battalion at dinner time, and was greeted by 鈥淛ust the man we are waiting for, go up to A Company on Tangoucha鈥�. While I had been away in hospital the battalion had been in a number of battles, so in a way I was fortunate because so many lads had been killed and wounded. Some who had come out to join as reinforcements, of these three Sutton lads, were killed.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.