大象传媒

This account was told to me by my mother, Mary Henderson.

Ossie Henderson joined the Territorial Army in April 1939 as the war drew closer to reality. Called up on 1st Sept 1939 to the Royal Engineers, he reported to Lovaine Place in Newcastle upon Tyne for six weeks basic training. In mid October he was sent to Witney in Oxfordshire. Got all his jabs and vaccinations for smallpox etc. in preparation for going abroad. The vaccination was very inflamed and he developed a fever. Had to go into the cottage hospital. Could hardly move his arm. When well, got Christmas leave and then was moved to France.

In January 1940 he was in the 50th Northumbrian Division of the British Expeditionary Force and was sent to France and through to Belgium. By May Germany began to push forward (the phoney war). Moved north towards Belgium (neutral territory). Hitler marched thro anyway! Ossie was driving lorries as well as despatch riding. He was in the MT Section. Lord Gort Head of BEF ordered a retreat. Because the company was a bridging company they had to blow up bridges over the canals and rivers to stop the Germans following them with their tanks. After ten days they were so tired that the Lieutenant. in charge said they would rest at this farm. He and his friend Ronnie Ross thought they would climb up into the hay loft of a barn and slept there. When they awoke there were some very tall soldiers standing at the entrance. The lads thought they were Germans, but were Scots Guards. They were informed that their company had left earlier. They were invited to accompany the Guards, but refused and at this time were being bombed by Stukkas and machined gunned by Messerschmitts. The roads were packed with refugees leaving farms and homes etc. Roads were jammed. No transport was available so they had to march. They decided to hunt around and inspect some of the vehicles which had been left at the side of the roads. They found a French combination motor bike and side car with some petrol in the tank. Also there was a French officer鈥檚 military jacket in the side car, so Ossie kick-started the bike and drove. Ronnie donned the jacket and soldiers at all the barriers they went thro saluted Ronnie thinking he was an officer and let them through. They drove over fields etc. until they got to Dunkirk. There was only a small amount of petrol left in the tank. When they got over the sand dunes and saw a caterpillar stream of soldiers waiting to get on small boats taking soldiers over to the bigger ones they were strafed and bombed all the while. They eventually boarded a small boat which ferried them to a bigger boat and Ronnie wanted to get on another small boat, but Ossie preferred a bigger one! As they stepped on to the big boat the small one was blown to smithereens! They landed at Dover (we think). Met by Salvation Army, Church Army, Red Cross with sarnies and cups of tea, cigarettes, etc. They were given little cards to fill in with their addresses to be posted to let relatives know they were safe. He and Ronnnie were taken to a dispersal camp to get baths, shaves, new uniforms etc. Got home two days later for a 48 hr leave. No laces in boots, worn holes in one of the soles. Just walked in at home and no-one knew he was coming. Had rifle and kit. It was decided not to talk to ;him about anything about the war, but he just came in a talked and talked for ages unloading everything that had happened to him. He kept saying that it was 鈥渙rganised chaos鈥�. He said he had never seen anything of the RAF, just German planes. This was around the beginning of June. Whilst at home it was discovered that he had Impetigo on his chin. On reporting sick, he was sent to the Cottage Hospital at Witney for two weeks so was redirected to a different company afterwards. 180th tunnelling company at Chatham Barracks. Sent to work at Dover making tunnels in the cliffs as training. RAF was fighting the Battle of Britain. Whilst marching to Dover they could see the dog fights taking place. During August 1940 he was given two weeks leave and was also given 48 hrs embarkation leave in September.
Ossie sailed in convoy from Liverpool on 18th September to Gibraltar, where the men did tunnelling in the Rock. Pathe News did a documentary of the men on the Rock. One of Dad鈥檚 friends had been at the News Theatre in N/Cle and saw Dad walking out of one of the tunnels on the film. The family at home went to all the News Theatres to see him! Whilst in Gibraltar, he sang in Gibraltar Cathedral as part of the Mixed Services Choir. In December 1941 he Sang Handel鈥檚 Messiah (male alto solos). Also took part in a Christmas Panto 鈥� Aladdin. Dad played the part of Aladdin. His family sent his guitar out to him. Whilst there, Beatrice Lily and Solomon the famous pianist were out there with ENSA and entertained the troops. The Adjutant to the Governor was Anthony Quayle the actor. Ossie鈥檚 friend Cyril Wroe met him because he had been in the dramatic society before the war They had been playing Bernard Shaw鈥檚 鈥淭he Devil鈥檚 Disciple鈥� and Mr Quayle helped them with the production. Ossie, his friend Joe Beasely and Cyril used to go all over together. Joe was a surveyor and on one occasion when they had to blow their way in to start a tunnel with explosives, for some reason Joe didn鈥檛 hear the warning and was killed. This badly affected Ossie and Cyril. All three had the same sort of humour etc. and got on very well together. Joe was buried at Gibraltar. Ossie played a lot of table tennis and was an accredited player. One of his officers committed suicide. At one point Ossie was given R & R at the Governor鈥檚 residence.

By July 1943 Ossie and his pals had to wait in the troop ships ready to sail home, but the 2nd Army were congregating ready to invade N. Africa. Dadand his pals had to wait on the boat looking at the Rock from a different view. After working on the rock for three years they were forced to just sit and look at it. There were hands of green bananas on board which turned rotten during the heat and the long wait. The troops were sick of eating them. Also in his kit bag was an engagement ring for his girl Mary Ridley, bought in La Linea in Spain. There were some cuff links for his Dad, a bracelet and Max Factor make-up for his new fiance. Couldn鈥檛 get anythng for his Mam!

During the three weeks leave in August, Ossie and his new fiance did all the shows, films etc. and visited all the relatives.

After this, postings to Carlisle, then Appleby then the Wirral followed, doing more lorry driving and despatch riding. Because they had been a working company in Gibraltar, discipline was lax. They had to go through a series of disciplined training. Ossie was now in 180th Field Park Coy. under a new Captain who had come up from a boy soldier and was determined to get rid of all the lazy and slack behaviour. Each section in the company had to go and be appraised and when the Captain was asking each one could they be done without, a lot of them were bullshitting and saying not, Ossie said truthfully that anyone who could drive a lorry or a motorbike could do what he was doing. And because he told the truth, was put into the HQ section as a despatch rider and that was where his friend Cyril Wroe was the Pay Sergeant. They had to get up very early in the morning and do a five mile cross country run or route march etc., so that they were up to full fitness. They knew they were being prepared for the invasion force 鈥� D Day.

Whilst still stationed at the Wirral, during Christmas 1943 Ossie went home on leave for two weeks and again in March 1944; and it was during this leave he and Mary decided to get married and put in the Banns at church, thinking that he would be getting leave again in June. However, he was sent to a sealed camp in Newmarket at the beginning of May. Not allowed to write or communicate with anyone at all. Mary didn鈥檛 hear from him for about a month. The next communication was a telegram to say that he was coming home - 鈥減lease arrange the wedding鈥�! The vicar had called with this news before the telegram arrived because he had received a phone call from Ossie鈥榮 brother, a vicar in Leeds. Ossie had telephoned his sister-in-law but brother Ted was attending a conference in Sheffield. After a phone call from Leeds, Ted contacted Mary鈥檚 vicar, who visited Mary at home with the news! The wedding went ahead after great mayhem on Monday 22nd May 2.30 p.m. The Vicar invited them to have the reception at the vicarage and lots of friends and neighbours rallied round with their rations for the tea. The Honeymoon was spent at Chapel Allerton, Leeds over four days. On the Saturday Ossie had to return to Newmarket. After a 7.30 a.m. start, he finally arrived there after much to-ing and fro-ing on the railway system with about 5-10 minutes to spare. All his mates were waiting at the gatehouse for him encouraging him over the last yards of his journey. He had had to walk for quite a way at the end.

6th June 1944 - D-day and Ossie鈥檚 26th birthday! He landed in France on D-day +6 - Sword beach at Aromanche. His company went through Caen. No two bricks left one on top of another here. Only the Cathedral and the Hospital remained standing. Around this time - Sanctuary Woods orphaned children refugees were living rough. Ossie and his mates deloused them and bathed them in an oil drum (gerry cans) of heated water and fed them with their own rations. Ossie was driving with bridging supplies. Germans were bombing bridges to stop the British, Americans and Canadians. The Royal Engineers had pontoons and bailey bridging. Word was send through the night and the lads had to stop before the crossing and switch off their motors and free run quietly to take the pontoons, set up and build the bailey bridge. The Americans were finally able to get across. Ossie (now a Corporal) was stationed at Antwerp for quite a while after that.
The Germans had started to send over the Doodlebugs at Antwerp and Brussels. After a while Ossie and his pals got week-end leaves and went to the Montgomery Club to stay for R & R. On one occasion he was going to go into a big cinema and just before they got there a doodlebug dropped in the middle and killed everyone in it. Another near miss! After Antwerp Ossie was stationed in Ghent. There was a depot for all the transport that had to be reconditioned and mended. Ossie was given a shifting Spanner from the Americans which he kept all his life. Hee he worked as a motor mechanic. German prisoners of war were sent to work on some of the transport. A 16 year old stripped a motorbike impressively rebuilt it with spare parts etc.
They made a big push and reached the Rhine and Ossie was given leave as things were starting to ease off.

8th April 1945 Ossie went back and crossed the Rhine to meet his company and ended up in Ham. He was stationed there when the war ended, clearing up, working with lorries, motor bikes etc. He subsequently went back to Ghent 鈥� in a really huge depot. Wide boys in the British army were working on the black market. At one point, Ossie had to go to a Brussels court, expecting to be called to give a reference for one of the men in his company. These men could only sell the stuff they were stealing on the continent and some of them had lots of money but couldn鈥檛 bring it back home. Ossie was finally demobbed on 2nd February 1946.

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