大象传媒

These stories were submitted to the People's war site by a volunteer, Jacqueline Scott, on behalf of Bob Davis and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Davis fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Bob was a Corporal in the 2nd Battalion Mortar Platoon, KIngs Shropshire Light Infantry. These are a series of short memories and incidents, which paint a picture of everyday things that happened to him whilst on active service.

D Day Landings

Bob was in the second wave of landings on Sword beach. His overwhelming memory of the landings was the noise, confusion, the tangle and bottleneck of equipment, dead- bodies and soldiers on the beach awaiting orders for what to do next. He remembers that in order to start to clear the beach and get things moving a senior officer told them that groups of men and equipment would be moved up and off the beach in the direction of Arromanches on the wave of a flag. They were told to keep moving whatever happened. The Germans were shelling these troop advances and he waited his turn to move with fear and trepidation. A shell just missed him and colleagues and hit a horse in a nearby field. The next incoming shell hit a truck behind him, wiping that out.

He made it through safely and his platoon were told to dig in at a farm. He remembered preparing a "brew-up" by soaking a tin of sand in petrol to boil water. He went off for a "pee" and a tank shell just missed him by about a foot as it went through the wall of a barn. He lost a number of friends when this shell hit.

Encounter with a kitten!

Bob recalled one incident as they were advancing towards Caen. His platoon's job on this day was to dig pits for the mortar guns so they could support the attack on Caen. They had been warned that in a nearby cornfield a group of Hitler Youth, who were regarded by the men as fanatics, had already dug in and were fighting small skirmishes with the advancing British troops.He was on watch and became alarmed when he heard rustling and saw the crop moving. He was ready to fire when a kitten emerged from the corn! It was absolutely starving. He said that for the next few weeks the kitten was amply fed on their Army sardine rations, which nobody liked anyway. A bed was made for it out of an empty ammunition box and the kitten slept and moved with them on the engine of their Bren Gun Carrier. He didn't know what happened to the very tubby kitten.

Wounded In Caen

In order to prepare support for the local street fighting in Caen his platoon were ordered to dig pits for their mortar guns around the perimeter of a disused gravel pit on the outskirts of town. The next thing he remembered was a loud explosion and his tin mug, from which he was drinking tea, was shelled out of his hand. At the same time he felt as though he'd been punched between his shoulder blades. The next shell hit a nearby ambulance. He had sustained a back injury and was evacuated back to England for treatment. He was sent to a hospital in Middlesborough, where he remembered receiving excellent medical care from the nurses there.

Fate Intervened to care for Bob Davis

Bob was declared fit for active service again and he was returned to the front with a regiment of the Highland Division. He remembered lots of Scottish songs and jokes on his trip back to mainland Europe with his new Regiment. After landing his Group were given a map reference to which they were expected to rendez-vous within a couple of days. They had a choice of about 4 different safe routes by which they could reach their allocated map reference and took a while deciding which route to take. They set off on their chosen route and after a while stopped for a bite to eat in front of a gate house of a Chateau. They spotted a lone figure walking towards their trucks from the direction of the Chateau and waited to see who it might be. It turned out to be Bob's former Sergeant Major from his old regiment of the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. The Sergeant Major recognised Bob and organised his immediate transfer back to his former platoon there and then. Bob believed that this may have saved his life as the Highland Regiments sustained high losses.

Slap up Supper, Halstat, Belgium

Somewhere near Halstat Bob remembered a special supper they cooked up for themselves. They had acquired 3 chickens en route and had been saving them for a chicken dinner. They had dug some vegetables from fields. They made an apple pie and arranged for it to be cooked in the local bakers oven in a nearby village. They were all laying around in the grass smoking looking forward to their supper when a mortar bomb landed on the spot where their food was being cooked. They spent the next hour picking out the remains of their food from the grass. No one was killed but they missed out on their roast chicken supper. The other disappointment was that the pastry on the apple pie was rock hard and inedible, so they had to feast on stewed apple!!

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