大象传媒

On February 1945 I was serving with No3 Section, 13 Platoon, D Company, 5th Bn The Wiltshire Regiment, 129 Brigade, 43rd (Wessex) Division, 30 Corps, 21st Army Group, 2nd Army, British Liberation Army in NW Europe. The Company had just driven the German's off a small wooded hill. Going down the hill towards some farm buildings was a shallow communication trench which had been dug by the German's. In the wood they had constucted a very strong defensive position containing 1X88 mm Gun, 2X Trench Mortars, 4 Spandau Machine Guns. After several attempts they were driven off taking their weapons with them. They withdrew about 300 metres. From these new positions they were able to bring accurate fire on to us. We used the trech to go down to the farm, but as soon as we got there, they switched their fire. We started back towards the hill when a mortar bomb landed on the edge of the trench covering me with earth, at the same time i felt a blow to my left elbow. A minute or so later I noticed blood coming down my sleeve, I told my section Corporal who cut up the sleeve and found the wound on my elbow. He put my first aid dressing on and told me to find the stretcher bearers. As I was going back, I passed Company Headquarters. The Company Commander on being told that I was wounded suggested that I should discard my entrenching tool as I woud not need it where I was going.
I went to the farm and found the S.B's in the basement. One of them cut off the dressing to see the extent of the wound. He decided that I should go to the R.A.P. (regimental Aid Post). To get there I would have to go by a Jeep, but the track from the farm to the road (about 200 metres) was covered by a German M.G., I was wedged between the driver and the S.B. and holding on to the windscreen with my good hand.The driver accelerated down that track and swung on to the tree lined road that led to Bedburg.The RAP was in a house and the M.O. (Medical Officer) cut off the dressing and extracted a small piece of shrapnel, then said that I would have to go back to a hospital to have the rest of the shrapnel removed. A third dressing was put on and I was taken by a 15 cwt ambulance to where the German's had flooded the land. Here I was transfered to a DUKW (Amphibious Lorry) which took me and several other wounded to a Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in Nijmegen. We were given food and goodies by the Canadian Red Cross Nurses and told to bed down for the night on some stretchers. The next morning after being given breakfast and the inevitable bully beef sandwiches were taken by TCV's (Troop Carrying Vehicles) to Eindhoven Railway Station to board a waiting hospital train. This took us to Brussels Station where a fleet of 1 ton ambulances got us to Brussels University which was now a British Base Hospital. It was here that the rest of the shrapnel was removed and after a few days I was sent to a convalescent Depot in Tournai. My stay there only lasted a week, then began the long journey to rejoin my unit which by now had crossed the Hhine.

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