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B Company !st Battn Middlesex Regt.: their introduction to Battle.

Page 1 of 6
June 1944

After referring to a 1944 calendar it transpired B Coy disembarked on Friday 23rd June and not as given in the Middlesex History the 25th. What makes me certain of this is because the attack on Cheux went in on a Sunday, and as the Sunday was the 25th that makes sense. It seems odd now but it appeared that all major attacks by the 15th(S) Div were always made on a Sunday, I suppose because we must all have been considered Barbarians, its too late to ask Monty now why he did this, after all he was a bit of a bible puncher himself, oh well one of life鈥檚 little mysteries.

I personally recall disembarking in the afternoon, although we were fully waterproofed vehicle wise we just about got our tracks wet when we came ashore., the first thing that greeted us was a sign Actung Minen very welcoming.
We milled about the beach in the general chaos eventually parked in a field removed all our waterproof plates, lumps of bostic etc, then thought about a quick brew, which was wishful thinking, as we were all summoned to hear about what we were about to do by the Coy 2/1c one Joe Cummins a nice man. It transpired that Joe by adept map reading was going to take us to a village some miles inland named Secquville en Bessain which was ordained as the Divisional Assembly area, and we had to join it. The Company Commander with his small retinue of cooks, and other bodes were going on independently. But Joe would lead the main body himself, so away we go on the first leg of our Cooks Tour.

Firstly we had to drive on the right, keep off the verges keep an eye open for enemy aircraft ( ' never saw one) and above all keep up with Joe. We drove on past knocked out German and British Tanks, Spiked guns, temporary cemeteries, all the usual impedia of advancing and retreating armies. We never heard a shot fired in anger all the time we spent on the road, and apart from the choking dust which got everywhere we thought this is a cushy old war. After about two hours we did halt for a brew, and Joe drove off in his Jeep. We thought we must be there, but no, we found out later Joe drove off to find out where the hell we were. Anyway he must have found somebody who knew as he returned beaming like a chief stoker, and cheerfully gave orders for the entire convoy to turn around rapidly as we must have been heading for the recruitment centre for the wehrmacht this was confirmed by a great deal of small arms fire not too far away. It is not too difficult to turn a carrier around in a narrow country lane but it is for the larger soft skinned vehicles, but after a great deal of reversing, shouting, and damaged paintwork we eventually were facing the right way, and away we went once more. After another hour 1 remember passing an Advanced 2nd TAF airstrip on our left hand side. Give an hour or so we passed this airstrip again this time on our right hand side, on seeing this the whole Companies's faith in Joe鈥檚 map reading ability fell to zero. The convoy halted it was getting near dusk by this time, but we were saved by the appearance of one of our Company Despatch riders who was out looking for us, without the benefit of map reading but just by common sense he led us unerringly to a large orchard where we were told to get our mess tins and mugs for a hot meal. Thank God the cooks hadn't got lost like we did. Apparently it had taken the HQ party roughly an hour to get there' Good old Joe. After the meal we were told to bivouac down for the night where we were, it was a nice night so under the stars we lay thinking about tomorrow.

So we were woken up at the first light on Saturday 25th of June 1944 in the orchard of a farm in the Normandy Village of Secquville en Bassain, had breakfast of soya link sausages, hot tea, and
then spent the rest of the morning on machine gun and carrier maintenance until lunch time. Then we were called for a briefing by Frank Waite our
B Company !st Battn Middlesex Regt.: their introduction to Battle.

Page 1 of 6
June 1944

After referring to a 1944 calendar it transpired B Coy disembarked on Friday 23rd June and not as given in the Middlesex History the 25th. What makes me certain of this is because the attack on Cheux went in on a Sunday, and as the Sunday was the 25th that makes sense. It seems odd now but it appeared that all major attacks by the 15th(S) Div were always made on a Sunday, I suppose because we must all have been considered Barbarians, its too late to ask Monty now why he did this, after all he was a bit of a bible puncher himself, oh well one of life鈥檚 little mysteries.

I personally recall disembarking in the afternoon, although we were fully waterproofed vehicle wise we just about got our tracks wet when we came ashore., the first thing that greeted us was a sign Actung Minen very welcoming.
We milled about the beach in the general chaos eventually parked in a field removed all our waterproof plates, lumps of bostic etc, then thought about a quick brew, which was wishful thinking, as we were all summoned to hear about what we were about to do by the Coy 2/1c one Joe Cummins a nice man. It transpired that Joe by adept map reading was going to take us to a village some miles inland named Secquville en Bessain which was ordained as the Divisional Assembly area, and we had to join it. The Company Commander with his small retinue of cooks, and other bodes were going on independently. But Joe would lead the main body himself, so away we go on the first leg of our Cooks Tour.

Firstly we had to drive on the right, keep off the verges keep an eye open for enemy aircraft ( ' never saw one) and above all keep up with Joe. We drove on past knocked out German and British Tanks, Spiked guns, temporary cemeteries, all the usual impedia of advancing and retreating armies. We never heard a shot fired in anger all the time we spent on the road, and apart from the choking dust which got everywhere we thought this is a cushy old war. After about two hours we did halt for a brew, and Joe drove off in his Jeep. We thought we must be there, but no, we found out later Joe drove off to find out where the hell we were. Anyway he must have found somebody who knew as he returned beaming like a chief stoker, and cheerfully gave orders for the entire convoy to turn around rapidly as we must have been heading for the recruitment centre for the wehrmacht this was confirmed by a great deal of small arms fire not too far away. It is not too difficult to turn a carrier around in a narrow country lane but it is for the larger soft skinned vehicles, but after a great deal of reversing, shouting, and damaged paintwork we eventually were facing the right way, and away we went once more. After another hour 1 remember passing an Advanced 2nd TAF airstrip on our left hand side. Give an hour or so we passed this airstrip again this time on our right hand side, on seeing this the whole Companies's faith in Joe鈥檚 map reading ability fell to zero. The convoy halted it was getting near dusk by this time, but we were saved by the appearance of one of our Company Despatch riders who was out looking for us, without the benefit of map reading but just by common sense he led us unerringly to a large orchard where we were told to get our mess tins and mugs for a hot meal. Thank God the cooks hadn't got lost like we did. Apparently it had taken the HQ party roughly an hour to get there' Good old Joe. After the meal we were told to bivouac down for the night where we were, it was a nice night so under the stars we lay thinking about tomorrow.

So we were woken up at the first light on Saturday 25th of June 1944 in the orchard of a farm in the Normandy Village of Secquville en Bassain, had breakfast of soya link sausages, hot tea, and
then spent the rest of the morning on machine gun and carrier maintenance until lunch time. Then we were called for a briefing by Frank Waite our

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