大象传媒

The Final Stage And End Of The War.

March 1945: We moved by convoy across Italy, via Florence and Pisa (I climbed to the top of the leaning tower), to a troop concentration area near Leghorn where we embarked on landing craft complete with equipment. Disembarked at Marseilles (France). Then by road through Valence, Lyons, Dijon, Fontainebleau, Cambrai, Brussels (Belgium), Malins to Turnhout.

As we went through France, Belgium and Holland we must have looked a rough lot. We had been in battle almost continuously for two and a half years and looking smart was not a priority with us. Most of the other troops, including the Americans, had been stationed in the UK and just came across on D-day. They had all sorts of facilities that we鈥檇 never had. For example they had little tins of food that heated up automatically when opened. The conditions here were far superior to what we had to put up with on the way from Egypt to Germany (particularly in Africa and Italy.

April 1945: Under command of 34 Armoured Brigade over the river Rhine into Germany, Westphalia, Borghorst, Rheine, Greven, West Bevern, Telgte. It seemed fairly certain that the Germans would soon have to surrender and end the war, For the first time I started to feel a bit nervous, wondering if my luck would hold out. Up until now I had put these sort of thoughts to the back of my mind in order to be able to concentrate on self defence.

May 1945: Just at that time our Commander decided to let eight men go home on a short break. They put all the names of the men with the longest Active service into a hat , and drew out eight, including mine. So away I went home for a week. I had to pick up some civilian clothes in London, as we were not allowed to wear uniform in Southern Ireland. While on holiday of course the war in Europe ended. I remember all the anti-Brits changing their tune saying about all the Irishmen that fought in the desert etc. 鈥楴o names, no pack drill鈥�.

As I was returning to Germany there was trouble in Dublin. Amongst other things, they burned the Union Jack on Trinity College. So I missed all the celebrations at the end of the war. But I was in Teranure (my cousins house) that night when Mr Churchill broadcast the end-of-war speech. He made complementary comments on the volunteers from Southern Ireland. It didn鈥檛 go down well in that particular household, but it did give me a bit of a boost. Even in Ireland everyone was obviously just as pleased that the war was over as I was, but there was no celebrations. People didn鈥檛 really seem to appreciate that there had been a war on their door-step, apart from those who had had relations involved. Instead of feeling proud to have been part of it, the atmosphere in Ireland made me feel a bit more like a traitor. It鈥檚 not easy to explain. Instead of being a little sad leaving Ireland this time I felt glad to be going back amongst people who had experienced five years of war.

May 1945: When I arrived back in Germany the war in Europe was over. I had missed the celebrations and the ceremonial parades, and we now had a change of role to that of peacekeeping. Our main job now was preventing revenge attacks, and robbing by DPs (displaced persons). These were foreigners who, for various reasons, finished up in Germany at the end of the war The German civilians were at risk, also their property and farm stock. We patrolled in pairs carrying small arms. Farms were especially vulnerable, where animals were being killed for a piece of meat and the remainder left in the fields. There were also a lot of loose guns, of all nationalities. When patrolling in the country we were often fired on by unknown guns.

We also took part in transporting ex-prisoners from the concentration camps. They were not a pretty sight, and understandably difficult to control. Most of the ones that we handled were from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. We also had control of so-called. D Ps (Displaced Persons). These were a mixture of nationalities who finished up working in Germany at the end of the war, but now denied German nationality. They were more frightened of the Russians than the Germans. They were in separate camps as far as possible. None of them wanted to stay in Germany or to go back to their country of origin. Eventually they were distributed round the world, mainly the United States and Great Britain.

Some of the German Cities had been flattened by the allied bombers. I spoke to many young Germans, mainly girls, who had just ran away and were working with farmers. They had no idea where to go or what to do next. They didn鈥檛 know if any of their family were still alive or not.

We had very good relations with the German population. We liased with their local officials on appropriate matters. We even had social activities where we invited Germans and D.Ps. The D.Ps. didn鈥檛 like us inviting the Germans. They were extremely jealous. It was a change to find that the German girls preferred the British soldiers to the Americans! I never met one German who admitted being a member of the NAZI party, or even knowing about the concentration camps. I made friends with several German families. As I always tried to communicate in the language of the country we were in. I could manage a bit of the German language before we left. English speaking people were very bad at trying other languages. They expected others to 鈥渟peak b鈥� English鈥�.

As the older soldiers started being released from the service on an 鈥渁ge and service鈥� basis, we younger ones were taking their places in the top jobs. I was given a job in the stores shortly after the end of the war so that I could understudy the Battery Quartermaster Sergeant. He was due for early release and I was earmarked for that job. I eventually got the Quartermaster Sergeant鈥檚 job, but only for a short spell as the Regiment became redundant and was disbanded. However I kept the temporary rank of Staff Sergeant and went to 30 Corps Headquarters at Luneberg where I was in charge of releasing the older soldiers in the whole Corps, until it came to my turn. This is where I got my first taste of clerical administration work. I really didn鈥檛 know much about the job but I knew how to organise and I had a good staff of twelve girls, including three corporals. All of them were experienced clerical officers.

I was due for release myself about September 1946, and by that time I was offered accelerated promotion if I signed on as a regular soldier. I had never considered a career in the army and so took my release. I was on paid leave until January 1947, based on the time I had spent overseas on active service. On leaving the service I was issued with a suit, hat, coat, shirt etc. I also got the War Medal and Defence Medal, and the following Campaign Stars: 1939-43 Campaign Star, Africa Star with Eighth Army Clasp, Italy Star and France and German Stars.

After the war I had several invitations to attend the regimental reunions which were held annually in Shropshire. I never responded so the invitations ceased and I lost touch completely. It was forty years later that they looked me up again and I joined what was left of them at a couple of reunions. I鈥檒l say a bit more about that in the 1980鈥檚 and 90鈥檚 section.

1947: I needed a good rest, so during my paid leave I thought about how to get back into business. Mr Hadden wrote to me and asked me to come and see him for a chat about the war, as he had heard I was home. He appeared quite interested. He did write to me during the war, but I was never in a position to reply and I don鈥檛 think he expected a reply. Communications with Southern Ireland during the war were heavily censored, as my Mum knew well. I believe any letters that she got from me were so cut-up that they didn鈥檛 make much sense. I can鈥檛 imagine putting anything in them that would have been of use to an enemy. Most of what I wrote was lies, giving the impression that I was nowhere near the front line. She only found me out when she got the telegrams from the War Office advising her that I had been wounded in action. It never pays to tell lies, not even white ones.

Anyhow I went to see Mr Hadden in Carlow and had a long chat about the war etc. I was surprised at how much he actually knew and how interested he seemed to be in the war years. He then indicated that if I was interested I could come back as a junior salesman on a similar salary to what I was on in 1941. I appreciated him offering me a job but after my experience in the war I had no intention of starting at that level again. If that was the best he could offer me I wouldn鈥檛 stand much chance anywhere else in Ireland. I did feel sad about having to leave my native home to find employment and it was with great reluctance that I decided to do so. I knew in my heart that once I went, I would be unlikely to ever come back to live in Ireland, and would loose the close contact with my family. Until recent years Irishmen have always had to emigrate, but it鈥檚 nice to know that this is no longer the case. We love coming over to Ireland on holiday and are made very welcome. We have been over more frequently since I retired, and I hope to continue doing so as long as there鈥檚 family to visit, and of course as long as we鈥檙e able.

As I had spent the whole of my war service abroad (apart from basic training). moving from one battle to the next, I had no knowledge of living in England. I more or less decided on the spot to enlist in the army for a short period, so that I could get an address in England where I could look for work in business. Shortly after that I was having a talk with Dad and I indicated that I was unlikely to find any acceptable employment in Ireland and that I was thinking of joining the army for a short spell. He immediately agreed pointing out that there was unlikely to be another war in the near future, and with my record my prospects might be good. So, away I went up to Belfast again and presented myself to the recruiting office. This was still going to be a short term measure, and I had every intention of finding suitable work in Britain, and no intention of becoming a regular soldier.

End of war. No acceptable work in Ireland. Unclear about my future.

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