大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Nikki Aaron of the Derby Action Desk Team on behalf of Jim Beardsley and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Our Engineer Company reformed at Tavistock in Devon and subsequently moved up to Cranwell aerodrome in Lincolnshire to build defences against invasion. We had attacks by German aircraft but no damage done as training at night was from satellite drones. In September we moved on to Horsham St. Faith (now Norwich) airport. We got attacks during daylight there - that was a bit more scary. It was a bomber base used for harassing the Channel Ports. Eventually we moved up to Hunstanton from where we constructed defences on the coastline of the Wash.

Afetr a move back to Worstead in central Norfolk we had a three month training session down in Hampshire at Barton Stacey. I was sent on a bridging course at Ripon again on a 'bomb disposal and mine warfare' course. For this I obtained a 'distinguished' result and the Major said I would soon be called on to London. However a week later we were off to Liverpool and on a large convoy along with one hundred thousand troops to Africa. It was a large convoy with aircraft carrier escort and we must have been about halfway across the Atlantic when we were attacked by German Condor aircraft. I was Deck Sergeant that day and a stick of bombs dropped right alongside the carrier. It seemed as though it was going to turn over but righted itself.

There were various incidents with U Boats and we eventually arrived in North Africa. The war had been over a few days before. We spent a few months in the desert and along the coast before moving on to Italy. The sight was beautiful as we passed Capri but a bit hot as we landed near Naples. We eventually got to Gubbio, a mountain resort today, and did a lot of bridging and clearing on a mountain road. On to the Adriatic and I had two weeks training at the School of Military Engineering at Capua' down south, before a spell as instructor on mine-warfare at a place called Porto Recanati. On being called back to my unit on the final push north, we went across Italy to Pisa then Leghorn to travel to the south of France in an American landing craft. We made our way through France, Belgium and Holland before crossing the Rhine at Wesel by pontoon bridge into Germany. What a sight - gliders, crashed planes, tanks, and military equipments lying everywhere. Buildings were blown to rubble - it was utter devastation. We passed through Osnabruck, now Derby's twin town. There was just a narrow passage through the rubble.

Further on we stopped for the night in a cultivated field. I believe it was a potato field and in the middle of the night the sky was illuminated by flares. The coming day was V.E. day and we continued into Germany. The buildings left standing were all adorned with white flags. We noticed the women had a lot of their dresses made from the background of Nazi flags.

During the next day we came across a row of very fine houses, mostly undamaged by war. We ordered all the Germans out for the night so we could have a good sleep. Many of them spoke English and one lady told me that the house at the top of the road was occupied by a red hot Nazi woman and we had not occupied that. I took three of the lads up to clear her out. We were met with a load of abuse but ignored it all. I just called to the lads to fix bayonets and she couldn't get out fast enough. We enjoyed our good nights rest and went on to Luneburg and Hamburg. What a mess the RAF had made of that. I finished up at a place called Itzehoe and on the 8th of the month I was demobilised at York.

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