大象传媒

My name is Alexander McCance. I was borne on the 29th May 1920. I lived in Park Place off Cross Lane, Salford. There were 10 in my family. My father had to finish work due to injuries received during 1914 鈥� 1918 war. My mother was at home. I went to Windsor School near Ragged School (Windsor Institute) School Salford.

I started work aged 14 and did all kinds of dead end jobs. I worked as a lather boy in my brothers barbers shop, I can still do a good short back and sides. As a Tube bender for electricity transformers 鈥� St Georges Engineering, Trafford Road, Salford. Also at the Manchester Corrugated Paper Works where an older employee interested me in the armed forces. I went to the Manchester Army Recruitment Office. I could choose between signing on for the 7 years regular or the supplementary reserve of the 1st Battalion Kings Own Royal Regiment who were stationed in Madras, India, or The 2nd Battalion Kings Own Royal Regiment were serving in Palestine. My mother cried when I told her I had joined the army, she had memories of 1914 鈥� 1918. I did not understand.

I enjoyed physical and arms training. After 6 months training I came home on leave, I asked my girlfriend what I should do, she said 鈥減lease yourself, it鈥檚 up to you, but if you do sign on you won鈥檛 see me again鈥� I decided to become a reserve soldier, but within months I was called up. I heard the declaration of war in London. I had noticed, while in London that they were sandbagging the windows and doorways of buildings.

I reported to the Lancaster Bowerham? Barracks. Men who had done 7 years service in India and Palestine were recalled, they all took a dim view of it, they were in a bad temper about it, but that was life, that was the situation鈥� At first the medical inspections were done in the open air on the square, until the men objected, the square was overlooked by the married quarters, after that examinations took place inside the Drill Hall. I was billeted at Sulyard? Street School, Lancaster. We had to sleep on the floor - 2 blankets. Opposite our billet was a large house where Dr Buck Burns murdered his wife and maid, the house was used by army as a dining room.

One morning at about 01.30am we were ordered to dress 鈥� no boots, just pumps (trainers) so as not to waken the town. We were marched to Lancaster Town Hall, where we stayed, in the basement, until morning, assembling Gas Masks which had 3 sections 鈥� canister 鈥� rubber band 鈥� face mask, that鈥檚 when we knew something very serious was about to happen. We were then moved to Middleton Towers Holiday Camp, Haysham?. This was during the period of the Phoney war. We were then moved to Northumberland 鈥� Long Hawsley and joined up with 5th Battalion Territorial Army men. That is where we had our medical jabs 鈥� arms like pin cushions.

It was a hard cold winter. We were then moved to Swindon - billeted in the function room of the Clifton Hotel - 15 / 20 men sleeping on floor. Outside in yard there was a cold water tap over a tin bath where we had to shave and wash, quite often the water was frozen, that was normal in those days, we then had to walk almost mile to a commandeered scout hut for our meals. During the nights we were marched into the hills overlooking Swindon, given spades and pickaxes; the ground frozen, we were told to dig trenches. It was the worst winter for many years 鈥� telegraph poles covered in ice 鈥� telephone lines down 鈥� no communications 鈥� even trains could not move. We were then moved to Southampton where we boarded the 鈥淏en McCrea鈥� which had been an Isle of Man boat.

We landed in Cherbourg, France, marched off the boat and were taken to the border of France and Belgium. Remember; this was during the period known as the Phoney War. The only contact with the Germans was patrol activity 鈥� no real fighting going on. We were on guard duty at bridges. People were not allowed to cross in either direction. One night a drunken gentleman tried to cross the bridge 鈥� I had fixed bayonet 鈥� held bayonet against gentleman鈥檚 chest 鈥� he was trying to walk past me 鈥� he was taken back into the town until he sobered up, I could have shot him, but that would have been totally unjustified.

We could hear air raids in distance. After one of the Sunday services we were told to move and we marched across the bridge into Belgium, although it claimed to be neutral, we did not know Belgium had been attacked, we did not have radios. We marched, the only soldiers with transport were the B Echelon 鈥� cooks and supplies. We arrived in TOURNAI foot soar and weary, The next day we were told to form a defensive line overlooking a road coming into the town, we were attacked by dive bombers, it was quite terrifying. We were relieved by another section and told to start marching back the way we had come, because the bridges were going to be blown up by the Royal Engineers. We marched for a couple of days, no food. We then went into the trenches that had been used during the 1914-18 war. We then realised the army was in retreat, there was something terribly wrong about the atmosphere. The German Army were highly mechanised and very fast, passing us by different routes, not in our sight, cutting off the British Army. We were told to keep marching to stop the encirclement

I was one of a 9 man section. We were told to hold a trench by our Company Commander, Captain Baxter 鈥渓ast man, last round鈥�. My blood ran cold, I thought that we had had it, I suggested to the Lance Corporal that we should surrender if we were surrounded 鈥� Lance Corporal鈥檚 reply is unprintable. I was put on point duty, in the trench 鈥� exhausted with no food I fell asleep. The next thing I remember was being kicked awake by the Lance Corporal 鈥� threatening Court Marshal for sleeping on duty. One of the older soldier suggested he go to the lines behind ours and get covering fire so that our section could retreat, an hour later they were able to retreat onto a road. We did not know where it was going 鈥� we passed through village after village.

I developed a lump in my groin 鈥� unable to march at the same speed as the others I became detached from the section. I was not alone there were hundreds and hundreds of other regiments all mixed up, chaos, the British Expeditionary Force had literally fallen apart and was just a rabble and I was part of it, we had to keep marching. We fired at German Spotter Aircraft that were flying very slow and low. By this time my right boot was becoming worn out on the outside edge 鈥� dragging my foot. I had nothing to eat. I staggered through fields because there was no room on the roads, they were full of retreating soldiers. I saw blazing Army Vehicles, all new vehicles, deliberately set alight as the Army retreated. With no ammunition I dismantled my rifle as I went along 鈥� I would not be captured with a weapon.

I had no idea where I was heading, I only knew that we were heading for the coast. I eventually arrived at Dunkerque. The dive bombers were bombing the town, I lay on my stomach in the gutter, because that was the lowest place I could find, when the bombers had gone I got up and staggered along again until I found myself on the beach where there were enough troops, huddled in the sand, to have filled Manchester United Football Stadium many times, as far as my eyes could see, it was all khaki clad troops, everybody鈥檚 spirit was low, down in the dumps. The only noise was the occasional shelling and regular bombing by the dive bombers every half an hour. It was utter chaos, I then realised that it was the 29th May, my birthday and I thought, what a party this is. I walked towards the water, there were hundreds of soldiers, up to their shoulders, up to their chins in some cases, in the water, hoping to be picked up by small boats, there were none to be seen. I now realise that this was before the small boats hade come across from England, we did not know that this was being arranged.

The ships that were in the deep channel were destroyers, they were taking the brunt of the attacks from the dive bombers along with the other ships that were capable of carrying troops. There was a young soldier with a bright yellow blanket wrapped around him, he was bothered that the yellow blanket would mark him out as a target for the dive bombers, I managed to reassure him that they were bombing the ships and the pier, not him. Nightfall came, we slept and shared the yellow blanket, it was quite cold. When I woke up in the morning, the lump in my groin had vanished and it didn鈥檛 bother me any more, I now realise that it was a hernia, but then I had never heard of the word, I was able to get up and walk about. During that day the men were still wading into the water, hoping that someone was going to pick them up, I looked at them and thought that there was not much of a future in that. Later I noticed that there was a big fellow with a pistol in his hand, he had been firing over the heads of the troops who were trying climb up and get onto the pier. I found out later that he was a naval officer, he must have been a senior officer, he was a man of great presence, you knew he was in charge, I just managed to hear that he was saying something about 鈥�50鈥檚鈥�. It dawned on me that he wanted the men to form into groups of 50 and he would deal with them and the only way to get away from here is in a group of 50, but nobody was in charge, nobody was in charge of anybody and no one wanted to be in charge of anybody. I thought that I am going to get in charge of 50, so I balled and shouted at men and got some them to stand up and form 3 lines of 16 men, I had no rank but I had a good voice and I Knew all about drill, I had had 6 solid months of squad drill. I knew all the right words of command. Just when we were assembled the bombers come over again and the men scattered, dived down onto the sand, I played bloody hell with them, I managed to get them to reform and we did a steady double march towards the pier. As we approached the naval officer I pointed at him and shouted 鈥�50 men sir鈥� and he pointed to the other end of the pier and said 鈥渃arry on鈥�. We headed for the landward end of the pier.

When we got onto the pier, we saw three Army ambulances marked with the big red crosses, the back doors were open and there were bodies hanging out, they had obviously been machine gunned, it was the most terrible sight that I had seen, up to then. We had to carry on, onto the pier, jumping over holes. On the right hand side there was a stack of bodies about 20ft long and about 6ft high, neatly stacked bodies, all in khaki uniforms, on the top of them was a line of blankets held down by tin hats to stop the sea breeze from blowing the blankets off. We got past them and started to run again. At the far end of the pier we could see the superstructure of a ship, it was the HMS KEITH a destroyer, the back deck was about 15 to 20ft below the pier, it was not tied to the pier, it was yawling about under its own power, keeping as close to the pier as it could, The troops who were already on were shouting to us to jump, as I jumped I shouted 鈥淭hank God For The Navy鈥�.

When I hit the deck I found myself underneath the wooden supports of an Ack-Ack gun. I remember thinking that I had done all that I could do, I realised that I would get home, I was quite happy about that. I don鈥檛 remember any more until waking up and seeing the White Cliffs of Dover. The ship was moving in sideways alongside 2 other destroyers which we had to climb over before we reached the quayside at Dover. The WVS and the Salvation Army were handing out mugs of tea and pieces of bread, it was wonderful.

All that I had was what was left of my uniform and my tin hat. We then boarded a train. The next thing I remember, we were pulling in at Reading Station, we then marched through the streets to the barracks of the Berkshire Regiment where we were kitted out with fresh uniforms and given food, I think I ate three full breakfasts.

At this time I did not meet or see any of my battalion or the chap with the yellow blanket, his name was Grailey?, I would love to meet him again. We were then given railway warrants and 48 hours leave. My family knew nothing about Dunkerque until I arrived home.

I later saw service in Egypt and Lebanon. I returned to France on D Day +3.

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