大象传媒

The following story has been entered by a volunteer with 大象传媒 Essex Action Desk from Mr Upjohn's written contribution.
Being only 13 years of of age when war broke out in September 1939 I assumed it would be all over by my 18th birthday and I would not be liable for call-up. How wrong I was! Call-up papers arrived in July 1944 just after my 18th birthday. I was to report to Warley Barracks on 3 August. Six weeks training there and then on to Shorncliffe Barracks for ten weeks tough Corps training in the Royal Fusiliers. We were then deemed to be ready for action. We were loaded onto Landing Craft at Dover and landed at Calais, france. Lorries were ready to take us up to the front line.
We spent one night at Corby, where we were able to stretch our legs and relax in the town. Next day we travelled by lorry to the front line. This was Winekendronk, which the Second Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment were still fighting to capture. We jumped from the lorries at 1215 am. In the pitch black my first experience was to take a tumble over a dead body lying in the road. We were then taken to a large house where we sat on the floor awaiting instructions. A young Lieutenant David Bates walked in to welcome us. He informed us that we would be transferred to the Lincs Regiment. Also that the Battalion had that day lost about 200 men. We were told we would be in C Company and his platoon. He then asked who was Private Upjohn? I said "Me Sir". And then he said I notice you are a marksman on the Bren gun, as our Bren Gunner has just been killed, you will take over that role. Thinking quickly, I said "Sir, you have an experienced Number Two on the Bren Gun, I suggest it would be better for him to take on that role and for me to be his number two". He agreed to this, and that was my role from then on.
Our task from then was to man the French side of the river Rhine, opposite a town called Rees, where we had to observe and defend. We were in a defensive position there for about three weeks. One day after this, another soldier and myself were on observation duty overlooking Rees. We noticed some movement and took a bearing and reported back to the artillary. Shortly after all hell broke loose, the artillery shelling Rees and dive bombers coming over and bombing teh town. The noise was indescribable, so much that I wrote on a piece of paper to my fellow soldier "I'm getting out of here". He agreed and we made out way along the approach trench to the building we were based in. This experience was the cause of me loosing the hearing in my right ear.
We found out this was the start of our advance across the Rhine. That nioght the Engineers put a Bailey Bridge across and a Scottish Battallion advanced during the night across to form a bridgehead. The next day we crossed to take the next objective. So strated out advance up through Germany. Our last objective was Bremen Airport were a number of our Battalion were killed, including four volunteers from Bermuda.

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