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This story has been written onto the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People's War site by Callington U3A - Meg Bassett - on behalf of A.M. Wilkie, my deceased uncle who donated his memoirs to me.

After crossing Holland, we arrived at Groneau on the German border. Our transport kept rolling smoothly along the concrete autobahn at top speed. Like the Romans, centuries before, the Wermacht understood the necessity for well-built roads for fast transportation of their armies. The Allied bombers had destroyed quite a few miles in places while the complete destruction of towns and cities was everywhere. The utter destruction of the world’s largest marshalling yard in Europe, at Hamm, after years of bombing by the Allied Air Forces was indescribable. We bumped across the twisted tracks, amazed at the sight of huge locomotives blown sky-high and overturned among piles of twisted steel.

In Düsseldorf, as we drove through the bombed-out city, we could feel the intense hatred for our khaki uniforms transmitted from the ragged civilians and ex-Wermacht personnel lining the streets. By nightfall we reached Osnabruck where we became part of 23rd Army Group. Next day we were reorganised and informed that we were going to convert this huge barracks into a Transit Camp, which would accommodate 2000 men daily in transit. A huge underground air raid shelter was discovered so the top brass ordered all available electricians to strip the re-usable electric wiring out of the shelter. We salvaged miles of excellent cable. At the entrance an inscribed stone plaque stated that it was built in 1933, six years before Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attempted global conquest.

The enormous shelter had been planned by experts for survival — exhaust fans supplied pure air and in addition there was a complete hospital underground plus kitchen facilities, toilets, showers etc — all operational. However, thanks to a night raid by the R.A.F., the entrance to the shelter was buried in a mountain of rubble until our sappers discovered it. After we completed this project, the River Rhine was bridged and rumours of U.K. leave began to circulate. We did eventually get our days back in a vastly changed U.K. before returning to Germany, although not under the terms promised. We had been cheated by the Army again, as usual!

Extract from the memoirs of ex-Sapper Alastair Mackenzie Wilkie 1904664

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