大象传媒

D-DAY AND AFTER

JIM HODGES

This is an edited version of an interview by Nina Koch on 26th April 2004. The original recording and a full transcript are held in the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, ref. BAHS 107. 漏 Basingstoke Talking History

Training
I was called up for active service in 1943 and I did my infantry training at Canterbury with the East Surrey Regiment. I was posted to the Infantry Signals School in Yorkshire where I trained and qualified, and then went to a special place where the trained soldiers went before they were posted to Normandy.

In Normandy
About two weeks after D-Day I sailed across to France and landed on the same beaches as the people on D-Day and went into Bayeux. We were posted then into the Hampshires, and I joined the 1st Battalion which was on the front at Hottot, a town between Caen and Villliers Bocage. At that time because of the state of the area in general the Armoured Division wasn't able to go into action so we had to deal with the enemy. This involved small skirmishes and quite a lot of shelling on either side, and also mortars. At night they used their spandau guns. The machines guns were firing tracer bullets which were above our heads, and at the same time they were also using normal bullets. You got the idea very often that you were safe if the tracer bullets were a bit over your head, but you weren鈥檛. I wasn鈥檛 initially posted to a company. I was going out on patrols and line parties and that took up part of the time; then of course we were always ready to go on any special mission.

Eventually they decided, for some reason, to broadcast over to the German lines because at that time the Germans had a satellite battalion which was, we believed, made up of Polish men. They broadcast over the line to them, on the 9th of July, telling them that if they didn't give themselves up, then we were going in to attack them. For some unknown reason that was put off for a day and obviously in that period the Germans put a crack regiment in there. On the 11th of July we suffered heavy causalities, including the death of the Commanding Officer. We were then pulled out of the line and replaced by another battalion. It reminded me of what it would have been like in the First World War in Ypres, with rows of blankets - the private soldiers were always in grey blankets and the officers were separate in mauve blankets, and there were quite a number. I think, including the Commanding Officer, there were nine officers.

After that we moved over towards Villiers Bocage and then we were going to move towards the Falaise Gap. I joined a platoon and one of the rifle companies, and I was chosen to go out on a special patrol, forward to the Gap itself. When we got to the Gap, there were rows of German teller mines on the ground, which we had to tread between. As soon as we got round the Gap the spandaus opened up and my radio was knocked out and the officer in front of me was hit in the leg. We moved k round, away from there, back to where we started from. When we got back we found it shouldn't have been the 1st Battalion of the Hampshires but the 7th Battalion should have been doing that. We started then to move forward. The Guards were able to get through and we followed them through up to Amiens and Arras. We went over the Vimy Ridge, which was well known in the First World War.

Belgium and Holland
We were in Brussels on the 3rd September, which was the anniversary of the start of the war, and then on to Antwerp, where we stayed for a few days. Then we got over into Holland, where we dug in until the Guards were able to get through and we went along to a place called Mill where we were cut off for about two days. We followed the Armoured Division and we saw the parachutists dropping from the sky. It was wonderful to see what was happening, but we didn't realize what a terrible time they would have when they actually landed on the ground. Eventually we went on to what we called the Island between there and Arnhem, and the bridge was a pretty dangerous because they had it well marked with shelling. We stayed there until later on in the November, when we were taken back into Ypres and we were disbanded. I was posted to the Royal Berkshire Regiment, where I finished before I came back to England to be demobbed in 1947.

My worst experiences
The first was at Hottot where, um the night of that battle I was hit on the helmet with spandau bullet which pushed off the outside on my head and we heard it go into the side of an armoured vehicle. Then again, when we went forward to the Falaise Gap, my radio was knocked out with a,spandau bullet and I just couldn't understand why I couldn't get it going at all after that. We went back through those mines again, which was pretty hazardous. But all in all I was glad I did have the experience, to know and to see what it was like to be in action.

The best experience
The best experience was, I think, to know that I鈥檇 done my best. In both cases the officers were thanked for what I did and they passed the message on. So I think, it was frightening perhaps at the time, but you got the idea that you鈥檇 done your job.

Daily life
In Holland if you went out on a patrol they issued gumboots and Wellingtons.

We used to have rum ration every night and the food for the day was brought up before it got light in the morning. Sometimes you didn't get the food in the night because probably the lorry was hit by a shell so it didn't get through. The Company Commander had the rum and you had it at night-time, or if you went out on patrol you鈥檇 get it then. Most people had it with a drink but I used to like it on its own It did give you courage, it supported you, I think. You never had really fresh food, it would have been, tinned food, the tins would have been heated up. You just had what was going, more or less.

I can鈥檛 remember ever having a haircut when I was out there, probably the first time was after the war. That time we went back after the catastrophe with Hottot, we got showers. I remember shaving; I had a mirror, a metal one I used to hang on a tree, and a safety razor, but I can't remember ever having any water. It was the same in the First World War, there was no water. The only thing that came up really was the tea, I suppose.

We could hear the doodlebugs fired off and knew they were going over to England. When you were out on patrol, right up to the dykes, you could hear their dispatch riders coming up to their front line at night. Just as though they were coming up the road towards you, you were that close.

In Germany
We got to Germany a place called Xanten, then of course the war came to an end. We saw some of the concentration camps. We looked round one. We could see there was nobody in there then, pretty horrible places they were, they really were.

From there we went to somewhere between Dusseldorf and Duisberg. I liked it there.

After the war
I came home on one leave and went back again. You had to get on the train in Germany, go right down through Belgium and right to the French port. Once the whole of France had been taken, they were able to use the ports. Later on you could go via the German port, once everything settled. If the weather was bad it would be postponed because the boats could not get across.

After the war we got on all right with the Germans. A lot of the chaps had German girlfriends and some of them learnt German. Some of the German girls did typing and things like that. We had no trouble with them at all because really the German people are more like the English.

I learned to drive when I was out there, on the autobahns. Of course, we had to drive on the other side of the road Those autobahns were nice roads but the year before I was demobbed they had a terrible cold winter and the snow was so deep the trucks were covered with snow so they dropped food from a helicopter.

I couldn't wait to get out of the Army but when we came back we found that more food was available out there than at home in this country. Generally speaking, unless you are military minded I think, you are so glad that it's all over, you're out again in Civvy Street.

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