大象传媒

Hearing a shout we found that Jock had been hit in the thigh and bleeding freely, the field dressings which we applied were not a great deal of use to staunch the flow, but it was fortunate that close by and attempting to reach the wounded people down the road was a French ambulance. We got him aboard and after a long delay we saw him driven off.
Jock was the first casualty that I had witnessed with the exception of those numbers of French who had been gunned down. What we had seen was pure murder, where unarmed innocent people fleeing their homes were slaughtered by Hitler鈥檚 Luftwaffe.
After witnessing all the carnage there the road was eventually cleared and the troops were able to get through. Then we were withdrawn. Our next mission saw us deployed further south-west: we passed round Rouen; I鈥檓 not too sure what our next move was but I do recall the race-track at Le Mans which was being used by our air force where we gave them air protection until they flew out. While there though I much enjoyed driving around the track in a Bren Gun carrier, all around the circuit.
I think that it would have been the next day when about noon, I suppose, that we called at a petrol dump to fill up and were shocked at the news which our officer conveyed to us after speaking with the military policeman in charge; that was that after we had left he had been ordered to blow up the dump, because all French resistance had been overcome and France had capitulated.
That in itself was shock enough but he added that Calais and Dunkirk were cut off and the BEF troops were surrounded with thousands on the beach and stranded while the Navy was attempting to evacuate as many as possible.
The advice of the 鈥榬edcap鈥� was for us to make for the coast immediately. It was unbelievable that the Germans could have reached the channel so quickly. I remember remarking with my very limited knowledge of Europe that it couldn鈥檛 be Calais to which he was referring because that was only about twenty miles across from Dover!
According to our officer, who fortunately had spent some time in France after University, we were too distant from the channel ports, and any attempt to reach them would be futile. He thought it better that we try to make Cherbourg by travelling up the peninsula hoping to find a ship there. He of course had to make the decisions but we agreed with his suggestion.
Until that time we had received very little news of the war at large and were only aware of what was happening in our own particular area, all of us were stunned and found it difficult to accept what we had been told. However we set off in haste in an endeavour to reach the sea although warned that there was only an outside chance that we could escape. It depended whether there would be shipping available.
We were so inexperienced of continental travel that it was difficult to comprehend fully the dangers of the chosen route or indeed of the mileage we needed to cover before we even reached the peninsula or the total mileage to the coast.
It was by no means certain that our passage would be clear of the enemy but had no choice but just to press on; we were down to six carriers as one had become a write-off, so needed a lot of luck that the remaining vehicles continued to be runners and see us through.
We dodged enemy columns early on that crossed our front; if they had seen us we would have been no match for them because our weapons were so inferior and inadequate, we were forever diving into ditches whenever planes appeared. Once or twice they were our own. Those carrying the black cross seemed mostly to be on reconnaissance which caused us anxiously to wonder that after they had reported would the dreaded Stukas be far behind?
Our drivers kept to fields as much as possible; we didn鈥檛 sleep much, it wasn鈥檛 easy to do so when on the move. We took our turn in driving, there was little food or drink to be had, but our concern was not so much the hunger and thirst but more our chances of escape.
Although there was little to drink one lad must have had the means to quench his thirst because he was found in the bottom of his vehicle frothing at the mouth from having emptied a bottle of cognac. I don鈥檛 know how he recovered but he completed the journey.
I have no idea how long it took us to reach the coast, or how many days had passed before we eventually arrived in the Cherbourg area, but we did so, very dirty, hungry and exhausted but all in one piece; our luck was in because there before us was a ship partly loaded, its crew hurrying everyone on.
When immobilising our vehicles and before dismantling our guns we had a last pop at a lone plane which came over to make a survey but he flew off without us causing him a lot of trouble.
In the queue to get on board were as many French soldiers as there were of our own troops, some of whom were trying to board by avoiding the queue and climbing up the sides, they were promptly pushed off by our sailors. Apparently our government had agreed to evacuate an equal number of French as ourselves but that was ignored by the Navy boys who gave us preference. There were quite a large number on board when we set sail.
It was feared that we were about to be bombed as the ship moved off but it was a false alarm, they just flew off without any threat to us. I remember nothing of the crossing because I rolled under a tarpaulin and slept until I heard someone shouting 鈥楤lighty!鈥�.
We disembarked to the accompaniment of a brass band and mugs of tea and sandwiches, served either by the Salvation Army or the Womens Volunteer Service, probably by both. Those ladies performed a wonderful service for wherever there were servicemen in need they were there.
We found out that the evacuation of the last of the BEF from France had ended eight days previously, so that we had even more reason to be grateful to our young officer who led us out and to our Navy for being there.
We posted off the usual Army issue cards just to let our relatives know that we were home, safe and well. The cards were printed so that the sender would need only to delete the wording which didn鈥檛 apply, for instance, I am a prisoner of war/I am well/I am injured鈥� so that our dependants had the briefest of information but enough to allay any fears which they might have had concerning our whereabouts and well-being.
We entrained for Bournemouth and were billeted in a school which I believe was Stourbridge Road School; we received no Army rations and it was the Voluntary Services again who saw to our needs, providing us with toiletries, letter-writing material and food and drink.
It must have been ten days or so before the Army made any contact with us; we were left to do as we wished and thought it strange that having found us a billet that no-one since that time had paid us a visit because we had expected that orders would be given that we were to join the regiment which we should have joined in France.
In retrospect however it was understandable that our small party should be left to ourselves for a while for although we were not aware of it at the time, over the channel the Nazis were preparing barges with which to invade our country and the threat seemed to be serious. So, with the thousands of BEF troops being united with their regiments in drifts and drabs all was chaos and confusion.
I and the others would have welcomed a pay parade and some leave, I would then have been due for around six weeks鈥� back pay. Anyway we agreed that we would should accept the circumstances as they were and enjoy our liberty while it was possible. Our officer and the NCOs had left, we presumed that they knew the whereabouts of their units, we as yet had no unit.
In the meantime, left to our own devices and interests we spent a lot of our time on the beach with plenty of swimming and water sports. From somewhere a ball of a sort was obtained so we played and fooled around like children, unrestrained and carefree. There were families of holidaymakers enjoying the hot mid-June weather, and I overheard one group discussing us and the remark that it was unbelievable that only a few days earlier we who were playing our silly games had been in a war, that of course was true enough but I suppose it was our way of accepting our survival, and for a time at least we were free from fear.
Up to that time the beach there was one of those not yet enclosed, most others had been barricaded, mined and set with tank traps, so that the people then on holiday there were enjoying what no doubt would be their last seaside holiday, at least while the war lasted.
The local people were most kind and considerate, they invited us into their clubs during the evening and provided us with drinks. They also made their snooker table available to us for all of which we were grateful especially as we were broke. One thing which we were able to do was to catch up on our letter-writing.
Often we went on to the Downs and saw some of the early dogfights overhead. It was during one of these air battles that one of our party had what we thought was a fit, but we learned out later that it was shell-shock. I had seen men of the First World War who suffered from it but had never witnessed it happening by my side. It began when he started running around in circles, following the movement of the planes above, moving ever faster until he collapsed at our feet and made no further movement. A civilian ambulance was called and away he went, altogether not a very pleasant sight, he would probably not take any further part in the war.
The term widely used later on during the years of war was not so much 鈥榮hell shock鈥� as 鈥榖omb happy鈥�. What happened to that lad affected me more than my mates because he was the boy who in our first weeks of training I hit, the one we called the 鈥楲ittle Corporal鈥�, I felt very sorry for him and more than ever regretted my action.
The day arrived when we were paid a visit by an Army officer, he enquired the name of our last regiment which in my case was the training regiment at Tidworth. When he returned the next day he issued us with railway warrants to return us to there and the others to Catterick. That broke up our little force which had been together all through France, however, our group returned to Tidworth having said a reluctant farewell to Bournemouth.
We were back where we started about nine months before when we began our training but not in the same barracks; there was a newish wooden building set aside for us with some lads already in occupation. After a day or so others came in one or two at a time, among them was my old schoolmate Walt. There was a quite a reunion of ex-trainees all with similar tales to tell of not being able to reach their regiments, all had different stories to tell of their exploits.
There followed medical examinations and reissues of clothing and equipment, there was a pay parade. I was quite well-off even at the same old rate of two shillings per day. There was not much that we could spend it on: there was a NAAFI where we could get a beer and also could afford to eat at the YMCA, otherwise what cash I had would be useful when I managed to get a week鈥檚 leave.
Life was still mainly easy and leisurely, no NCOs being available to bark their orders at us. So we spent most of our days in the games room of the YMCA where there were darts, and also snooker tables in addition to a comfortable reading and writing room.
One duty which we and everyone else had to take part in was the dusk and dawn 鈥榮tand-to鈥�, so that at first light and after roll-call we filed away to the stores and each drew a pick-axe handle, then were marched over the Plain and took up defensive positions on the edges of the woods. This was a precaution taken due to the fear of a German invasion and it was our task to capture any parachutists landing in our area. Apparently after so much equipment was lost in France no guns of any sort were available to us, hence the reason for the pick-axe staves.
What harm we could have inflicted against an enemy with automatic weapons one could only guess but then such was the threat at the time that any measure and every effort however ineffective it may have appeared had to be taken. The survival of our nation, when we stood alone and with the enemy preparing to cross the channel any day or night, depended on it.
Everywhere there was speculation and anticipation of what the future held for us and what events were to unfold. Prime Minister Churchill made some stirring speeches urging everyone to fight on even though alone. But those of us who had observed at first hand the might of the massive German war machine with its Panzers and their highly-trained crews, plus Goering鈥檚 Luftwaffe were bound to have some silent doubts as to how long we might survive their onslaught; even so I am sure that there was not one amongst us who doubted that eventually we would win.
When Prime Minister Chamberlain鈥檚 unpopularity had increased he would have preferred to preside over a Coalition government, but neither of the other parties would serve under him. The country realised that it was necessary to have a change of leadership and Churchill then became Prime Minister; it was said that the King would sooner it had been Lord Halifax as he was not too keen on Winston. However, they were to serve together and to share many far-reaching important secrets of which no other person would have been aware for five long years, secrets which if the public or some of our leaders knew about the seriousness of the situations at times it might well have caused them to consider, or even to take, what to them was the easy and safer way out and to sue for peace.
Since the fall of Dunkirk people were dejected and there was also some defeatism. Someone was needed who could inspire them, someone who could give them hope, to lift them up and cause them to change their attitude to one of determination to win through and fight on whatever the cost or however hopeless or desperate it seemed. It so happened that Churchill was the man who was capable of doing it by his rousing speeches and showing determination to resist any attempt to be conquered as those other nations on the continent had been.
Leave passes were issued in alphabetical order so that I was one of the first to go, that would be about the end of June (1940). Once again I said goodbye to my old training colleagues and most of them I never saw again. I left Walt behind and didn鈥檛 see him again until about a year after the war had ended, and Wardie came to see me some ten years later.
On my journey home I thought how wonderful and green everywhere was as we travelled through the country and the harvest fields beginning to turn to their full ripeness. All so peaceful, reminding me of Blake鈥檚 words 鈥楨ngland鈥檚 Green and Pleasant Land鈥� and gave me a feeling of patriotism, a land worth fighting for.
There was little sign of war until we reached the outskirts of London where the barrage balloons hung over the city. There were many ack-ack [anti-aircraft gun] sites, sandbagged buildings and windows taped against shatter and flying glass during a bombing raid.
It was good to be back in Northampton and home for a few days, I was looking forward to my leave and to see my parents and friends, I just couldn鈥檛 wait to get up to the Mounts in town at lunchtime to meet Jane our of the boot-and-shoe factory where she worked in St. Michael鈥檚 Road. The lunchtime hooter sounded as I reached there; I hadn鈥檛 received a letter from her for some time but she had already explained that she didn鈥檛 like letter-writing so that it was understandable.
I saw her come out of the firm鈥檚 gates but she mounted her bike and cycled off in the opposite direction away from me and the place where we had always met before. I thought that she obviously had not seen me so that I walked to her home at Kingsthorpe. I didn鈥檛 ask had she seen me because I felt certain that she had not, I reasoned too that no engaged girl would leave her intended standing on the pavement; surely it wasn鈥檛 because she didn鈥檛 want to see me. It was only later that I had my doubts, I could be called gullible or naive, either or both descriptions would be apt. Anyway, I soon put it behind me and got on with enjoying the week.
I did the usual round of visits, met one or two mates who were still at home and others who were also on leave. In the club one night a lad who I knew came over to talk to me remarking on the fact that he hadn鈥檛 seen me for some time and where had I been? It鈥檚 true that I wasn鈥檛 around much when I worked in Bedford and certainly not since I joined up but when I answered 鈥淔rance鈥�, his strange inquiry was 鈥淲hat have you been there for?鈥�. I was so surprised that he should ask a question such as that I didn鈥檛 attempt to enlighten him. Maybe the fact that I was still in civvies caused him to think that like himself I was still at home, so little had the war up to that point affected him.
Toward the end of my leave a telegram was delivered to home informing me that my leave was extended for a few extra days which were to be accepted as embarkation leave. It really came as no great surprise, I would have been more pleased if I could have been posted to a unit at home in England, however I was to join 2nd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, which was good news. I was thrilled to be going to a regular tank regiment because if I were to have had a choice I could not have chosen better.
It was not difficult to guess where I would be sailing to that time, because recently the Italian dictator鈥檚 forces (Mussolini鈥檚) had advanced in the Western Desert and were threatening to cross into and occupy Egypt which was then a British Protectorate. We had only a small Regular force there, part of which was engaged in Ethiopia. It was estimated that the Italian Army numbered around 300,000 while the whole of our own forces in the Middle East was little more than 60,000 and of those General Wavell had at his command opposing the 鈥業ties鈥� about half that number.
It was essential that the enemy forces be repelled because if Egypt were to become lost to us the way would be clear for the enemy to occupy both the Suez Canal, all of the Mediterranean and from there the oilfields beyond, gaining for Hitler fuel with which to keep his Panzers on the move and his Luftwaffe in the air.
I am not entirely certain of the date of when I joined the regiment but I think it must have been at the beginning of August (1940), the war then being ten months old; the first eight or nine months of that time was known as the 鈥楶honey War鈥�. Some of us had found it far from 鈥榩honey鈥�, but at times very real. Our sailors for instance had suffered great casualties since the first day mainly from German U-boats while protecting our merchant shipping convoys who were responsible for bringing in the essential supplies which were our lifeline. Our Navy too along with hundreds of other small ships were to be remembered for the heroic deliverance of an estimated 330,000 Allied troops off the French beaches and return us home a few months previously.
So much had happened to me in what seemed to be a short ten months from that time when I thoroughly believed that I would complete my training and return home and resume my civilian occupation just after the first Christmas of the war. Now, though, I was facing the prospect of being overseas for what could amount to several years.
The Germans had begun heavy daylight bombing, airfields and docks were targets for their attacks, some were temporarily put out of action, but most of the population were well aware of the consequences of submission and realised that defeat would mean slavery, exile for some and concentration camps for anyone who dared to object.
What I would be leaving behind would be a Britain and its people then fully committed to a long struggle completely on their own; a country of round-the-clock air-raids, the black-out, Morrison and Anderson shelters, evacuated children, rationing, sandbagged buildings, parks and gardens dug-up to produce vegetables, make-do-and-mend clothing, scrap iron collections, the Home Guard and the Air Raid Warden with his shout of 鈥減ut that light out鈥�. And importantly there was a new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and with his Deputy, Major Clement Attlee presided over a Coalition Government and most of all the will of the people to see it through however long it would take.
One of the most popular songs being sung in the pubs and which the errand boys were whistling was Judy Garland鈥檚 Somewhere Over the Rainbow, those which were appropriate at the times of parting were Gracie Fields鈥� Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye and Vera Lynn鈥檚 We鈥檒l Meet Again, and White Cliffs of Dover.
It was time for me to say my goodbyes which I did; Jane insisted that she would see me off at Castle Station and it was a rather tearful farewell. Before I boarded the train and without compulsion she said that she would wait for me to return, I did suggest that in fairness if she wished we would break off the engagement there and then, because I visualised that from that parting there would be an absence of perhaps three or four years and I didn鈥檛 wish her to promise something which would be difficult to fulfil.
However she was adamant and with her handkerchief to wipe away the the tears she vowed once again that for however long we were apart she would still be waiting for me. I accepted her sincerity and felt ashamed when I thought of those one or two occasions when I almost accused her of duplicity. As I boarded the train she gave me her assurance that she would write to me regularly, she was still crying as the train pulled out, and I saw her waving until we were out of sight of each other.
I鈥檝e never been able to remember from which station I was collected, was it Godalming or Sunningdale, whichever it was there was transport waiting and myself and about six others were driven a mile or so and turned into a wooded area where were Canadian troops under canvas in a clearing. A little further on the driver dropped us off at Headquarters Squadron Office of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment.
One of the first things I noticed were the trestle tables on which were laid out tropical clothing and stacks of pith helmets, so no further proof then was necessary of our intended destination. Among the six of us were two of my old trainee mates, Clarkie from Towcester, and little 鈥楾ug鈥� Wilson, one of the boys from Dr Barnado鈥檚 but I rarely saw them again as they were posted to different squadrons.

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