大象传媒

1) Submarine Training in Scotland

We finished our training at Berwick on Tweed and were posted to Hamilton race course to join the 1/4 K.O.Y.L.I. B Company. We were ordered to pack our kit and get ready to move off. After breakfast we were taken by lorry to Glasgow station where we boarded the train and were ordered to pull the blinds down and leave them down until further notice. Our destination was Port Glasgow, where we were told to board a ship called Ben a Machrie and we sailed to Rothesay, Isle of Bute. This was a submarine base during the war and a ship was anchored there permanently for refuelling the subs. One of the Ben a Machrie crew pointed out the No.4 sub. called the Thunderbolt now, was the former H.M.S.Thetis which went down in Liverpool Bay in 1939 with the death of all those on board. It had been resurfaced and renamed.

Every morning we went down to the beach to board the landing crafts which took us to the Ben a Machrie ready to take us to the practice area at Blackpool Bay. Every day the Navy would stand off the beach about 20 yards so we were wet through to start with. One day we got a treat; the Service Corps took over from the Navy and drove right up the beach. There was a surprise for me and the platoon. The sergeant who was steering was our local butcher at Hoyland - Mr. Hasty. Small world, isn't it.

2) Tessel Wood - 20th June 1944 - A Standing Patrol.

Every day ' Jerry' shelled and mortared us and for a couple of days it also rained. We were standing in water so that what sleep you got was while you were standing up. All the time there was an inevitable drain of casualties with new recruits taking their place. My section was detailed one morning, with Lt. Trumper in command, to go through Tessel Wood to the other side and observe. This was called a standing patrol. You take a wireless set and signal back to the 25 pounders, anything you see that can be shelled. We made our way through the wood to the other side and stayed on the edge. To our right was a copse about 30 yards wide and 200 yards long; in front were fields as far as Vendes. Our patrol was about 15 strong. After about an hour we heard the rumble of a tank; across the field came a tiger tank and stopped in front of us about 400 yards away. The crew got out and proceeded to camouflage the tank with a net, then they stood around the tank, smoking. Lt.Trumper crawled up and we discussed the situation with the other N.C.O. We suggested trying the PIAT gun if we could get close enough. Three men were detailed - the PIAT gunner (whose name I can't remember), Pte.G.Thompson and Pte. Taylor, both from Barnsley. Off they went while we waited with 3 Bren guns and 2 2'' mortars. Lt. Trumper had worked out the range and reference for the 25 Pounders. The three men had gone round to our right through the copse to get as near as possible to the tank to get a good shot at it.

Ten minutes went by then all hell broke loose, first rifle fire to our left, then the German tank crew pulled the net off and jumped into the tank just as our three lads returned at a gallop. Lt. Trumper ordered the 25 Pounders to open up while we started back through the wood. The first salvo of shells dropped in the wood amongst us, luckily no-one was injured. Then he lifted the range and we could hear the shells going over us to the target which was our position in the wood. We asked the three lads what had gone wrong.
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Geoffrey Steer K.O.Y.L.I. 49 Div.

Tessel Wood (contd.)
Thompson and Taylor smiled and told us that as they made their way through the copse, they had spotted two German soldiers, wearing camouflage capes, up in the trees observing our D Company lines through binoculars. They told the PIAT gunner to go back, then shot the soldiers out of the trees and came back to join the patrol. The experience of service in Burma had made them used to looking for the enemy in the trees. If the Burma lads had not been there all three would have been killed and the rest of the patrol would have been at risk or even wiped out. Thanks Lads!

3. P.O.W. in Czechoslovakia

I was a prisoner of war in Czechoslovakia working down a mine in a slave labour camp. At the begining of March 1945 we were told to get our belongings together and off we went on the 600 mile 'Death March', picking up more prisoners from other camps on the way until there were over 1000 P.O.W.s. We were still marching up the mountains on May 8th. Even the German guards did not know that the war was over.

Marching down the mountains on 9th May in 18' of snow, I saw the spring flowers in bloom down in the valley. I realised that it was my mother's birthday and that this would be the first time that we were not together and I could not give her a birthday card. Funnily her name was May. It was about the 20th of May before we finally found out that the war had ended and we got home for mid June.

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