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We had now moved to another Nissan hutted camp around a makeshift runway, whose name I can not even guess at now but it was very busy, with lots of activity, it was nice to get out of the tents for a while. One day the M/T Officer sent for me, we needed three 15 wt. Fords with canvas tops to the back, two motor cycles and a Water Bowser to complete our M/t Section, these were to be collected from Normington near Sheffield, he was taking four drivers up to collect them, he was picking four that lived in the area, and they could skive a few hours at home, would I like to be one, of course I jumped at it. We all piled into his jeep and straight after lunch on the Friday we set off, I can not remember what time it was when he dropped us off at the station in Sheffield for the roads were a lot different then, I know it was a hell of a ride in an open Jeep. when we got out he told us that we were not on leave, he was sticking his neck out by letting us go, so if anyone was not stood in this same spot at 9 a m. Monday morning ready to jump into the jeep, he would report them as deserters by ten past to the military police on the station. I was tempted to go to Hull. But train times where not reliable, practically from Hull if there happened to have a raid so I caught a bus to Maltby, and visited Granddad Haystead and Ivy and other relations.. Monday morning we were all stood waiting for the Jeep, and went to the depot at Normington to collect the transport, the motor cycles were already loaded Harley Davidsons no less we each had to check our allotted vehicle for they were new with only mileage from the factory on, topped all the tanks up the Jeep as well and set off on our way back

We finally got back to camp parked up and collapsed into bed tired out, one day we had to pack every lorry with all the equipment they had to carry, couple on the Bofor Gun pile in the crew, and off we went to the outskirts of Southampton where there was a particularly steep hill, and half way up each lorry was stopped, carefully watched and started again, if you rolled back at all you were shown the way back to the back of the cue, and you had to keep doing it until you got it right. If or when you got it right you went straight back to camp.

One day in early June I think, an announcement on the station Tannoy said that there was to be a meeting of every one on camp except those on essential duties as the station Commanding Officer had an announcement to make, and as from that moment no one could leave the camp or phone out. that caused a buzz of speculation. At Five prompt the CO came out Held both arms up called for silence then told everyone to crowd around him as he wanted everyone to be able to hear. After the shuffling stopped he began : "You all know that all this equipment and Troops packed around the South Coast is for an invasion, that could not be kept secret. The time and where has been. Part of this invasion plan that has also been kept secret, is the fact that to cause less confusion for all on our side, for pilots and gunners alike, is that all, and I mean all, aircraft
on the allies side will have three broad white stripes painted under their wings so there can be no possible confusion as to which is theirs and which ours, obviously this ploy can not be used until the last possible minute, Well this camp is now closed no one can come in, and no one can go out
All phones are off, and I want all hands with paint brushes and to the planes. Every one must have three white stripe by mid night. That is how we were informed of D. DAY.

In the next few days the Spitfires were in and out of the Airfield like Bee's that had found a luscious field of Clover, and could not get back to it from unloading at the Hive fast enough.
We continued to train with the Bofor uncoupling it from the back of the lorry getting it set up anchored and fire off four rounds dismantle couple to lorry and move off. don't remember the times now but we were very good, and so we carried on ready to leave at almost a minutes notice.
Then one day it came and before we knew it were driving our Lorries onto an LCT only a lot bigger than the one on Inverary Loch I do not remember what D Day Plus it was that we landed in France. But part of the Mullbury Dock was in use for we dis-embarked onto it. the front line that had been held up at Cairn had been racing ahead and our objective was to get to a recently liberated Airfield near Douai on the Lille side, once again I don't know the name of the village, we actually lived in the village houses that were empty. We had been there two days on the Airfield when we found a German hiding in the Bomb Shelter. He had lost his heart to a French girl and didn't want to leave, she on the other hand had lost her hair, and wished to God she could be anywhere, but here where the locals were giving her and others like her that had shown or given favours to the Germans Hell. It was in Douai that my Pal Frank and I met this Lady whose husband had been in the first world war, and like the German lost his heart to this French lady, so stopped and married her, when the second War broke out and France was over run by the Germans, he was grabbed and interned she had not heard from him since, but had not given up hope, their daughter had married a policeman who worked in Lille and they had a baby daughter, they had no soap for bathing the baby, and we got her some nice scented soap and she was over the moon, after that we got her food and tinned milk. a bit of chocolate for the baby to suck, in turn the Grandmother would cook us a dinner and I would have a nod in her comfortable chair. I wrote several times and even from home after being demobed and she sent a photo of the little girl, who had shot up to a big girl, Frank was a wizard with electricity, and their flat over a shop wiring wise was a mess, with bits and pieces we scrounged from flattened houses etc. in no time at all he had everything working and safely too.

The day came when we had orders to move on, all we knew was it was Holland, so we set off in convoy, I do believe it was November the Fifth for it was Dark when we finally stopped for the night in a park in Antwerp, Buzz bombs were flying in and V2 rockets were exploding all night long, The Germans were trying their best to make the port useless to the Allies, most of us were under the lorries trying to sleep not in them, and I remember saying that I didn't care much for their fire works display. The next day we got to our destination a flat piece of waste land that the engineers were levelling and laying one of those interlocking metal sheet runways, so as to get an active fighter base closer to the front. It was about halfway between Eindhoven and Breda. We immediately set up our guns in the sites indicated to us by our offices and once the guns were ready for action started to fill sandbags and fortify our posts. We had been there a few days and half a dozen Spitfires were already landing and taking off, The service crews were struggling mind you, but more help and material was arriving daily.

There was a level pitch to one side of the field and the lads used to kick a ball about on this daily if not on duty, one day as they were kicking the ball about as usual, an Officer and Sergeant from the Plane Sqdn. took a short cut across this piece of land, and one of them must have stood on a land mine and both were killed, there wasn't supposed to be any around.
Our gun post was sited dead centre of the runway only well back, but it turned out to be a stupid place for our officer to have put it, The Spitfires and Mustangs that were now operating from here were very busy, and we often thought that they would one day drop into the post for tea, well one day a Spitfire carrying a 500 lb. had just cleared the end of the runway and was trying to climb when his engine started to splutter and cough, and he jettisoned his bomb right over us we all dived behind the sand bags and it exploded about fifteen yards way. Whew ! ! !

Eindhoven was the nearest big town and we went there at week end on our off duty time, I had several trips to there.

Our next move was not long in coming and it was to a Dutch Peace time Airfield, it was situated on the right of a main road that was leading to Nejmegan and the hard fort for bridge that the Para's had tried to take earlier in the war, I think it was called Hertogenbosch. It meant that it had proper buildings and facilities, and there was not too much damage to them, But the runway that was paved with the equivalent to house bricks, had bomb craters all the way down, and was top priority to get repaired so planes could use it. As soon as our guns were deployed and ready for action it was every man to the runway except duty men. The Engineers were filling, rolling and levelling, everyone else was laying the bricks, one of our lads in his late thirties was a bricklayer by trade, and had done lots of paving work too, was showing us how it was done. When the Sergeant in charge of us stuck his oar in, and said; " That's not the way to do it, you have to do it like this," and gave us a quick demonstration of how he thought we should be doing it, "Hey up Sarg ," said our man, " I earned my living in this trade, in civy street, and I tell you my way is the way to do it." The sergeant glared at him and pointing to the three stripes on his arm and growled " These say you do it my way, so without any more argument from anybody. Bloody well get stuck in."
Another lesson, while in the forces no matter which branch, always obey orders, practically the last one, and as long as his rank is higher that yours, no matter how big the Boo Boo. the responsibility is his.
The air field was soon in active service with squadrons of Mustangs. The front line was not too far away at the river Maars and the front line battle front seamed to be at a stand still in these winter months on its banks. Then one day we were issued orders to dismount the guns and be prepared to leave, we were puzzled, as it was not a permanent move, we were leaving practically everything except our guns and ammunition. Off we went, and we finished up overlooking the river Maars, and as each of our twelve guns reached a tank entrenchment, the tank moved out, and we took over their post.

The following day more army vehicles took up positions between us, and that night, every man was stood too.( On Duty) even the cooks, and every officer. We finally got our orders, at precisely one a m. a red flare would be fired into the air, as soon as it did so, every gun had to fire over the river area, including hand guns, and we had to continue to fire until ordered to stop.

The flare finally went up and every gun opened fire.( remember we had no idea what was going off, or what to expect) but the noise was tremendous, a lot more than our Bofor guns could make. Then we realised that most of it was coming from these other trucks that had pulled up between us. They had great big speakers and amplifiers and they all were belting out recordings of the continuos barrage on El Alamain in North Africa, They even produced flashes that lit up the night sky as a big artillery gun would do. They had frightened the hell out of us never mind the Germans over the river. You will realise that this was all a ploy, to draw attention to this area and away from another.

It was not long before we had to reduce our rate of fire from Auto to singe shot, and then after a while lengthen the time between shots, the gun barrels were glowing red. The night finally ended and at seven a m. we got the cease fire, with orders to keep a vigilant lookout on the far bank, and any movement to be reported immediately.
By noon we heard that Field Marshal Montgomery had crossed the Maars and had established a bridge head at four
a. m.
We were back on our Airfield and back on our posts, gun's ready for action once more in three days. We also had dirty gun barrels to clean with boiling water and elbow grease, and each gun had a spare barrel and because of the shots we fired both had been used.

A Bofor Gun crew consists of -
No 1 - The corporal- in action he is on the gun platform and sets the deflection for speed & angle. Both No 2 and No 3 are seated on the platform, and have a site in front of them, their job is to keep the target dead centre at all times. No 1 does the off setting. No 2 as he turns the handle to keep the plane in the centre as instructed. and five and six keep the amo. coming. Everyone is trained to do every job, so the gun can be operated, at a pinch, with any three. No's 2.3.& 4

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