大象传媒

Introduction

This article is the testimony given to me by one of my uncles, Private Ronald Ritson, RAMC, who took part in the Normandy Landings in June 1944. It covers the period from being in a holding camp near Portsmouth to just after landing in Normandy on 8 June 1944.

Ronald kindly agreed to share some of his memories of World War Two with me to assist my research for a French language university project about the Battle of Normandy. He signed a form assigning copyright to me, agreed that I could write about these memories, that they could be placed in an archive and read by others if they wished. These are Ronald鈥檚 own words with only minimal editing.

The holding camp for D-Day

鈥淛ust before D-Day, we鈥檇 moved down from Scotland into the Midlands and down into the South. The country was just chock-a-block with troops. Everybody was moving down now for D-Day. I think what you saw then was every army you could think of. There were Canadians, Americans, Free French, basically everybody that was in the Allied Forces was there. They were all down there. I鈥檝e never seen so many troops in all my life.

We went just north of Portsmouth at this point and we were with the Transport. I think in our Unit, we had about maybe five vehicles and a staff car. Now, most of our soldiers went into the camps. These camps were among big trees in the woods and they were all sealed off. Once they鈥檇 got you in there you couldn鈥檛 get back out.

We were lucky really because we stayed outside with the Transport. But we couldn鈥檛 get in, and they couldn鈥檛 get out. The only time they used to get out was with a Commanding Officer, maybe in the early morning, on a route march. That way nobody talked. That鈥檚 the only contact we had with them. We still didn鈥檛 know where we were going. Of course we did know that there was going to be an invasion but where it was, we didn鈥檛 know.

You couldn鈥檛 really send letters home at this point, we could only send a card, that鈥檚 all. I think you鈥檝e seen those little 鈥楩ield Postcards鈥�. But before that, we could send letters any time and any day.

Waiting for D-Day

So this was before D-Day. We were down waiting for the invasion in Portsmouth. Then, when the time came for D-Day we didn鈥檛 know if it was the real thing or not. This was because nobody knew when it was, only the 鈥楾op Brass鈥�. But what they used to do was load the infantry up in their invasion barges and take them out into the Channel and practice landing. Then they would come back and they would be sealed up again in these camps. Two or three times they did that.

Then obviously, as history tells us, when the time did come, the weather wasn鈥檛 right. So it was put back twenty-four hours to the Sixth of June. But many of the troops were still in the barges, so they were getting pretty seasick. We were fortunate as we were still on dry land. Now, when D-Day did come, the Sixth of June 1944, I still don鈥檛 think it was a very good day. But they did manage to land in Normandy and I think that they found that the going was pretty tough!

My Commanding Officer Major Hargreaves went in on D-Day, as you know, because he was a doctor. He went with the Field Ambulance on the Sixth of June. We followed over and landed on the Eighth of June, at 11.00h I think it was Sword Beach.

Channel Crossing

I remember we loaded up in Portsmouth on the invasion barges at around about maybe four or five o鈥檆lock on the afternoon of the Seventh of June. Then we moved out into the Channel during the evening. We must have went into a holding area somewhere in the Channel. Then we set off in the morning across for Normandy. And on that journey across, I must emphasise that I have never seen as many ships, battleships, warships of every kind or invasion barges in all my life. Again, I must emphasise I don鈥檛 want to see them again under those circumstances.

However, we went in. Then as we were going in, we turned round and came back out again, but we didn鈥檛 know why at that time. We had already taken the shackles off all the lorries as they had been shackled down during the crossing. However, we stayed a while there out at sea and then we saw a German plane come across. Anyway, nothing happened to us.

However, I had a small wireless, which belonged to my Commanding Officer Major Hargreaves. It had batteries in, obviously. I don鈥檛 know where he got the batteries at but anyway it was working. Obviously we were interested in what they were doing at the Front. It didn鈥檛 seem as if things were going too good! Although, being from London, they would probably be giving a better or rosier picture than maybe was happening in reality. Because, for example I believe we should have took Caen on D-Day itself. Then they didn鈥檛 take Caen until much later.

Sword Beach
Anyway, they then had likely decided they would put us ashore and we went in. Now, I must say that everything on the beach itself seemed to be in order. But, on approaching the beach, everything seemed lovely. The sun was shining, and it just looked as if it was a lovely seaside resort, apart from traffic moving up and down the beach.
This was Sword Beach I believe, the furthest east of the Landing Beaches.

Now where the barges dropped their landing gear so the trucks could run off the craft, there was a wire laid out all along the beach so that you won鈥檛 sink. But I was in a lorry, and my driver, who was a pretty good driver, I鈥檓 afraid he just lost his bottle, here! Unfortunately, as the Germans were shelling, they must have hit an ammunition dump and it went up in flames. So there was a real panic! That was an Allied ammunition dump. The Germans were shelling the beachhead, you see. Every time an Armada came in for to drop the troops, the Germans would know what was coming in, and they would start shelling. So they had sent the shells up and the place was alight.

Well, my driver, for some unknown reason, turned off the wire that was running up the Beach and he sank into the sand. So, I jumped out, crawled underneath the tank carrier and I just stayed there until they got the lorry out. Then there was a young fellow under there, and I felt sorry for him really, because he kept saying to me, he didn鈥檛 know what was going to happen to him. He said to me, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want any medals for this. 鈥� So I said to him, 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 keep your head down you won鈥檛 get anything!鈥� Anyway, as soon as I鈥檇 said that I think we got pulled out. They don鈥檛 leave vehicles stuck in very long. They brought a tank up, put a rope round the truck pulled it out.

So they got us out, I jumped into the truck and got into the passenger seat. I must admit that the Military Police that were controlling the traffic, they were very brave men, because they were standing there keeping the traffic moving. However, when we went inland, it seemed to get a bit quieter.

Field Hygiene

We then moved inland along a track that had been made and there were these signs right up from the beach on both sides of the track warning people to keep off the minefield. They鈥檇 indicated where the mines were. So, you just kept on to the track and moved inland. We only hoped that the infantry were keeping moving, although I believe that they were really having a hard job!

However, we did halt at a place, which seemed to be a hospital tent. Of course we were in the Medical Corps. Outside this tent they did have a big Red Cross on a flag and it was for treating the wounded. I think another moving part of that was when they were bringing the wounded in there. Some had died, and they just laid them outside and covered them with blankets. These were British troops. Obviously they would be dealt with in a proper way. We moved a bit further inland to this place called Plumetot. Then we set about our duties.

Being in a Field Hygiene Section, the type of Unit I was in, we had a strength of about twenty-five to thirty. It was a small Unit, and there was one Section to a Division. And an Infantry Division is made up of three Brigades. So this Hygiene Section of ours had to serve this one Division. There was quite a lot of them had come out of civvy street as sanitary inspectors. Then, during the training that we had done at Aldershot it was hygiene in the field.

One of the main things involved getting clean water. There was a certain procedure, which had to be followed, to purify water in mobile water tanks. You could get the water out of any river, but by the time you had finished with it in the tank it was drinkable. Now, there were also times when soldiers could just fill their water bottle and put in certain tablets to purify it. Then they had to put in another tablet to kill the chlorine.

Not only that, but some of these people that had been trained at the army School of Hygiene had been made up to sergeants so that when they went into a Division they had some authority. They also saw that anybody who killed and was lying about was treated correctly and buried in a proper manner.

What we used to do with the bodies was wrap them in a blanket and put them underground until later on. Then they could be lifted out and taken back to wherever the War Cemeteries are. How they used to identify these soldiers was that every soldier used to wear two discs around his neck. If he was killed, one disc was cut off to send back to the Army Headquarters. The other disc was buried with him. That way they would know that they had got the right person. Some of the work wasn鈥檛 very pleasant as you can imagine.鈥�

Conclusion

Some of Ronald鈥檚 experiences while in Normandy were rather grim. Some of the things Ronald and his Unit saw or had to deal with are 鈥榠ndescribable鈥�. This included his first visit to Caen, the capital of Calvados. As Ronald states in his testimony, it should have been liberated before his Unit landed on 8 June 1944, but was not finally liberated until well into July. Much of the city was completely flattened, including the city centre, many of the churches and the university quarter.

Some years after leaving the Army Ronald became an Ambulance man. His time in the RAMC proved useful in this career. Ronald passed away in 2000 and I pleased to honour him by submitting this article in his memory.

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