大象传媒

(Transcribed from an oral history recording)

When we landed in France, and went up the road, we were marching up the road towards Arras when we met some Scots soldiers coming back and they were the Argyle and Southerland Highlanders, and conversation between our officers and theirs was 鈥渨here the bloody hell do you think you lot are gong to?鈥� and we said we鈥檙e going to Arras and they said 鈥渨ell you鈥檇 better come back 鈥榗ause the Germans are just up the road鈥�, which they were, the leading part of a German column which were motorcyclists with machine guns mounted, so we scarpered back with the Argyle and Southerland Highlanders and eventually we got rescued and after a lot of hunting about we got taken off by an old Dutch collier along with a lot of other men and so that was our getting out from Dunkirk. We were only a few miles down the road but at that time you were ordered every man for himself, so you were ordered to throw away your rifles and there was another lad and I carried the Brent gun, we had to throw the Brent gun away to lighten the load and we eventually escaped back onto this little Dutch tramp steamer, along with a lot of RAF men and a lot of QUANYs (Queen Alexandra Nursing Yeomanry and VADs which had been on the run as well. So this Dutch tramp steamer brought us back across the top of the Bay of Biscay where we were shelled all day long by a German destroyer. Fortunately not getting hit and the next morning, a naval destroyer came and picked us up, escorted us back to Southampton. End of that episode.

With the 7th battalion of the Worcesters, I drove the Co. Commander about and er, I drove a PU truck. Well, being a lazy soldier, instead of having all my gear in a kit bag I put it in the running board of this truck and having been sent on an errand the truck got blown up in my absence, hence the Sergeant Probert (sp?) who was one of out Sergeants found the bits and pieces and then I was reported missing. After that I was posted to Green Howards, stationed in Dover and we were sent again to help the French army who were still fighting around Le Harve. We went through the battalion of Canadian Infantry and most of the Canadians who landed were killed or taken prisoner. We were then pulled out by the navy because we couldn鈥檛 land so then that was days after and that was the second time that I had been posted as missing. But we eventually got posted back to Southampton, arrived back at our depot in Dover, at Grandshaft Barracks in Dover and was met by the Col., Col. Bilcher and he came out and said 鈥渨here the bloody hell have you lot come from? You鈥檙e all killed!鈥� At any rate we got back. That was the second time we had a missing notice鈥�

Having trained for months and months and months in preparation for D-Day which we didn鈥檛 know because nobody knew anything about this D-day coming but we trained up on the Isle of Wight with tank training crafts, ready for this invasion. Eventually this invasion turned up and we were sent over on D-Day plus 1 because we couldn鈥檛 land heavy guns on the first days. Eventually, as we鈥檇 been trained on tank shooting in open sites, - the guns were 37lbs heavy 鈥� when we arrived there were no German tanks, so that was a bit of a set up for us.

But at any rate, in the meantime the Germans had stopped sending their flying bombs over so after a few days we were withdrawn and taken back to the Isle of Wight, where we positioned our guns at the back of Osborne House, which was the famous Queen Victoria鈥檚 home. Doodlebugs were by then flying over, but we were ordered not to fire because the blast of the guns would have damaged Osborne House.

Eventually we were moved on up the coast and as the Doodlebugs moved up the Continent , we moved up the English coast, eventually landing at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex. By this time the Doodlebug threat had been almost wiped out but by then the Germans had got the V2 rockets which we couldn鈥檛 hear, or we couldn鈥檛 see so we couldn鈥檛 shoot at them but being the British army we were billeted there and it was either in to bed or out of barracks on a Sunday and on the Sunday afternoon we, being given the stand down so we could get into bed or get out of barracks or whatever you like, and about 3 o鈥檆lock on the Sunday afternoon the most colossal explosion that I鈥檇 ever heard in the war, and it was a V2 rocket which landed in the salt marshes behind us on Walton-on-the-Naze. At any rate, my wife was then expecting a baby, and on the following Tuesday morning, I had a telegram to say that my son had been born on 3 o鈥檆lock on the Sunday afternoon, at almost the same time as the V2 rocket had landed.

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