大象传媒

By the 4th week of April 1945 I was feeling well pleased with myself for having volunteered at 171/2, for now it was plainly obvious that Germany's War was almost over. With three months of army infantry training already now behind me, here at the Army Air Corps training centre at Albany Barracks - (Parkhurst Prison!) in the Isle of Wight - with my 14th May 18th birthday just three weeks away - my platoon was very suddenly receiving shouted orders to get downstairs in 'light order', urgently. It was now 10pm past NAAFI time and due for slumbers!!
Grabbing belt and pouches, our tin hats and rifles, we bemused boy parachute recruits began clattering our way downstairs wondering what the heck had got into our superiors with arm stripes. Downstairs, Sergeants and corporals with active tongues and faces were dolling out clips of rifle ammunition at two per boy/man at an alarming rate and before shuvving us out through the dark doorway towards a line of fast arriving 3 ton Bedfords. Instantly jumping upwards at more urgent commands, I found myself clambering aboard with the other equally non-plussed members of trainee boy soldiers.
No sooner had we finished our assorted methods of instant mobility than we were getting fresh commanding shouts to de-bus! 'What!!?' 'Everybody off! - back to your billets!!'

'Well - what was all that about Serg??' were our natural questions as we handed back the ammo and funnelled our way back upstairs. But he didn't know - or so he maintained.
And so we all went to bed still none the wiser and scratching our heads. Some had this or that idea of 'why', but it was only guessing. And to questioning next morning the best answer our Sergeant could come up with was 'practice' of a sort? But then the upper ranks rarely like to impart real information to mere privates; not even in war-time - at the battle front. 'Yours is to do or die, not to reason why'. (our first lesson).

Three evenings later the whole performance was repeated - the shouts, light order, rushing boots on wooden stairs, and ammo hand out. But this time we actually took a night ride on a pair of three tonners. But not far - not to the seaside miles away. But there was water nearby in the 'black-out' night when our vehicles slowed to a stop.
'It can only be the River Medina', said an informed voice amongst us.

In the darkness to the light of shielded torchlight, talk and counter-talk between different officers and military police soldiers soon denoted we boy paratroops were no longer needed; the night fun or exercise was over: we were too late for whatever it was; there was now no good reason to begin using our ration of ammo. So again, none the wiser, it was back to barracks as before. But after much cajoling by our more persistant mates we gleaned a story that seemed quite improbable. E-boats had been close inshore.
Now that didn't make sense to us for we were aware to some extent that the WAR was nearly over with the Germans. There were now no Jerries in France: they had been driven back to Holland and their homeland. Surely the Jerry sailors knew that!? And what on earth could they want from the Isle of Wight? A holiday? Get a-way... But at least I had been 'prepared' to engage the Hun before the age of 18 years.
After-thoughts and suggestions while in search of the truth included Jerry laying mines in the Solent, at Cowes or Thorness Bay. Here was some quiet-water suitable for a spot of late mine laying against shipping carrying cross-Channel stores for troops in France. Any sort of diversion was an aid to making war.
Then there was probably some forces leave centres needing a few commando grenades, etc, and yes, we discovered Osborne House was in fact a convalescent home for officers - and this was near the Medina. So there was more to the business than met the eye, and, the Germans too still held the Channel Islands - a base for E-boats. They could provide me with an 'action' ticket before the 'Show' was over?

During the exchanging of letters with a contributer to a book I was writing 50 years after my Isle of Wight experiences, he mentioned that he had been working in the Island during 1943-44. Arthur's teenage employment before also joining the army was that of navvy work for a construction company tasked with laying the indispensible PLUTO pipeline across the Isle of Wight.

Until Arthur's revelation I had always assumed that the famous pipeline lay entirely under water. It seemed a natural assumption?
Arthur's recollections are of digging-in the pipe from somewhere west of Cowes - onwards via pumping stations to the beach near Sandown or Shanklin?
A glance at the map reveals the expediency of the Island route rather than the cluttered Solent, which must have been choc full of D-Day shipping of every shape and size. So, from Fawley refinery to Stone Point or thereabouts, to Thorness Bay - the quiet area - onwards through Parkhurst Forest to skirt Newport, then across country to the low lying beach at Sandown. Arthur states that a commemorative plaque has been erected at the Sandown exit point, for it was a foremost necessity for the D-Day enterprise.
This fuel pipeline would have been high on the German 'hit' list, be it underwater or crossing the Isle of Wight. Perhaps the German E-boat activity was due to inshore 'grappling' for this petrol artery to Normandy, or, even sending or putting a commando troop ashore to locate and hopefully destroy part of it?
It was important enough. The 'secret' of the PLUTO line must have become known to the Germans (?). They were bound to be aware of such an essential lifeline for engines. The invasion of Normandy needed millions of gallons of petrol. A tank for instance needs a gallon per mile! Two at most. Then all the other vehicles and, aeroplanes too!!

For hunting the pipeline the Germans were bound to use nothing less than the speedy E-boats for the English Channel once D-Day got under weigh was dominated by the allies. And by 1945 - when the German forces had been pushed from France - to reach the Isle of Wight would have entailed great speed and daring.

Perhaps it was feasible to use the still occupied Channel Islands as a stop-over or/and refuel point during April - the month of our 'turnouts' but the risk must have been high!
German E-boats were no chicken though, either in crew or construction.

end

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