大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Harding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Douglas Smithson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

May 24th 1941. News of the Hood being sunk, very sad news. Crete also fell at about this time. The first major airborne attack of the war. Moved around the Bournemouth, Broadstone and coastal area of Dorset. I spent time on an aircraft recognition course and often wished that I had been able to fly.

June 12th. Moved to Blandford and billeted in a wood close to Bryanston Public School. It was here that I had my only war wound. Running through the wood to the ablution huts my foot hit a stump of a tree about six inches out of the ground. It was exceedingly painful and on the following morning I had to visit the Medical Officer. He was very reassuring and told me I should loose the toenail, which I did and the nail has never grown properly since. [Now 57 years later I have Osteoarthritis in that toe as well as gout in the same one. Many would be very thankful for only that.]

Another move, this time to Cucklington a small village about 3 miles from Wincanton. Here I had an interesting time learning about bee keeping from a man there. [Name lost in time.] Had leave from here. As usual visited family and friends. [Names from the diary, Geoffrey Hepworth [Died 1997-8?], Fred Blackburn, Frank Fairbanks [no memory] and George Martin [later a colleague of mine at Deighton Secondary School and now living near Almondbury].

Stayed there for some time and had exercises and work building huts but my diary says that I found the methods of building very amateurish. Not surprisingly as there were no more than three with any idea of how to do it. On a rifle range one day I managed to win 30 cigarettes. Not worth much to me, a non-smoker, but great for my mates, particularly Norman Watts, a mate at that time. Mother and Dad came for a visit and whilst there we went to a church in a nearby village where a friend of my father's was the Vicar. [He knew more dirty stories than anyone I had ever met. I had various bridging exercises at this time, along with demonstrations on the use of explosives to members of the Senior Officer's School. Most of us who had been in France had had plenty of experience in destroying bridges and making holes in the roads.

This summer I had many short breaks visiting people in places where I had been stationed since Dunkirk. At times the war seemed far away, although we never knew when things would alter. The Army was always in charge and the news never let us forget that action could start at any time. Travel was usually very easy as anyone with a car would give you a lift and the railways were also at hand. I became very familiar with the West Country and still find these counties very interesting and beautiful.

August 20th. [This is not a diary. I put in dates here and there to keep track of the times of year, so as not to get too far out with my memories. The diary is a stand by and often brings back forgotten memories.] About this time we had a competition to see which section in the company could build a folding boat raft in the shortest time. My section won in a time of a little over 4 minutes 2 seconds. Folding boats have to be floated and the decking put across them and bolted down with the crews in place for rowing. [Similar competitions are used in London at Earls Court when the Armed Forces have a display. In this case it is usually a competition to get a gun and carriage across an imaginary ravine.

August 31st. Moved to Wallingford on the Thames and there we were billeted in a local park under canvas. Here there was quite a lot of air activity and it was there that I saw my first Mosquito, a twin engined fighter / bomber. Later I found out more about it and that it was still secret and made by De Haviland. It became one of the finest planes of the war. I was still interested in flying but had been unsuccessful in my efforts to transfer to the RAF and at this time had become resigned to staying in 246 Field Company. I enjoyed my time in the company but had always been attracted to flying. [Chance came later.]

My diary records that here Wellingtons, Whitleys, Ansons, Battles, Blenheims, Stirlings, Oxfords, Defiants and Tomahawks were planes that passed overhead at some time during our stay. Probably other types as well, as we were in the vicinity of many airfields.

An interesting event occurred whilst here. The company safe was stolen one night. Two sappers of our section were arrested and I was on guard over them for a period in the guard room until they left for their court martial. There was a sequel to this. Some time later I was in Halifax waiting to go back to 246 Field Company when I met a party of sappers waiting for an overseas posting. There, was one of the two sappers and hanging about nearby was his mate. They then told me that the strongest had carried it out of the office and into a nearby field. They tried to open it but found that they couldn't and left it there. They had each done 6 months in Shepton Mallet, the Army Jail. At that time, in Halifax, they were not on the same posting but in some mysterious way they managed to get together and did get posted to the same unit. I think that they always went on the same parade together whatever it was for and irrespective of whether both names were on the roll or not, and finally a sergeant would have got fed up and put both names together. The only case that I know of where two soldiers beat the Army system.

Back at Wallingford we were having a fine time pontoon bridging over the Thames as well as folding boat building. The weather being fine, we had a swimming gala as well as free time swimming. Only the air activity reminded us of the war. The diary informs me that we built a Box Girder bridge at a nearby village called Shillingford but my memory fails me, I have no recollection of this. We used the Baillie Bridge in the field at this time and found it to be a fantastic improvement on any previous bridge we had used. [It was later used by most of the Allied Forces.]

23rd September. Moved to fresh billets in a wood close to Blandford Forum in Dorset. We were in Nissan huts. I managed to do a little bricklaying and keep my hand in. It also makes me feel that I am earning my extra pay that I have always had since joining the Army. Had a long manoeuvre lasting about a week and moving all over the Home Counties before landing back at Blandford. To the men taking part, these activities never seem to make sense, so little is explained to us as to objects and reasons. [Later information was much better and we knew more about why we were being messed about.]

2nd November. Heard news to day of a very bad fire at Huddersfield. Booth and Son's warehouse at the top of Viaduct Street had been gutted and 47 people died. My Father saw it and tried to help some of the victims who had jumped out of the higher windows.

10th November. After Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese the U.S.A. declared war on them and we followed suit. It was now a real World War and I noted in the Diary that the odds were now in our favour.

Started dancing and got my bad toe trodden on and had to go sick again. The dance was held in the hall at Bryanston School a public school with grounds bordering on our billets. We sometimes played football on their sports ground.

24th Monday. Moved to new billets in a small village called Hare Hatch near Twyford and about 6 miles from Reading in Berkshire. We are in huts in the grounds of a fairly large house. Had a cross-country run and being in the winning section won half a crown. Attended the village Congregational Chapel and often visited the Minister and his wife when free. He had been a Minister in the Canary Islands before the war. Their name was Hiley.

During our stay here I was able to attend Reading University for a course on music. It was very interesting, the only pity being that a piano was not available. We had some enjoyable exercises, on one of which we pretended to be Paratroop Engineers and blew up the G.P.O., the Civic Centre and the Police Station. Some civilians thought it was real. Often we tried to be taken prisoner, as the remainder of the stunt was a rest with nothing to do. The same thing happened if you became a casualty.

My diary is not always easy to read and I must have miss-read an item, as the entry for 7th December is " Learnt that Japan has started war on America and that the war is now World wide". I must try and look up the proper date! Christmas Day in the Army is always special as the men are waited on by the sergeants and the meal is super. My only moan is that the drink is beer and not wine. This year the meal was not on Christmas Day for some reason [Some of our NCO's were to take some infantry on a Royal Engineers course.]

1942 and new diary. Had leave and did a few lectures on aircraft recognition to the Home Guard and Army Cadets, my father had contacts and persuaded me.

Stayed some time at Hare Hatch. One morning the people of Maidenhead, a town on the Thames about 8 miles away, were very surprised to find, on going to work that their bridge over the Thames had been duplicated overnight. In fact we had started with a "recce" about 20-00 hours the previous night and built a triple single Baillie bridge alongside their own bridge as part of a scheme with our Field Park Coy. [They carry our heavy stores and equipment.] This bridge, as far as I remember was a class 40 and carries a load of 40 tons. A Churchill could pass over it. I remember thinking at the time that the old bridge would have probably taken more than a year to build and only carried the same load. One highlight at this time [Mid-March.] was a trip to an air display in Cambridgeshire, the finest I had seen up to that time. The timing of every event was fantastic and on display were planes that were still secret, a Whirlwind twin-engined fighter, the Tornado and the Tempest single-engined fighters as well as the Mosquito. A Stirling flew over at a low altitude and was very impressive. Little did I know that I should get to know much more about them later!

I must have had a great time at Hare Hatch as I was able to visit London and see the inside of St. Paul's along with the whispering gallery; go to concerts and listen to artistes of the standing of Myra Hess and Irene Sharrer and others I have forgotten. I also heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. Bridging and boating on the Thames in beautiful weather as well as playing cricket fairly often were other pleasant occupations. Did I earn all this?

I hope no one gets the wrong impression from the above but we did work most of the time and often very hard.

Another move, and this time to Fordingbridge in Hampshire and the New Forest. We were billeted in the Town Hall and often pretended to be local officials strutting on the balcony. I remember that here we had inoculations and T.A.B. jabs. People are different but we should have been used to this. Two places behind me in the queue was one of the strongest men in the section, when it came to my turn he slowly sank to the floor and passed out. He must have watched the needle going in.

This is a very beautiful area and we went on a number of exercises from here, as well as a few route marches, sometimes working with Churchill tanks. Section 3 of our company showed us how to clear a minefield. When the Canadian raid on Dieppe took place we had started an exercise with -ammunition and full kit. The end of the exercise, after doing very little, found us in Southampton not a long way from the docks. Overhead anti-aircraft guns were shooting at a few German planes. Shrapnel fell about us and we had to take cover. I have often thought about this and feel that if the Canadian raid had been very successful we might have found ourselves going across the channel to help.

August and very fine, again almost a holiday. The company embarked on the Princess Beatrice a very fast Dutch boat, which had come to England after Dunkirk. We spent a day and night aboard and then landed by small boat near to Portsmouth as if we were on a raid. Now we had moved to Gurnard near Cowes on the Isle of Wight and were billeted in the huts of a pre-war holiday camp. John Wood, the sapper from Huddersfield, got married and I remember that I bought him a carving knife and fork set as a present. I made him give me a little sum of money as we must have been superstitious and felt that if we did not, our friendship might have been harmed.

I found out at Gurnard what strength the outgoing tide has. Having a little free time some of us decided to go for a swim. We changed on the beach, which was clear of any civilians and left our clothes in piles. I left the main group of about 10 and swam down the coast. Deciding that I had gone far enough I looked shoreward and realised I was a good quarter of a mile down from my clothes. Thinking I had better return and with no thought of any difficulty, I started swimming up the coast. After about ten minutes I looked up; I was farther down the coast and farther out to sea. I knew then that I could not swim to my kit, so I altered direction and swam down the coast and diagonally towards the shore. I had to swim very strongly to make any headway but finally managed to touch the bottom and walk ashore. I was very thankful and made a resolution to be much more careful in future.

Pat O'Shea [The variety star's brother] took me on a course driving a six-wheeler. He was also a good accordionist player. [I had met Tessie when she came to see him shortly after Dunkirk.]

After Gurnard I went on leave and then returned to Wallingford. Here I see from my diary that I wrote out an application to join the Glider Pilot Regiment which had not been formed long. It is strange but I have only a faint recollection of this. It clearly did not get through. I must be some sort of fatalist as I can not remember doing anything about the application. The company office probably sat on it [later developments will be of interest.] At this time we moved about all over South and South East England, carrying out many bridge building exercises. The places are far too many to mention although at one place we were at I note that we could see the tower of Windsor Castle.

Early in October we moved to Bournemouth and were billeted in Branksomwood Road close to the centre. I had now been promoted to Corporal and moved to No.3 Section. Spent most of my spare time playing table tennis at the Y.M.C.A. and played for the team. The league was very strong, as part of the Civil Service had been moved to Bournemouth from London and there were some international players among them. The Pavilion was also an attraction with many concerts by the Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra. At one concert a girl of twelve played a Mozart Violin Concerto. [Two years ago I saw that she had just retired.]

The Sergeant Major asked to have a look at my Diary about the period the Company was in France and Belgium .I do not know how he knew that I had kept one. As the diary is only a very poor one and as I was aware that I should not have written it, I really did not want to show it to him, so I prevaricated and he did not push me. I had had visions of ending up in Shepton Mallet, the service's jail.

Friday November 4th. Because I am a spare driver I was lucky. We are to move to Shorncliffe near Folkstone in Kent. The C.O. has decided that the normal transport personnel will go on the march from Bournemouth to Shorncliffe and all the spare drivers will take over the transport. We ride instead of walking. Shortly after arriving, I had a letter from my Grandmother [aged about 80] in which she told me that she was born in the camp and that her father was in the regular army at that time. She had travelled over a large part of the world before she was ten. We do have surprises.

The Lees Cliff Hall was one of my centres for dancing. There, one evening I met Charlie Swift, one of our work force at home. Like all of us, he had had to join up and was stationed in Folkstone and in the Tank Corps.

Whilst here we still knew there was a war on. Shelling, from both sides, took place across the Channel, more frequently from the Germans as they tried to interfere with the ships, almost entirely British. Occasionally shells fell nearby. One I remember, landing between Folkstone and Sandgate.

Mainly training of various kinds. With no serious action in view, some of the chaps get fed up quickly and applications for transfers are very common. Myself, whilst understanding the feeling, accept the situation and would only ask for a transfer to some unit I really wanted to join. This company is a good one and the division is also good, even though we have lost Montgomery to more active areas of action. I am not sure but I think it was about this time that he had taken over in North Africa.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.