大象传媒

1939 Lydney Gloucestershire.

Evacuated from Birmingham and deposited with a family, which now I would equate with TV Adams Family. We were given the attic to sleep in with the smell of drying apples and mice. Breakfast was bread and jam with weak tea. To school and a curriculum not even remotely similar to the one were using in Brum (Yardley Grammar School)Tea was Minced meat and boiled veg. Pudding with fruit - usually something with apples. Rescued by worried parents in Feb.1940. The school was bombed so education was very basic. Struggled thru Matric when I was almost 16.

Bombing of Brum was a nightly ocurrence.

I joined the Red Cross as a messenger boy cycling between the local Police Station and our HQ (In a Pub)We lived out the nights in the Anderson Shelter.Some incendiary bombs landed in the garden and my Dad,a WW1 soldier dropped sandbags on the offending ordinance.

Worked until His Majesty decided that he desperately needed me to finish what the 3rd Reich had started so - off to Norton Barracks for Primary Infantry Training.

Amazing in retrospect that Infantry Training in 1942 still subscribed to fitting bayonets on to WW1 Enfield .303 rifles and trying to stick them into hay filled bags. I must admit that learning that Mills 36 grenades had two fuse times was very useful later when I had to prime my own 36 grenades.

Finished P.I.T and posted to 57th Training Regt R.A.C in County Durham. Learned all sorts of interesting things. Radio,vehicle maintenance,gunnery and how to salute properly.Three months and the gunnery was again very informative -Out on the moors and I got to fire one shot from the turret two pounder at a distant mockup of PKW Mk4 - of course we all missed but only we had the one shot anyway - spent more time cleaning the guns - I mean -one shot - ! But the BESA 792 was allowed one short burst of about 10 rounds.

Leave granted grudgingly for seven days prior to regimental postings - all of us standing on the hallowed parade ground .Our names called for the Regimental postings. The Greys, Innes of Court, all the best ones, 11th Hussars that's me- Charge of the Light Brigade -Oh Dear not again!Posted to 4th Troop 'C' Squadron in Tring ,Berkhampstead.Cold tap 'ablutions'but decent meals.

So different from training - these were the Desert Rats. The cameraderie and welcome made me feel at home among friends.

Waterproofing our vehicles with glutinous Bostic A.A -Inspections by all the top brass. H.M.GeorgeVI, Eisenhower, Monty - So much polishing which had all to be dulled and overpainted as soon as 'They' left. Issued with Allied money in late May,large scale maps of Normandy,Escape packs with tiny compasses,boiled sweets and a silk map.I was struck down with a severe bout of tonsillitis so the Regiment left without me.I recovered and was sent to a tank regiment which had Cromwell tanks- Never been in one before but was as a qualified gunner radio man went with them to load onto an LCT - Arrived off the coast of France late on June 6th - A body floating past on the outgoing tide, down goes the ramp and up the beach just below Aromanches.The beachmaster directs us to the exit and we are in France.

Not a bit like Hollywood - Dust and smoke,sad crumpled bundles beside the road,
The R.T is jumbled ,The American radio frequency is clogging ours - Shellfire is bursting just ahead of us- We make it to our assembly point and just wait-Nothing for two days- Digging slit trenches and sleeping when we can. Compo rations - Powdered everything - Biscuits like Bonios -Bully Beef-McConochies MandV probably from WW1.One bar of chocolate and the inevitable boiled sweets.
Got a short burst off at some German infantry in a hedgerow.Don't know if I scored any hits-I hope not.Slept in slit trench.Never knew my opposite numbers.
June 13th -rejoined my Regiment and back to 4th troop.Greetings all round with Calvados . Waiting again outside Bayeux- Normandy butter after four years in England with margerine proved too much for our digestions- One of my friends Tpr Garel Jones nephew of a later Tory whip spoke excellent French- that was a bonus-
and smoothed the way to releasing eggs and fine wine from the local population.
Never any shortage of Calva though. I still maintain that the later breakthrough
from Caen was fuelled by Calvados ! The Regiment is in the grounds of Chateau St Andre just outside Caen- More slit trench digging. I leave my boots on the edge of my slit trench and the German Lufwaffe drop butterfly bombs. Next morning my boots are missing- blown away by a B.B.Still better them than me!

Up into the turret and away- Patrol speed about 5mph towards a burning and wrecked Caen . Leave Caen and move out towards a ruined Aunay-s-Audon through Aunay and we suffer casualties on the road out to Mt Pincon. Have to withdraw.
Lose a lot of my friends around this bit . The Germans stonk us with minenwerfers
I lose another friend in the roadside ditch where we are taking cover-caught whilst out of our AFVs.Cross the Somme where my Dad was wounded. Stop close to a WW1 cemetary and see a tombstone - Tpr R.Smith 11th Hussars. Engage some infantry in Arras - Leave some bullet marks on the railway bridge - Still there in 1969- Shoot at an opposite number with the 2pdr. Brew him up and withdraw before they send reprisals. Can't remember much more until I am in Belgium- Quatre Bras - Into Brussels and some leave- Bribe the driver with 10 Players and get to drive his tram. White knuckles all round.

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