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Bill and Jack and the K Rations.

My father-in-law, Bill Bark from Hull and his friend Jack Boulton from Worcester served in the 123rd LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery.
This regiment was equipped with Bofors guns.
They landed on Sword Beach at Ouistreme and advanced to Pegasus Bridge to establish anti-aircraft protection for this important crossing. Soon after they shot down their first aircraft; a ME109.
Bill and Jack served through the Normandy campaign and into Belgium
During the Market Garden operation their unit was halted north of Nijmegan by determined German resistance and was withdrawn back to Nijmegan to provide protection for the bridge.
The two friends took part in the British effort to assist the Americans in the Battle of the Bulge and when the crisis had passed their unit had to be withdrawn to Brussels to recover from exhaustion and the effects of the bitter cold.
With the threat from the Luftwaffe destroyed by Allied air superiority and the advance eastwards gathering pace there were calls for volunteers from army units to provide drivers for ‘Flying Columns’. These were to form the crews for the supply convoys that would carry the supplies and munitions for the rapidly advancing front line troops.
Bill and Jack volunteered together and were pleased to find that they were kept together to crew a truck.
Bill remembers that the usual army discipline was thrown out of the window in an attempt to keep the momentum of the attack moving. All that mattered was to keep the supplies moving forward.
On one run to the front the two pals’ truck was ordered to halt at the Dutch village of Tegelen because the road ahead had been cut by German tanks.
The village had suffered very badly in the fighting being taken and retaken by each side. As Bill and Jack rested by their truck some of the villagers came out of their houses to greet them. The two soldiers could see that they were in a very poor condition having been unable to get any food during the savage fighting. One Dutch couple were supporting their young daughter, a girl called Mia, who Bill and Jack thought was only twelve or thirteen years old. Mia looked dreadfully thin and ill and the two men were shocked to learn that she was in fact seventeen years old. Her family had had no food for days.
The villagers thanked the two British soldiers for their army’s efforts in liberating them from the Germans and their gratitude moved the two men deeply.
Bill and Jack’s truck was fully loaded with boxes of K Rations. These were American rations which were highly prized by the British troops for their generous contents.
The flying columns were loaded and sent on their way so quickly that no official check was ever kept of their loads. Bill and Jack were determined to do something for the Dutch villagers but were, as always, in awe of British Military discipline and afraid of Court Martial.
After much debate and fearful looks up and down the little village street for the British Military Police , the soldiers unloaded a few of the boxes of K Rations and told Mia’s parents to quickly get them inside and distribute them among the families in the village.
This was quickly done. The two remember most of all the expression on Mia’s face as she unwrapped a bar of chocolate — something she had not seen for a long time.
That night Mia’s parents took Bill and Jack out into their back garden and as the roar of a British bomber attack passed overhead on its way to Germany they lifted a concealed cover to reveal the hiding place of a Jewish family. The family were terrified to see the soldiers’ uniforms and were so relieved to learn they were British. However, they were too fearful of the German’s returning to be persuaded to leave their hiding place.
A little while later the two men were on their way again.

Bill and Jack have kept in touch with Mia and Bill and his family have visited her in Holland. Mia’s parents died and she moved with her family to nearby Venlo. She still remembers how dreadful it was to be starving and the gratitude the villagers felt towards the British.

Derek Reynolds

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