大象传媒

JOHN WELSH
DOB. 27.7.1920
ARMY NUMBER : T/248123
ENLISTED : 30.1.1941
NO. 6 BULK PETROL TRANSPORT CO. RASC

Part 2 (part 1 saved under John Welsh war diary)

January, February 1944. Got some Ceylonese lads join our company to be trained to take over after a couple of months. English company transported back to Baze Depot. Travelled by train from Tubruk. Got first sight of Alamein cemetery just being created from fatalities around and up the desert. Sight very moving to us all. Arrived at Geniefa on the shores of the Great Bitter Lakes. Troops regrouping for transfer. Twenty of us selected to move to destination unknown. Travelled through the night across the desert passed through Cairo along the road passed the Pyramids at Giza onto Mena in the desert. Camp wired off (Top Secret). Joined formerly 1st army Tank Brigade (Flail Tanks). Company told of posting to England. Great excitement and tears. Two and a half years a bloody long time to be away.

2nd April 1944. Troop train took us to Port Said where we boarded troopship 鈥淔ranconia鈥�, massive liner. Met my mate Bill Maddison aboard, couldn鈥檛 believe our luck. We both had survived. Left Port Said 7th April 1944. Sailed through the Mediterranean bound for home. Had no scares from U-Boat. Fourteen day cruise. Arrived Liverpool 23rd April 1944. Saturday, Cup Final day wonderful sight to see the Royal Liver Building. Everyone cheering and happy. Transported into trucks and eventually moved up into the Lake District, Penrith. Billeted in Nissen Huts with coal stove. Everyone very cold after our time in Middle East. Not very used to the rationing in England. Posted on leave after four days, got twenty-one days leave for being abroad. Had a great time at home. Everyone said very strange to see me again, all sun tanned and grown up. Hard to understand it was a different situation, my brother was now twenty years old and my sister fourteen years old. I hardly knew them. My mother鈥檚 ginger hair had turned grey.

After three weeks leave reported to Penrith. Then after three days company moved across to Morley, Yorkshire. Stationed I old mill. Presented with Africa Star Ribbon and told it must be worn at all times. Felt quite proud with it on. Started to ferry vehicles from Roundhay Park. Leeds down to the South area, ready for invasion. Jeeps, trucks, cars, ambulances, heavy vehicles also amphibian (ducks). Our driving had improved a lot since Keswick. I was not afraid to drive anything on wheels. After two weeks we took over our new trucks, Bedford Articulated 5 Ton. Had a difficult job to manoeuvre at first but soon got in the way of guiding trailer through obstacle course.

Moved down to Blackheath, London last Sunday in May 1944. Trucks loaded with barrels of quick drying cement, to make landing strips for aircraft when we landed in France. Had to wait at St Albans for police escort through London, non-stop. Vehicles parked on Blackheath. Flying Bombs (Doodlebugs) started arriving, not very pleasant feeling when their engine stopped. You didn鈥檛 know where it would land with a big explosion. Detailed to assist ARP and firemen, very busy time.

June 6th 1944 invasion started with move down to south coast, Port Slade, Brighton. In Prohibition Zone, no letters all censored no phone calls. After two weeks received French money. Trucks all water proofed, exhausts extended above cab. All company moved out June 20th along coast road, midnight pitch dark. Reached Gosport, Southampton. Hard time to manoeuvre onto (TLCS) Tank Landing Craft. Had to reverse on and face ramp ready to run off into water. Everyone very quiet, didn鈥檛 know what we were going into. There were six vehicles to a boat. Everybody issued with rations, cigarettes and spew bags incase of seasickness. After a while we set sail into the Channel. Couldn鈥檛 see anything owing to the high sides of the barge. Had tins of self-heating soup and MV tasted good. Lots of the drivers sick, taking anti sea sick tablets. After thirty hours at sea got orders to prepare to land. Thank God there was no Air activity when the ramp was dropped. We obeyed orders by number and drove like hell off the barge and down the ramp. All you could see was water 鈥� no land. The water was three to four feet deep. We drove as far as we could then the beach commander hitched tow ropes onto us and pulled us to solid ground (sand). The tannoys were blasting our at everybody 鈥淜eep between the white tapes鈥� everywhere else was mines. After a few hectic hours we were ashore and pretty well organised. We drove about three miles into the French countryside and parked along side the hedgerow and had a good sleep under the trucks. Weather good. Billeted on a French farm for a few days then off loaded barrels of cement for the engineers. Pretty soon we had Air Cover from Spitfires and Hurricanes. Not much Luftwaffe about. Visited Bayeaux one day it was pretty knocked about. Detailed into the American Sector ISIGNY to transport pipes and lay them on the side of the roads for the engineers to join together. This was PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). Fuel coming across the Channel all the way from England.

July 7th 1944. Lying in a field outside of Caen resting and sunbathing when we saw hundreds of our Bombers high above. We couldn鈥檛 believe our eyes at the very sight of so many planes, British and US. Then we realised they were bombing Caen and the German Armoured that was holding the advance into France up. The rumbling went on for ages and we tried to imagine the devastation they were causing. We heard on the radio that nine hundred Bombers were in the raid. Troops entered Caen big battle of Armour. Prisoners looked really shell-shocked. Crossed the river at Caen still laying pipes all the way up to Rheon. Transporting ammo and supplies from Mulberry Harbour also from the Barges coming into the river at Ver Sur Mer and Coursailles. Travelling more miles each day following the Guards Armoured Brigade. Route 240 Maple Leaf with Canadians passed Lisieux (St Theresa), smell of dead not very nice. Saw Basilica on the hill at dawn very beautiful.

Carried on through Rhone across Northern France, Ypres, Lille. Stayed one night for rest then carried on into Brussells. We were getting a wonderful reception from everyone. Saw women with their heads roughly shaved for collaborating with the Germans 鈥� not a pretty sight. Stationed just over canal outside Brussels a place called Laaken. Operating from the port from barges. These come from Antwerp loaded with supplies, ammo etc. Basin Veergoot is the name of the port. Transporting ammunition up into Royal Park Grounds at waterloo outside of Brussels (ten miles). Never thought I would see the place where Napoleon was defeated. Big high monument with lion on the top to commemorate victory at Waterloo. Shunting between Antwerp and Brussels. Very quiet at the moment no action going on. Troops having short leaves in the City, hell of a place 鈥� plenty of wine and women, football and sight seeing. Place alive with troops.

Loaded up with supplies and moved up out of Brussels into Holland. Waiting for the advance troops (Airborne) to secure bridges. We lay by the roadside for three days. Raid on Arnhem failed, we were moved back to Brussels.

Everybody put on standby December 20th 1944. Germans break through Ardennes. Very cold winter. Stood down Boxing Day German advance halted. Later we found out that they were desperate for supplies and were heading for the port of Antwerp. Very busy moving up towards the Rhine through Belgium and Holland. Airborne and Gliders made bridgehead across Rhine. Crossed Pontoon Bridge into Germany. Lots of Ruins, prisoners very young and stunned. Badly equipped, eating and sleeping anywhere and anyhow. Final push into Germany is on lovely countryside. Gliders all over the place. Some very badly damaged. Very fast advance across Saxony Minden, Osnabruck, Verden, Luneburg Plain.

Detailed to load up with milk food and medicines 鈥� very hush hush, Ended up at a place called Belsen Concentration Camp. Terrible scenes of cruelty 鈥� creatures looking like people skeletons in stripped pyjamas. Strict orders not to give them cigarettes of food 鈥� it could kill them. Never want to see the sight again. Stench awful. Flame throwers sent to burn the place down and also the dead bodies.

Moved towards Hamburg. Camped on Heath. Heard war was over May 7th 1945. Everybody crying, Germans and everybody could not believe that it was all over. We did not have any drink to celebrate with.

Busy transferring displaced persons back to the Rhine for interrogation. De-lousing and re-patriation. Mostly French and Belgian foreign workers in Germany. Scruffy lot. Complete shift into Germany. Twelve miles from Hamburg. Devastation in Hamburg was horrific 鈥� completely destroyed 鈥� nothing but ruins. Commandeered houses that were not damaged and used them as barracks. Fraternisation ban put out on all personnel. Sent on leave fourteen days. Travelled from Altona Station Hamburg on a troop train no heating, no windows across Germany, Holland, Belgium sailed from Ostend to Harwich.

Arrived back from leave and company had been moved to Kiel. Fraternising had been lifted. Everybody has fraus or frauliens. Very few German men around, except old men. Got nice houses to live in outside Kiel.

Vehicles changed from Articulators to Dodge Tipper Trucks. Nice and handy and small. Working with sailors(German Prisoners) from Submarine U-Boats to roughly repair bomb craters and damage to main roads and main buildings. Travelling up to Danish boarder Flensburg, Rensburg, Schleswig, Eckern Foord, Kiel Canal doing jobs. This went on for the next few months.

Demobbing started some sad farewells to our mates who had early demob. I was posted to Harburg across the Elbe from Hamburg. Working in Petrol Technical Supply Depot driving forklift in storehouse. A good number to finish my service on 37c. This was my demob code and it wasn鈥檛 long in coming round. Travelled from Altona Station, Hamburg to Cuxhaven. Changed German marks into English currency. Sailed across the North Sea to Hull. Travelled by train to Fulford Barracks, York, where we were demobbed. It was very strange feeling, being back in Civvy Street after six years in uniform. Got 拢75.00 gratuity pay and discharge papers. Out of my six years service only eleven months was spent in England, plenty of the world visited.

Part one is saved under John Welsh war diary

My father John Welsh who died 24th October 2003 left his war diary and we thought everyone should be able to read it.

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