大象传媒

This a true account of my life from 1918 to 1952 to when I was demobbed after serving 13 years in the Services.
My Niece, Mrs Pam McGillivray had asked me to write this account of my life for Family records,
It was a part of my life, which I had only ever told,to my Father, many years ago.

In June 1945, when the Second World War was over in Europe, I returned to England, to what I thought was the land of Freedom and Free Speech.

I had left the Land of the SuperRace, which was Germany. This was the Land of Betrayal, Deceit, Corruption, Murder and Genecide. I found myself lost, it was a strange world and I was very nervous of meeting my family. In fact, many of us had a few screws loose when we came home. One would have thought that the Ministry of Defence would have arranged for people like me to have Counselling. As men had been repatuated, so they had some knowledge, of the state of our minds, but NO, once more we were being thrown in at the deep end as usual.

In 1940, after fighting a rear guard action, we had been written off and forgotten. We were considered as plenty of Gun fodder to use very easily and easy to write off.

The Government and the Ministry of Defence had no thought for the men returning, after being held for nearly five years, at the hands of this SuperRace.

When I arrived home in Mortlake, it was very strange. I thought, what would I find when I arrived? I was a stranger as were my family to me. I could neither think or breath, my life just rushed through my mind. I could have run a mile, rather than face this ordeal. I felt that I was out of place and my mind returned to thoughts of Germany. I could not even think straight and did not know what to speak about, the least of my worries.

I thought about the idiots of the World, that had allowed this War to happen and that they had turned a blind eye to Hitler and his Henchmen. I had witnessed, first hand, what the Nazi Party had stood for.

I had many sleepless nights, my thoughts were of the men that had been killed or had died in the Prisoner-of-War camps. Those that got killed after Dunkirk. The French Soldier, with his kit pack full of food, it told us that France was finished.

The Bosch claimed that the British had run away at Dunkirk, we had all had a raw deal,firstly from our Government and secondly the Ministry of Defence. They had no thoughts for us Prisoners-of-War, returning home. We had done their dirty work. Their hands were clean. It was us that had killed and wounded the Germans. You fired your rifle and if you had hit someone, then you would hear the sound of a grunt, then you would know that you had killed the enemy.

With all of this on your mind after five years, it was sickening to think that you had actually carried this out. Those men that we had killed, they also had families, the same as we did. It could have been us and not them. We were the lucky ones.

Your minds turned to the German farmers families, that had given you good food. You did not know if these families were alive or dead and you would never know. But you could always see them in your mind, but you always remembered the bad side of your experiences. But now it was the Russians at the Germans farms.

You could always remember starving on the line of march, the sleepless nights and the tears that you shed. There was no end to your feelings and it remains with you for the rest of your life. You cannot run away from it, the Germans could have killed many of us, without explanations. All that they had to say that you had been killed trying to escape.

Some Prisoners-of-War, when they were demobbed, had left this Country and had emigrated to Canada, New Zealand and Australia because of the uncaring way that they had been treated in Britain. No man in the British Expeditionary Forces received a medal for Service for their Country. For Service from 1939/1940, to get the War Medal, you only had to have served one day in a War zone, then you would receive the War Medal, which cost 6d-which is old pence.

The Government said that there was no attempt invasion of this Country. But if you go to Belgium, you will hear a different story. In September of 1940, one could not travel below Colchester because of the amount of German dead that was being washed up from the sea. They will tell you, that the German boats got near to the British coast and they were set on fire from the beaches.

Now when the showing of "Evacuation of Dunkirk" film is shown, you will see at the end, that a Presenter states that this was the last of the British Expeditionary Forces in France. This is a BLOODY OUTRAGE AND FULL OF LIES!!! There were Officers and other ranks still fighting along side of the French and being killed, wounded and taken as Prisoners-of-War, right up until the Surrender of the French Forces in June 1940.

Now the Ministry of Defence and the Historians put their finger to their ears and say, it is not good properganda. BULL...!! It is history and should be written about. If not, then in the future, the Researchers and Historians will be idiots, which they are for not reporting the true account of the events that had happened.

Corporal Nicholls of the Guards won the Victoria Cross but he moved away to Canada, with his family, because of an ungrateful Government. There were many men from the 51st Highland Division did the same.

To think that this happened nearly 65 years ago and now they state that it never happened. I can prove that it DID happen and some day I will be able to prove it to the British public.

At Le Beck in France in 1945, at the barracks outside of the town, a Para Officer with the Red Berets was drilling 30 to 40 Ex Prisoners-of-War. The Officer looked as if he had just walked from the billet. The Prisoners-of-War were dressed very scruffy as possible, they had long French Army coats and were unshaven. The Para Officer shouted "I will make soldiers of you in six weeks" as he shouted out the orders. The men never moved. Around watching were other Prisoners-of-War and they were mocking the Officer. The 30 to 40 Ex Prisoners-of-War never moved, all they were doing was taking the P...! out of the Officer and he could not see this. One Prisoner-of-War was eating a full leg of lamb, he was gorging himself, it was sickening to watch him. He was doing more damage to his stomach than he knew. The Prisoners-of-War, what they were doing with the young calves was sickening to your stomach but if you were caught, then you would be sent away to do 3 years. Had the War had not ended, you would have to serve 3 years. This I could not write about.

I could have earned a lot of money had I wished. To just allowing German Companies to use my name and my home address for the import of German goods. But there was no way that I was a going to help them, to me they were still my enemies.

Maybe I could forgive, but not forget. As it was on my mind and in my memory, it was impressed on my mind and would remain with me, for the rest of my life. My bad dreams have stayed with me, of those bad years in that other world.

As for my time spent at Bicester, it was none of my business to draw the amount of stealing, that was going on there, to the attention of the Special Investigations Branch. This was because I had found out later that goods had been found missing were written off, as at the British Ordanance Depot. Auctions were carried out at times to sell the surplus stores.

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