大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Sarah Nurton from 大象传媒 GMR Action Desk on behalf of Cecil Steff and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Steff fully understands the site's terms and conditions'

The Slow Slong Along the Coast

Not for us the exhilarating fast advance through northern France and Belgium to Brussels, but the slow slog along the coast, allotted to the Canadian Army of which we were part, clearing the ports up to Antwerp. Dieppe was taken without any great battle and we were all pulled out of action to prepare for a ceremonial march through the town to commemorate their disastrous attack of 1942. From there we steadily advanced along the coast clearing ports and villages until arriving at Boulogne. We were now almost out of ammunition due to the long lines of communication and the attack was delayed until we could be reinforced. After two weeks Boulogne fell and we advanced to Calais. A way had to be blasted into the city and after one move forward it was discovered there were no infantry in front of us, we were out on our own , fortunately the Germans never knew. Dunkirk was bypassed and we moved into Belgium.

Hot on the Heels of the Germans

Moving through France on forward recce and hot on the heels of the retreating Germans one village could not decide which flag to fly so we had an array of white, swastika, union jack and to further confuse them we put up the Canadian flag, the maple leaf. The Frenchmen could not put on their Free French armbands fast enough and were soon dragging out young girls as suspected collaborators to shave their heads as punishment. A disgusting practice which I promptly stopped by waving a revolver around and blasting them in schoolboy french, which they obviously understood.

'The Water Rats'

It was now October, the weather was breaking up and the objective was to reach the banks of the Scheldt, attack Walcheren and open up access to the port of Antwerp. The country is flat and in Holland many of the fields are well below road level. The Germans opened the sluice gates flooding the fields and our positions were often controlled by the amount of dry land available. On several occasions we were forced to align the guns along the road and fire from there. The peculiar sense of Canadian humour lead them to adopt the title of 鈥淭he Water Rats鈥�. Eventually we reached the Scheldt and for want of anywhere better I positioned the guns tight up to the sea wall. It was useless siting them in the fields, most of them were under water, they could not have been dug in and they would probably have sunk anyway.

Asleep!

It was sometime during the aformentioned period that due to constant moves I had gone 72 hours without sleep and whilst talking to my Battery Commander during a period of light intermittant shelling I slowly slumped down into a heap at his feet. Convinced I had been wounded the M.O. was rushed to attend to me and after close examination solemnly announced I was asleep. I was transported back to the waggon lines, my batman made up my camp bed and I eventually came to 24 hours later. I don鈥檛 remember a thing about it. Walcheren fell and for the first time in weeks we were pulled out of action into a rest area , supposedly for an extended period. During the second night I was quietly awakened and told to report for movement orders. Within an hour I was on the move again to Nijmegen.

Some Quiet Time

After weeks of squelching through flooded and sodden countryside it was marvellous to be once more on dry land and in a very pleasant area on the outskirts of Nigmegen, an area not unlike Hampstead Heath. I was very fortunate in setting up my command post in a magnificent house on the heath, Heide Huis. The owner was a most charming woman of about 50 with whom I immediately felt at home. The feeling was mutual and she more or less adopted me as a son Our stay in Nijmegen was about three weeks and it was the quietest period we had experienced since landing in Normandy. Occasionally I was able to get a clear evening off duty and I would join her in the drawing room for a quiet talk and sometimes something to eat when I was honoured in being given the key to the wine cellar to select my own wine. An honour I could not fully appreciate as my knowledge of wine in those days was nil. Fortunately her niece, who was staying with her , would help me out.

Stalemate

The fighting was now at a standstill, both sides were gathering strength for the last mighty battle to cross the Maas and the Rhine into Germany. Occasionally I would cross the bridge over the Maas to lay out dummy positions on the route to Arnhem and one or two guns would move in to fire a few rounds. This was very much 鈥榓 no mans land鈥� area as it was patrolled by both sides and one night having laid out a dummy position and expecting one or two guns to arrive early morning before light to fire off a few rounds I decided to stay put and we moved into a barn. During the night I was softly awakened and informed a German armoured patrol had pulled up outside and were brewing up. There was nothing we could do except keep quiet and hope for the best. Our luck was in, after their brew they moved on.

Tradgedy Strikes

Shelling was very spasmodic and mostly could be ignored but one shell landed immediately outside my command post. It wrecked my set up but fortunately there were no casualties and then we heard a scream outside. One of my signallers was in an awful mess, one leg was virtually off and the other was a mess. First a fag and then an injection of morphine and whilst I was removing his leg, it couldn鈥檛 have been saved, he said 鈥渟ir, what鈥檚 my wife going to say when she knows I鈥檝e only one leg鈥� and then he passed out. He was in hospital in England within 24 hours. Some years later I met him at a reunion and he was fine.

Farewell Party

At the end of November we heard our Colonel was being promoted to Brigadier and with the help of my hostess we arranged a farewell party in the house which all officers attended. Our army group co-operated by re-directing any shoots to other regiments. It was most successful and a fitting tribute to a very popular and efficient Commanding Officer. Having said our goodbyes our 2nd in Command then dropped the bombshell. Due to the shortage of infantry and the complete absence of any reinforcements, and we now without a commanding officer, were to be pulled out of action and disbanded.

The End

By the end of December it was all over, the regiment had gone and I was posted to a holding camp awaiting transport to take me to another regiment in position on the Maas.

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