大象传媒

I was a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps, stranded in France after Dunkirk. In May 1940, I was in Balbec, Normandy and drove with my comrades to Rennes in army lorries, eating only green mouldy bread washed down with coffee bought from French farmers (they always wanted payment!) We stayed in a tented camp outside Rennes and visited the city several times. After France capitulated,we were divided into two groups. I was the last one to join the group going to St Malo. The man next to me and all the others, though none of us knew it at the time, were going to St Nazaire and the "Lancastria". The following day, we drove to St Malo and saw civilian evacuees shot by German planes en route (for some reason they didn't shoot at us!) It was very upsetting. The only food we had on the journey was a tin of Loganberries (between six people!) At St Malo docks, we drove the lorries into the sea and some threw in their weapons too (I kept my rifle though!) We climbed into the hold of an old cement boat and tried to get some sleep (no food though!) In the morning we realised how dangerous our situation was, as we only had a rickety ladder to get out of the ship's hold! We quickly clambered up on to the deck! The ship set off for Weymouth (the journey took all day!) and we arrived there to be met by the Salvation Army who gave every man a tin of Bully beef, a tin of Mackerel, hard tack biscuits and a tin mug full of tea. I have always donated generously to them since that time!
My wife (whose neighbour had helpfully told her that "we would never see any of them again") eventually got news that I was in a camp at Wenvoe in South Wales and my brother in Law (who lived in Newport) managed to find me and confirm that I had survived. This would have been far less likely if I had joined the "Lancastria" group.

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