大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Alan Jeffery CSV from Kent County Library Services on behalf of William Whyte and has been added after his demise to the site in his absence by his son in law Alan Jeffery. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

William Whyte was to serve with the Northumberland Fusiliers with the Eighth Army under Montgomery in the desert and then in other campaigns. His designated task as a mechanical engineer was recovery of vehicles that had been destroyed in action. In the desert this was a thankless task as the human remains inside a tank that had brewed up must have been horrendous in that heat, nonetheless, recovery and reconstruction were all part of his duties.

Of course, the forward nature of his responsibilities was to leave him exposed to the extreme front, even when the battle was not victorious and the line remained in the rear of the vehicles he was retrieving. Of course, the plight of the Afrika Korps made the same action essential with the direct result in him being captured on two separate occasions and recaptured the first time, with a comrade-in-arms having been shot in the leg whilst escaping and the pair of them desperate for a cigarette, they were captured by a convoy that actually included Rommel in his staff car, which William was to witness.

The second escape being successful, he was to remain with the 5th Army, part of the Eighth Army through invasion into Italy, a foray in and around Monte Casino and then extracted to participate in the D Day landing follow-up due to the massive destruction allied armoured vehicles were to sustain in that bitter campaign.

It was here he declared with clear and resentful conviction that he saw most of his comrades slaughtered and without reserve, he sneered. The greater part were to American ground attack aircraft that simply strafed and rocketed anything that moved amidst a tank battlefield, regardless of the fact the engagement was over and the only transport mobility was by Allied vehicles.

Blue on Blue is a fashionable, modern term for friendly fire and something that has gone on for centuries, right back to the melee of. Viking and Anglo Saxon battlefields to Kuwait and Iraq. In his case it left him bitter and quite full of hate that he had fought for so long and hard to lose so many friends and comrades in this way.

Two other comments he made with a certain degree of resentment was upon his return from North Africa. The first was a stern and official warning of the severest penalties for anyone taking German firearms into the country as souvenirs, causing him to dispose of a boxed set of Lugers he had procured, by tossing them over the side. The second comment or observation had a hint of a link he was to use in his summary. Simply that when disembarkation orders were relayed they were ordered to hand in all issue firearms to the armourer before leaving and whilst his previous leave did not strip him of personal weapons he now felt a distinct lack of trust, or that the authorities feared a backlash when the soldiers saw the plight of their families suffering in the Blitz and they were serving on far distant shores unable to defend their families.

With regret in the later years of his life, he felt the reasons for fighting had been betrayed and the democracy that he fought for was denied him and his family.

William Whyte was a great man, a great father and devoted husband, the sacrifice he presented himself ready to make, ensured his three child family lived a long, happy and productive life in freedom.

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