大象传媒

This contribution to WW2 People's War website was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk, with the permission and on behalf of David Rankin Riddock, and submitted to the website by the Wymondham Learning Centre.

I was called up from Borthwell, Scotland in 1940 at the age of 22, and joined the Royal Artillery. After an early injury put me out of active service I was sent on an engineering course and became a member of the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) Corp. When the seaborne D-day landings began at Normandy in France on June 6th, 1944 I was stationed in Northern Ireland, attached to the 164th Infantry Brigade.

I still have a copy of an extract from the Routine Orders for 8 July 1944, from the HQ of the 164th Infantry Brigade, signed by the Camp Commander, which reads:

NOTICE
The Bde Comd [Brigade Command] congratulates Cfn [Craftsman] D Riddock REME for the work he has put in during the last two weeks in assisting waterproofing and instruction on American vehicles. This was a rush job for a special purpose and Commandant of NI School [Northern Ireland Training School] has asked that Cfn Riddock should be personally thanked for the good work and long hours he has put in.

The story behind this lies in the fact that the Americans were having difficulty landing their army ambulances in Normandy. The crew couldn鈥檛 get the vehicles from the landing bays onto the beaches quickly enough. They had to be drive through about four feet of water, and because the engines were not waterproof, they stalled. I was asked to go and help. I was put into a jeep late at night and driven from Carrickfergus to the training camp where General Patton鈥檚 reserve troops were waiting to go to France. I had to train the drivers and crew to waterproof their vehicles and drive in the way most likely to avoid flooding. We packed a mould around the operative parts of the vehicle to protect air intake and electrical systems that would be partly submerged in water. Then the driver had to put his foot down and get onto a dry surface fast.

They took me with them to the Belfast docks the morning they left to pick up their dead and wounded. I was sent back to my unit, and never saw them again.

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