大象传媒

The following was submitted by the author at the Suffolk Regiments Minden Day parade, 2004.

I was one of 400 men called up on the 15th January 1940. I was sent to Gibralter Barracks in Bury St Edmunds for two months training. For a while I was sent as a Cadre instructor to 70th Battalion, a special section for 16 to 18 year olds. It was disbanded in about 1942, and I was sent to the 1st Battalion. We went all round the country doing various duties before joining 3rd division. We were sent to Scotland for training. We practised landings on the islands with live ammunition. Some got killed.

In January 1944 I saw my first landing craft. We took part in exercise Smash on the south coast near Brighton. Our camp at Havant was sealed for three weeks, before we were loaded onto our craft on the Saturday before D-Day. We stayed there until we landed on the beaches. I was in a mortar platoon at the time, and we landed on Sword Beach at 9.30 on the 6th June 1944. Unfortunately our carrier lost a track as we came onto the beach. It took two hours to repair, and we didn鈥檛 get off the beach until 11.30. We went through the village, Colleville Sur Orne (now renamed Colleville Sur Montgomery). The traffic was nose to tail off the beach and up the road. We got to the strongpoint known as Hillman at 1.30 and joined the fighting. It continued till 8pm when 40 Germans surrendered.

Later we moved on to Chateau de la Londe. This was heavily fortified, and we lost 155 men taking it. I was involved in a number of other battles as we moved across France including Weert in the winter of 44/45. We followed the 51st Division over the Rhine and were involved in skirmishes in the forests.

Just outside Bremen we fought at Brinkham. The area had been flooded and there were limited causeways across. A bomber raid had been called up and the mayor been told to surrender if he wanted to spare his town. He didn鈥檛. I had to set up an observation post, and found a good spot in the roof of a local building. I was just getting settled when I felt a tug at my ankle. It was Richard Dimbleby of the 大象传媒 wanting a look. I let him up, and bashed a few tiles out to make myself a new vantage point. Another tap on the ankle. A general this time, soon followed by a host of other officers. There must have been a row of about eight holes in this roof in the end. The bombers came over in three waves. The town surrendered.

We went back to Belgium where our equipment was taken from us. We were due to go and invade Japan, but we were spared by the Atom bomb dropping. Instead we were sent to Palestine.

I do remember a couple of incidents. Once we were standing on a road chatting when a chap called Jensen suddenly fell to the ground. He had been shot through the shoe. The bullet had gone between the sole of his foot and the sole of the boot. He showed us the graze to prove it. It was a very bizarre injury. Another time a chap called Shepherd was shot through the helmet. But the bullet entered on one side, went round the inside of the helmet following the outside of his head, and came out the other. As he said afterwards, 鈥渢hat was a close one鈥� 鈥� or words to that effect!

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