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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Arthur Berry and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Berry fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was a forward observation post gunner/signaller with the 304 Battery 127th Highland Field Regiment Royal Artillery 153 Brigade 51st Highland Division.

On the night of 10/11 July 1944 our battery OP Parties accompanied the 5th Battalion, The Black Watch on the attack on Colombelles, east of Caen.

Major Aitken MC Battery Commander went with Colonel Thomson Black Watch who set up his H.Q. in a cornfield facing the steelworks factory. Captain Carney RA accompanied Major Dunn Balck Watch "A" Company. Captain Wager RA accompanied Black Watch "C" Company.

On the afternoon of 10 July we joined our BW company in an orchard near St. Honorine. It was a dry day and we found the BW lads all cleaning their weapons and in good spirits. We had been informed that Caen had been captured and Colombelles would be easy. How badly that information proved to be for we now know it would be August before Colombelles was eventually taken and it would take two full divisions to do it.

It was a clear night as we passed the start line and our Bren-carrier finished up in the back gardens of some houses where we lost a track on the carrier and had to dig in and use a remote wireless control.

During the night two Black Watch stretcher bearers left two wounded BW lads alongside our slit trench saying they would return for them but never did. My co-signaller, Walter Atkinson, and I covered the lads with our greatcoats. The two wounded lads were stoical and did not even murmur or complain during the night despite their wounds and the heavy mortar and shell fire which intensified towards dawn when Jerry counter-attacked.

The two wounded lads asked to be taken into the house and join their mates, this Atkinson and I did forthwith. In the house where we took them there were a few BW lads and a young Lieutenant firing a Bren gun from a slit window in the lavatory at the rear. He told me the two wounded lads did not belong to his company but to leave them with him.

Both Atkinson and I dashed back to our carrier and as I dived into my slit trench I saw a line of holes penetrate my greatcoat where I had slung it over the side of the carrier after taking it off the stretcher. It would seem the Jerrys were back in the bedrooms of the houses and had let us carry the wounded unmolested, but on our return without the strechers had opened up on us.

Within minutes of our return to the carrier, I received the order to withdraw to St. Honorine from our Major (Aitken) via his signaller. I informed my Captain of the message and I asked him for permission to pass the message of withdrawal to the Black Watch Lieutenant holding out in the nearby house. This he granted. I ran over to the house (much quicker this time I assure you), but the Lieutenant would not believe it. He came back with me to confirm with Captain Wager, who by this time was "hot-footing it" down the garden. Captain Wager confirmed the message on the run, and as he climbed the rear fence, he was hit and tumbled over. The Lieutenant, Atkinson and I vaulted the dividing fence and joined the other BW lads.

We put all the wounded inside the Bren-carrier and made a run for it across the adjoining field with all the other lads sheltering either side of the carrier from the crossfire. I became detached when I stumbled and crawled into the field and made for St. Honorine. I came across Captain Wager, although with a severe arm wound, he was also doing the same. He shouted to me that he could not go any further and that he could see a hole just in front of him which he was going to occupy and this he did. He immediately shouted for me to follow him. I asked him who else was in this hole and he replied "Two more chaps". I cocked my sten, rose up and charged into the hole which proved to be a heavy machine gun pit (Spandau) with two Jerrys in it and my officer stood between them at the back of the pit. Captin Wager screamed out to me not to shoot. It would appear that the infantry had by-pased the gun emplacement during the night and the two occupants had kept quiet hoping presumably to be taken prisoner. They were not Germans, possibly Polish.

After bandaging Captain Wager's arm with a field dressing, I took a black scarf from one of the Jerrys , who was wearing it around his neck and made a sling for the Captain's arm. We were now ready for the off and I told the prisoners by mime that we were going and they were coming with us, but it was not to be.

We were suddenly hailed from some nearby trenched in a mixture of German-English "To come out". This cetainly alarmed our two prisoners and not knowing any German, I left it to the captain. He stood up and we found ourselves surrounded by Mongolians in German uniforms intermixed with a few Jerrys. We were taked to a field dressing station, a dug-out where the sides of the dug-out had been lined with white beddig sheets probably taken from the nearby houses, where Captain Wager had his wounds dressed. As we emerged from the dug-out our own artillery opened up on us and plastered the area causing Jerry more casualties. Apart from Captain wAger and myself, there were three BW lads and one anti-tank gunner taken prisoner. We were taken down the railway lines which led into and around the Colombelles steelworks factory. On both sides of the railway lines approximately two companies of heavily armed German infantry were dug in waiting in reserve.

We were treated quite correctly initially, but conditions worsened the further we got from the line. The transportation to Germany from Normandy took many weeks and in one stage of the journey from Paris to Chalons-sur-Marne the train in which we were traveling in locked box-cars was bombed and strafed by our own planes. This attack caused many casualties among the British and American P.O.W.s being transported.

Myself and a Black Watch lad, who was taken prisoner with me at Colombelles, finished up working down a coal mine in Saxony, East Germany. I cannot recall this lad's name, but he came from Reddish, Stockport, which is close to where I live now, but I have not been able to trace him.

In early April 1945 retreating German troops were passing our P.O.W. camp and apparently decided to take all the P.O.W.s with them. This cause quite a bit of confusion at the main gate of the camp between the officer leading the retreating Germans and the officer in charge of the camp.

I took the opportunity along with three other lads to escape, but this is another story. We were safely back home within a week or so. One of the first Highland Division lads I met was Walter Atkinson, my mate and co-signaller, who was working in the camp at Aylesbury, where we had been taken to be kitted out. He told me that at Colombelles, although wounded in the leg, he managed to get back to our lines. We had a happy reunion. I would dearly like to get in touch with any survivors of the Colombelles battle, especially the young Lieutenant and the wounded lads mentioned in this narrative.

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