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This story has been written onto the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by CSV Storygatherer Lucy Thomas of Callington U3A on behalf of Arthur Eade. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

ARTHUR EADE’S STORIES Part 2

6th June D Day
Planes were flying over Rye Harbour where I had been billeted since Nov. 1943, and we were placed on 6 hours notice. On the 18th June troops from our battalion were sent to Newhaven and the transport was sent to London. I was with the Division Rear Party and went to Tenterden. When I was at Peasmarsh, near Tenterden, I saw my first V.1. rocket bomb flying low with flames coming out of the back.

Riding the Mulberries.
Early in July we went to London Docks and all the vehicles were loaded into a Liberty Ship. We went out on deck and waited until the convoy was ready. During the nights we slept on the decks. On the morning we came to Arramanches we unloaded the vehicles and they were lifted out onto the floating mulberries. We drove off to warnings not to drive on the edge of the road because of the mines. That is the only time I really remember being frightened to death of driving anywhere along hard roads. We finished up in a village called Somerview that was the forming up place for the fourth battalion. The company’s —A and B Echelon - were in part of the farm. The MTs were in a field and that was where we stayed until the breakout.

Operation Cobra
The American’s breakout was called operation Cobra. I joined the 43rd Wessex Division on 27th July at Ducy Ste Marguerite and after a day we moved to Caumont which was next to the American lines. We joined 30 corps.

On the 31st July I was told to report to B Company for a ‘Quick lift’. We went into the attack at a place called Bois de Homme and I was detailed to join B Company and pick up a load of soldiers and drive on up into a woods. Here we stopped and unloaded whilst firing was going on all around us. We carried picks and shovels with which we dug a shallow trench, just deep enough to get below ground. I put the tin hat over my head and listened to the mortar bombs, the ‘moaning minnies’ as they came screaming down exploding all around. It was very scary. I stayed here all day. In the evening I looked up and there was a damaged jeep so I went over to see if I could help. It was Jeff Young. The front of Jeff’s jeep was blown off and the tyres flat. I only had a hole in my wind screen so I was able to get the jeep up and I dragged it all along the road with no steering until we came to an artillery unit. There they gave us tea and we slept the night in gun pits. The following day we found B.Echelon.

Mount Pincon
We went South to Mt.Pincon an important high point which it was necessary to hold. It was here that I was with F. Echelon. My mate was the Company Storeman and I carried the things they needed most, such as greatcoats, picks and shovels etc. to where they were needed.

The whole front had now turned to the East with C.Company leading. I was told to stay among some farm buildings, so I found a dry well and waited. Later that day I learnt that our Serg. Major Webb and Lt. Mills had been killed whilst digging in. The 43rd. Div. crossed the River Noireau at Conde, and the fighting in Normandy was finished by 21st August.

Crossing the Seine at Vernon
The 43rd. Div. were given the task to go 90 mls. ahead to cross the river Seine at Vernon. We drove down the hill into Vernon. The 5th Battalion of The Wiltshire Regiment and the 4th Battalion of Somerset Light Infantry crossed the river in boats that night, against heavy fire. By the morning and with great difficulty they had built a pontoon bridge across. I used it to cross with my truck to Giverny where the 4th Battallion had cleared making it safe. I carried picks and shovels, blankets, overcoats mortar bombs, fixed line tripods for their bren-guns and everything they needed up at the front. After the crossing at Vernon two big Bailey Bridges (David and Goliath) were built and the armoured divisions crossed over and went to Brussels.

Exercise ‘Market Garden’
We were on the Escaut Canal on the Belguim border waiting for orders to go forward in exercise ‘Market Garden’. The airborne division had landed at Arnhem and were expected to capture the bridge and go through Arnhem to establish an area in Northern Holland. We travelled up the road all night in the dark, with no lights, and at one place we went along a particularly dark patch beside a burnt out tank and instead of following the road I found myself tipped over into the ditch with my vehicle on its side. The next day a recovery vehicle came and towed me out so I was able to continue and we crossed over the bridge and took over duty from the 3rd Battalion of the Irish Guards at Nijmegen.

We stayed in Giverny until the 14th Sept then left for Diest in Belgium. The local people were delighted to see us giving us coffee and cognac.

Feeding the troops
During the following months I followed orders and continued to drive with the 4th Division in C Company. Early in Oct. we were staying in ‘The Island’ an area of land between the River Rhine and the River Waal from here we moved to Mook near the German border.
Eric Woodhouse, the Corporal, had yellow Jaundice and I took over driving C.Company’s cook’s truck. With the assistance of Quarter Master Sergeant Parson’s and a couple of helpers we prepared meals to take up to the men. Early in the morning they had a hot breakfast — bacon and fried bread, porridge, tea etc. and this was all put into 7 or 14 portion containers packed so that they could be carried if necessary. During the day their food was taken up in their haversack rations. At night we took food through the woods with Parsons walking in front of me and I drove between a white taped path laid out by the engineers. In winter, in the cold weather, they had a rum ration. When it came to dishing out the food from the multiple portion containers the men filed past and you gave the tin to the seventh man so that in the dark they couldn’t take it away. If a jeep couldn’t get there they still had to be carried in the dark.

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