大象传媒

The ship docked at Gasney. We had a few days rest before crossing France to get to the Belgian border. On the 17th September 1944, my regiment was sent to Elst, Holland. It was here that I was knocked out by a shell and consequently lay unconscious for two days. If I hadn't been wearing my steal helmet (which was deeply dented by the shell)I don't think that I would have survived.

I was proptly sent to a hospital and remained there for 2-3 days. In army slang we used to call my condition "bomb happy". I remember becoming rather neurotic and I along with many other soldiers used to shake at the sound of gunshots.

Cattle trucks were used by the hospitals for the patients. They were kitted up with army camp beds and were used to transport the wounded and sick down to Brussels.

In hospital, in order to stay sane and to take our minds off the war, we would try to be creative and make something with our hands. I would copy pictures from a book and then try to carve the image in wood.

I stayed in Brussels for 3 months and was then sent back to my unit which was now in Colchester, at the Goojureck barracks. But when I arrived,nobody was there. So I made my way back to Colchester station. As there was no one around, I decided that this was my chance to sneak home to see my wife and two year old son. My wife advised me to go back to the unit as soon as possible. On my return to the barracks, I was told to go and see the Commanding officer. My excuse for my late arrival to the barracks, was that whilst in Colchester there had been an air raid, that I had been hit and had "gone blank", suffered from amnesia for a week and hadn't known where I was. But the Commanding officer was unconvinced, and told me I was to lose 14 days pay.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.