大象传媒

My father was a member of a 25lb. field artillery team, sent to France in 1944, a few weeks after D-Day. His team were part of the advance, through Belgium, supporting the advance into Northern Germany. He was riding in the cab with the driver when they came under fire and the driver was killed. Dad had to drag his body from the vehicle whilst under fire and take over the driving to get the gun and crew to safety. Unfortunately, he had never driven before and later told how he was so concerned
about which pedals to push and levers to pull, that he completely forgot about the bullets flying around. His team went on to support the Guards division at Arnhem and followed on with the push into Germany.

One afternoon, they were stopped at a woodland area which had been bombarded by British artillery. The scene was one of utter devastation. Trees were shattered and the ground was covered with craters. A German infantry unit had been dug-in at the site and his company were instructed to 'tidy up'. There were many bodies to bury (a subject he preferred to gloss over) and masses of equipment. They had a terrific time blazing away with a Spandau M.G. over a nearby lake on which there were a lot of geese, which made very good target practice and subsequently, excellent eating!

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