大象传媒

My name is Steven Yeoman. I was born in 1922. I lived in Edinburgh up till the time of the war and during the first couple of years of the war, then I joined the army in 1942. And after basic training I was posted to Light Ack-Ack Regiment in 52nd Division up on the north coast of Scotland. We trained on the north coast of Scotland, gradually moving to the east, and then to the south, finishing up in a place called Carnoustie.

From there we moved down to the South Coast and eventually over to Belgium because we didn鈥檛 go over on D-Day. We were kept in Scotland to prevent any German to prevent any German invasion from Norway because they had twelve Divisions there, and also to make the Germans think that we might in fact invade Norway from Scotland.

During our time up in Scotland we came down to the South Coast, to Newhaven, twice a year, to let the Light Ack-Ack Regiment here have time off to go to practice camp. So I know Newhaven quite well, though in that time there weren鈥檛 many shops open as far as I remember. The place was stuffed with soldiers and sailors and as far as I can see the civilians had been excluded but then that was quite right.

In September 1944 the Division was moved over to Belgium and from there our first operation was to secure the Schelde River estuary and approaches to Antwerp and so we were given an assault landing across the Schelde to Flushing and then fought our way up the Flushing Peninsular, eventually securing the whole of the Schelde and allowing ships to come into Antwerp to unload.

From there we moved further east and eventually further south down to Maastricht to cut off the Ardennes offensive by the Germans. We were there to help plug the gap and eventually stop the Germans getting through. After that I was moved over to 11th Armoured Division, I鈥檓 not quite sure where, but further north anyway, and we took part in the battle to clear the Reichwalde Forest on the approaches to the Rhine.

And here I had my biggest shock of the war when, in my jeep, going round a corner one day, I found a Tiger tank, sitting there facing me with its gun pointing straight at the jeep. This gave me a bit of a shock but I shoved the driver out of his side of the jeep, fell out of my side of the jeep into the ditch, and the jeep went on and hit the Tiger tank. There was then a loud guffaw from the Tiger tank because it had already been captured by one of the Guards Regiments. So that was fine.

After that we just cleared up towards the Rhine and they made the Rhine crossing but we couldn鈥檛 of course cross the Rhine until the bridges had been built. Eventually we crossed the Rhine and moved up in a north-easterly direction. While we were doing this 6 Airborne Division were on our right and they were going along at the same speed as we were although they didn鈥檛 have anything like that.

We came across one incident where we came up to the river Weser and just north-east of us was the river Aller, which ran into the river Weser, and as they approached us the Germans come over with flag of truce and said to our General 鈥淒on鈥檛 fire into this area. We will retire to the other side of the Aller.鈥� And our General said 鈥淲ell, why?鈥� and they said 鈥淲ell, there鈥檚 typhus in this area鈥�, and he said 鈥淲hy typhus?鈥� So he said 鈥淚t鈥檚 just endemic here鈥�, and he said 鈥淣o it isn鈥檛. What is it? It鈥檚 a concentration camp, isn鈥檛 it?鈥� and he had to admit that. He said 鈥淚 can鈥檛 let you retire just over the other side of the river, you鈥檝e got to retire twenty miles further back because I don鈥檛 want to have to fight my way in a river crossing just to suit you鈥�. So they retired and we went over the river and our reconnaissance regiment came across Belsen and then they put one of our Batteries into Belsen to clear it up and I went there, and it wasn鈥檛 a very nice sight at all.

After that we went on, and eventually the war finished when I was somewhere east of Hannover and north of Hamburg, and I can鈥檛 remember very much about VE night because we had a hell of a party in the Officers鈥� Mess.

From there we were sent across the Kiel canal, up the Schleswig Holstein Peninsular to the outlying island of Liszt, which has a railway causeway running to it, and from there we took in all the Germans coming down from Denmark and Norway, and disarmed them, and put them on trains to get them back to mainland Germany.

As the war was now ended I thought there was a very good possibility of my being sent to Burma as an infantryman, which I didn鈥檛 particularly want, so I joined the Airborne then and after my training I went to a unit which was the Forward Support Unit which fired the guns coming up behind, and we were duly embarked to go to Burma but before we鈥檇 gone very far he war in the east was over as well, so we were sent to Palestine where I was for about two years.

That was quite interesting inasmuch as we were trying to keep two different people apart so they didn鈥檛 slit each other鈥檚 throats. Both of them hated us; we were spat on by both, by the Arabs and by the Jews. Eventually, of course, the United Nations came in and we had to leave because the United Nations were giving the place to the Jews and so I came back home. But I stayed in the army, but by this time of course, the wars were over and I didn鈥檛 get myself involved in another one.

There was one occasion when we were in Belgium and we were stationed in a farmhouse, and the farmer came up to me and said 鈥淲ould you like a bath?鈥� As I hadn鈥檛 had a bath for about three weeks or so, I was delighted, but a bit surprised, and I said to him 鈥淗ave you got a bath?鈥� and he said 鈥淵es鈥�. He said 鈥淐ome with me鈥� and he took me over to the barn, which was on stilts, and pulled out, from under the barn, an enamel bath. It was just a bath and nothing else. It wasn鈥檛 connected to anything; there was no water coming in or drainage system or anything like that. He pulled it into the middle of the farmyard and said 鈥淭here you are鈥�. I said 鈥淲ell, that鈥檚 jolly good, what about hot water?鈥� and he said 鈥淥h, that鈥檚 all right, my daughters will get the hot water鈥�

He shouted and three girls started coming out with hot water and filled the bath up. And then eventually he said 鈥淲ell, that鈥檚 it, the bath鈥檚 ready for you鈥�. I said 鈥淭hank you very much鈥� but there were these three grinning girls standing there. I thought they鈥檙e just going to wait there until I jump in. I鈥檇 better do something about it. So I called my Sergeant Major and said to him 鈥淔all the troop in鈥� which he duly did. Then I said 鈥淔orm a circle round the bath鈥� and they formed a circle round the bath. Then I said 鈥淔ace outwards鈥� which they did, so I had my bath in there without anybody seeing me.

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