大象传媒

This story was submitted on behalf of Sid Shorten by Helen Hughes of the People's War team in Wales. It has been added with Sid's permission.

BALGOY (Holland) camp 33
November 14 to November 21, 1944

This was the start of the Arnheim deception.
A small collection of houses, we were in a large barn about 10 miles from Nymeghen; we were here to collect our deception equipment (this was held by the Field Park Company we never knew where.) Each platoon was allocated its own particular gear which suggested we would be in separate places. We were now ready to move across the river Maas into the Arnheim zone.
Camp 34
Our move was made during the night of the 21st.to a rough old barn across the river Maas near Nymeghen in the grounds of a Kasteel. The weather had turned cold and wet and stayed that way for days. The morning of the 22nd.the whole of 鈥淩鈥� Force were assembled in a large hall in Nymeghen to be briefed by Colonel Strangeways the commanding officer about the operation and the dangers of a careless word to anyone including other military personnel. That night we moved once more to a school cum hospital to form a reserve platoon 4 miles from the river Lek. During the night of the 26th. it was forward again.
Camp 35

This time it was to a farmhouse near the village of Elst, 2 miles from the front and about 4 miles from Arnheim. The 4 sections of the platoon were in separate locations all near by but with various types of equipment the rest of the company were spread out all around. The cookhouse was set up in the farm kitchen and meals were taken to the other sections. Our section of 9 men was maintaining 6 dummy guns, 5.5 1nch field guns; the other units had other equipment to suggest an attack was in preparation; our trucks brought in a large number of empty shell boxes to be stacked near the guns. There was an infantry screen forward of us to give protection from enemy patrols; it was a Polish battalion at first then they were relieved by Canadians. We had a good deal of shelling somebody said on the worst night there were 245 shells came over in the area. The real build-up was preparing to attack east to the Reichwald forest. The Germans blew some dykes and started to flood our area on the 2nd. so I assume they were taking our threat seriously. On the 3rd. we got orders to pack-up, the 3 of us in the cookhouse were told to climb on the last truck so as to be able to prepare a meal for the men who had to march the miles back to Nymeghen; they arrived at 4am. on December 4th. leg weary and hungry but were ready to travel back to Wesembeek after a few hours sleep. We arrived back at base at 2pm. On the 5th. of December. Our next move came after a 12 hour standby to France.

GIVET (France) camp 36
December 19 to 21, 1944

The movement order came early in the afternoon to fit into a convoy slot moving south; it seemed that all of 30 Corps was on the move south to the Ardennes. The Germans had started a major attack on the night of the 16th. and were making progress against the Americans in an area only lightly held. Our job was to prepare the bridge over the river Meuse for demolition if it became necessary. This was a platoon job the other platoons were employed on jobs in the locality, we arrived late that night in a tiny village called Petit Boishe where we slept in the trucks for 2 nights. The American forces were short of engineers in this area because so many of them were operating as infantry to help stop the German advance. On the 21st. with the bridge prepared we were relieved by a unit of the 23rd. Hussars from the 29th. Armoured Brigade; that night we moved north to Namur. It seems that Monty had foreseen the order from Eisenhower and had got troops moving early.

NAMUR (Belgium) camp 37
December 21 to 23, 1944

The route took us through Dinant along the banks of the Meuse, the enemy spearhead was put at about 12 miles east but were being held up by the 3rd. Royal Tank Regiment astride their route. The traffic was very heavy and a breakdown meant being pushed off the road to prevent even bigger snarl-ups. We arrived at Namur in the early morning and the cookhouse was set-up in a disused garage, each platoon were working separately as usual; but the work this time was a combined effort; the platoons were scheduled to work in shifts to prepare a large railway bridge for demolition in case it became necessary, the bridge was not unlike the Tyne bridge at Newcastle. The work went on through the night of the 22nd. and was completed by the morning of the 23rd. An Armoured Squadron arrived to take over leaving us free to return to base. There had been little chance of sleep in the past 3 days; but my worst memory was going back and forth over the bridge with Charlie carrying hay boxes of hot soup and tea with the river about 40 feet below between the sleepers.
We arrived back in Wesembeek in the evening of the 23rd.nicely in time for Christmas, the villagers were pleased to see us back and learning that the Germans were being held. The weather had been cold and snow was around in the hills but on New Years day it cleared up and gave the air forces a chance to go into action.
The Luftwaffe appeared early after daybreak on New Years Day to attack the airdromes around Brussels hoping to catch the Air Forces asleep but they were 15 minutes too late the Mitchell bombers had already left on their raids. Some of the fighter- bombers passed very low over the village one was so low we were able to see the pilots head, but the order were given not to open fire and draw there attention onto the village. Our next job took us to Eecloo.

EECLOO (Belgium) Camp 38
January 4 to 6, 1945

A small town in northern Belgium 5 or 6 miles from Bruges, a small Bailey bridge had to be dismantled for transporting to the Dutch border. Work began after darkness fell and meantime two of us had crossed the bridge and got chatting to a resident who spoke good English; he asked us back to his home for a coffee and to meet his wife and two children, they all spoke English well. We had seen a gap in the houses opposite and asked what had happened, he said a B52 bomber had lost an engine which crashed through the house and the plane came down just clear of the town. We set off back to camp not knowing the bridge had gone, the only alternative was go across on the lock gates, fortunately there was a guide rail to help but with the water 20feet or more below it was a little scary. The next move was to Holland.

SAS-VAN-GENT (Holland) camp 396th. January 6 to 7, 1945

A small canal port just inside Holland north of Gent; once again it was to take down a small Bailey bridge and load it onto transport to go to Walcheren Island. On returning to Wesembeek I had to go into Brussels for dental treatment, on returning I was posted to HQ for cooking until the next move came on the 17th.

S鈥滺ERTOGENBOSCH (HOLLAND) camp 40
January 17 to 18 1945

This was an overnight stop in the town for the platoons to unite into a company convoy and to move after dark to the next job.

ORTEN (Holland) camp 41
January 18 to 20 1945
Yet another small village about a mile and a half from the river Maas and within range of the German artillery.
We took over a badly damaged school to get some shelter from the wind and snow, a blizzard set in making the job of dismantling the half floating bridge even more difficult; it was loaded onto transport lorries and once more we were on the move.

HEEWYK (Holland) camp 42
January 20 to 26 1945
Once again a small village in the S鈥滺ertogenbosch area; this was a deception operation ready for operation Veritable, an attack by the Canadian 1st. Army towards the Rhineland. We spent the first night in a farmhouse, the next morning we moved on to some farm buildings in the grounds of a monastery. I left on the 26th. for home leave just as the real work was starting. I went via Tilburg to a Canadian transit depot; there we had to strip off for hot showers and then all new uniforms and underwear was issued. We had to transfer our insignia onto the new tunics which were the open neck type as worn by the Canadians and wear a khaki necktie. We sailed over night to Harwich and returned the same way and then on to HQ at Wesembeek arriving on Thursday the 9th. February. The next move was to Oss.

OSS (Holland) camp 43
February 27 to March 1, 1945
A small town near to Nyjmegen, the company was on road works leading up to the bridge; we were billeted in a school. The day after we moved out it was hit by an off course doodlebug; good luck was still with us.

HUISSELING (Holland) camp 44
March 1 to 10, 1945

Another small village close to the Grave Bridge; the company was given 72 hours to resurface the bridge and the abutments with a layer of concrete. This was part of the preparations for the Rhine offensive and also for the arrival of Churchill and some top brass; it was completed on time and then on the move again.

LANGSTRAAT (Holland) camp 45
March 10 to 15, 1945

Our billets were in houses on the outskirts of the village, the road led on to the German border; the company was employed on clearing an area for an ammunition dump, this involved some mine and booby-trap clearing followed by road works. On leaving we stopped at Veilingbeek to cook the midday meal in the main street, there were no buildings safe to enter. At 2pm. we crossed the border into Germany moving on towards the Rhine, we passed through the ruins of Cleve, bulldozers had made a roadway through the rubble it was a wasteland.

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