大象传媒

When I Was Wounded By Thomas Wilson

We were in a dutch barn, a German Mortar bomb came through the roof, dropped at our feet and never exploded. I put my steel helmet on and got under a hay cart and suddenly there was a terrific explosion due to another bomb coming through the roof. It explode about three feet away from me, the shrapnel went right through my steel helmet and hit me in the neck. The first bomb was picked up by my sergeant, Seargent Cooper, and he threw it out the door. Just about all the men in the barn were injured in some way.

My Brother George

My brother George, was captured at Singapore by the Japanese, interned in Changi Jail and worked on the Death Railway. This lasted for four years, luckily he survived to tell the tale and came back home to us in 1946. He now lives in Australia aged 85, still suffering from malaria.

The Ardennes

In great spirits, we drove back to Belguim near Ypres where we were billeted and given a wonderful welcome by everyone, two or three to a house all kit was unloaded and plans were made for Christmas festivities. Then on Dec 19th we were ordered to prepare to move, the reason being Rundstedt鈥檚 sudden offensive in the Ardennes. We repacked in a hectic two hours, and regretfully pulled out. We went to Namur, here we spent the night in a school and then pushed on to the River Meuse. We occupied a series of villages and were ordered to hold the important bridge of Namur at all costs.
On Christmas Day we passed through Celles where we saw the wreckage of German tanks and transport.
Our time was then spent going back and forth doing various tasks. Protecting the sappers whilst they built a bridge, and then moving on to Chapel Hill where there was heavy fighting and a lot of 6th Airbourne were killed. From there I was taken to Holland a place called Zon and I went to a special school of 6th Airbourne and SAS Sniper Team, this lasted about one month and then I went back to join my unit at Bree in Belguim where they had their Christmas dinner on the 1st of January. From then on I was with SAS and 6th Airbourne flying patrols. We went into enemy lines in a jeep, about 4 of us and we did as much damage as possible. Our jeep was protected by an anti-piano wire cutter to avoid de-capitation by the Germans. We were on flying patrol and we saw about 5 Germans and an Alsatian walking by the side of the wood, they came into sight and were stunned to see us. The dog made an attempt to attack but was shot by my sergeant as were the German soldiers. When we searched them we discovered they had no weapons and were only maintenance personell.

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