大象传媒

6/10/44
After sitting down in the same leaguer after Bayeux for six weeks or more, during which time I hardly went out of the camp for more than four or five times, and rarely spoke to anyone outside military circles, we moved out, and have been on the move ever since. Two stops of a bare week apiece are the longest we have had, for the rest, it has been a case of moving every two or three days.

WHAT WAS CAEN

We left the Bayeux area with Caen (or what was Caen) an established possession, Tilly and Villers Bocage taken more recently, and the Americans commencing their break through in the Constances-St Lo sector. Just after we left, the commander of the Corps changed hands, General Horricks - an old desert man - taking over. His name was mentioned on the 大象传媒 not so long ago; if you heard it, you will know what unit is operating under him.

Our first few moves were quite short ones, about eight to fifteen miles, and it was the second move after Bayeux which took us into the area where there had been heavy fighting during the latter part of our long stay near that town. And what a contrast these next two or three weeks provided with the preceding period. Bayeux and a substantial area round it had seen practically no fighting and were almost untouched. In Bayeux, crowds of members of the Services jammed the pavements and streets hunting for a bargain in the shops, or a drink in the cafes. Between these and the endless convoys going through, the townspeople went about their shopping or their business with difficulty but great cheerfulness, and there was a pleasant atmosphere of animation about this historic little place, which gave us good reason to believe that its inhabitants were happy to see us there instead of "les Boches".

AS IF WAR DID NOT EXIST

In the country people carried on with their usual routine on the farms and smallholdings, much as though war did not exist, though the front line might be only six or seven miles away, and some of our bigger guns might be parked in their fields for a while making day and night hideous with their periodic thunder. From these solitary farmhouses we could obtain fresh milk and butter to ease our supperless evenings, for there was a considerable surplus of such products owing to marketing difficulties.

This area, then, was one of relative normality and peacefulness. The area we now entered was one of death and chaos. One might go along the dusty lanes for several miles without seeing a sign of life, outside of military circles, or without seeing a single house, whether standing on its own or as part of a deserted village, which was even remotely habitable. Instead, the aftermath of combat, whose details had become so familiar to us in Africa and Sicily, burnt out trucks and tanks at intervals along the road, slit-trenches and improvised dugouts along the hedges and ditches, odd graves or lines of four or five graves each with a rough cross surmounted by a steel helmet. Allied or "Jerry" shell holes and bomb craters, ruined buildings and damaged crops. And one other detail which was substantially new to us, the horrible sight and still more horrible smell of dead cattle rotting in the meadows under the hot sun - for about this time we were enjoying a spell of hot, dry weather, which, incidentally turned the narrow untarred country roads of Normandy into winding trails of choking white dust. Later the dead cows came to be regarded as a bit of a joke, though one hastily reached for a cigarette of a handkerchief when approaching them. But at first (and I suppose, basically all through) it seemed a pitiful thing that these poor animals should suffer in a purely human war, which they had done nothing to create.

A HEN AND CHICKENS

Then, after a few miles of complete desolation, one would come across an area which had escaped more lightly, where old houses were substantially intact, and their inhabitants, were endeavouring, rather dazedly, to pick up the threads of their daily life. Or there would be houses which were undamaged, but uninhabited and bearing every sign of a hurried evacuation. We leagured once around a farm-house which was in such a state. The house was shut up and guarded by our M.P's but through the window one could see crockery and food still on the table, in one room, cupboards and drawers hastily turned out in another, and so on. In the meadows, cows wandered about heavy with milk, hens and chickens were running wild around the house, and further a field there were some splendid crops waiting to be cut. One of our detachments found a tiny black kitten, and took it with them - as far as I know they still have it, and it is growing well. Another collected up a hen with seven young chickens, probably under a fortnight old. They traveled in a box-like compartment, intended for carrying a generating set, and were doing fine, despite our frequent moves. Unfortunately the truck was sent to another unit recently to the great sorrow of the driver. He was becoming quite attached to his little brood. The new owners of the truck agreed to take over possession of the hens and chickens also, |I believe.

DEAD HORSES AND CATTLE

The route we were following at this time was roughly as follows:- From a point a few miles from Bayeux in the Caen area, we went South, swinging slightly West of Tilly. Villers Bocage, Auray, Thury Starcourt, down to Conde. This was while the Falaise pocket was being formed and liquidated. In the leaguer before Conde we were establishing ourselves almost as Jerry had been cleared out, and from now on we were nearly always following hard on the heels of fighting troops. Only on the rather raere occassions when we stayed put for more than a couple of days, did we get far behind. When we left Conde the Falaise pocket had been liquidated, and very soon we entered country which was relatively lightly scarred. But before we left the stricken area to the horrible sight of slaughtered cattle in the meadows, was added the equally horrible sight of dead horses by the side of the road. In their retreat from the line which they had held round our bridge-head, the Germans made extensive use of horse-drawn transport and at various intervals in the latter part of the route indicated above, the R.A.F. or our advance tanks must have caught them out. Sometimes there was practically nothing left of the horses, and that little was often nearly rotted away. (I am not dwelling on these things merely to impress you with gruesome detail, I am simply truing to give you an accurate picture of things I have seen).

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