大象传媒

The only time we left camp was while training, so no one could talk to any civilians outside. So in camp the films were changed every night and we had a very good canteen. The next two of three days were just routine with arms drill, PT and games and a little gun drill. On Sunday 25th February 1945 we were packing kit again and we had a FFI inspection. We had hill climbing, drill and 鈥渟hoot to kill鈥� exercises during the next two or three days.

On Thursday 1st March 1945 we loaded all the heavy baggage onto the 15cwt trucks and in the evening after having a shower, I went to the cinema to see 鈥淪ong Of The Open Road鈥�. We left Salerno rest-camp in the morning and embarked at Naples on the USS General W P Richardson. We did not sail until Sunday 4th March 1945 as units of the Sea Forths and Canadians had to come on board. On the Saturday I was given a very cushy job while we were on the ship. It was in the galley and I had four other lads from the battalion to help me. We had lots of food and it was very good. It was 7.30am when we left Naples and at about 3pm we passed the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. We arrived at Marseilles on Monday 5th March 1945 but did not go into harbour until the following day. The Cameronians were the first to disembark and we left the ship at 2pm and went to a transit camp. Wednesday 7th March 1945 (my 25th Birthday) was a very cold day with very strong winds. The Canadians left the ship that day and we were now on French soil. We packed our kit and left the camp at 1.30pm on the 8th March and boarded a train that left at 7pm. We travelled all night, stopping early on Friday morning at Lyon where we had breakfast. During Friday we passed through St Germain and several other small stations. The train travelled very slowly all through the night again and all day Saturday. During the afternoon we stopped at Laon and had a hot meal. Two trains loaded with American troops going south passed through Laon while we were having our meal, so of course, they came in for a lot of leg pulling and mickey taking from our lads. On Sunday morning we passed through Lens and Mafford and had breakfast at Ath. After leaving Ath we passed through Lessines, Geerardsbergen, Zottegem and the the cities of Ghent and Oostalker before reaching our destination at Lockeren in Belguim. Our billets at Lockeren were very good and so were the people. While I was there I went on a Signals course for two weeks and we carried on with normal training with guard duties and fatigues. The Battalion started sending leave parties to 鈥淏lighty鈥� as soon as we got to Lockeren and Gilb Mullins was on the first list on Tuesday 13th March 1945. On admin days we could go on pass to Brussels or Ghent, so I hitchhiked to Brussels once with George Halesworth and Jimmy Doyle. I finished my Signals course with a written test on Saturday 31 March 1945 and in the afternoon I packed by small kit ready to go to England for seven days鈥� leave.

I was really looking forward to this leave, to seeing my mum and dad, my sister and two of my brothers and their wives and to seeing England again in early spring. The leave party was paid out and after tea I went over to the canteen with Lofty and 鈥淧op鈥� Comer for a couple of hours. It was midnight before we left by truck for Ghent station and when we got onto the train it pulled out and travelled all night. We arrived at Calais in the morning with a gale blowing and the seas so rough that the channel steamers were unable to cross. In the transit camp we were given a very good meal and issued with bedding. Each leave party was placed in huts and given different coloured cards according to the time they were to cross over when the weather improved. We were free to do as we wished in the transit camp. We could sleep, read, write, play cards or darts, go to the canteen when it was open or go to the camp cinema which was continuous from 11am. The wind dropped towards mid-day so the boats were able to sail again. Our party crossed over to Folkstone at 4pm and I was at my brother Ray鈥檚 Farm at Stelling Minnis at 9pm. How nice it was to meet them all again and to meet Mollie for the first time. Good old Mollie, she was such a nice kind cheerful and lovely person and we all had so much to talk about. I also went over to see my brother Ted and his Wife Kath and their first child Valery at their farm at Woodnesborouh near Sandwich and on to see mum and dad at Egerton. Time just flew on that leave and it was soon time to return to Lockeren.

I reported back to a transit camp at Folkstone at 10.30pm on Tuesday 10th April 1945. I crossed over to Calais at 3am and travelled all that day, arriving back at Ghent station in the early hours of the next morning. When I got back to billets in Lockeren on the 12th April 1945 I had a very easy day as it was company admin day. On Friday 13 April 1945 I was on 24-hour guard duty and the Battalion were busy loading up ready for a move on the next day. Revallie was at 2.30am and we moved off at 5am. We crossed the river Weser and arrived at a harbouring area at Blekede in Germany at 12.30. From then on we moved forward taking up positions and firing at the enemy, sometimes supported by tanks and flame-throwers. We moved forward very fast now, as there was very little resistance. Sometimes we met little groups of Hitler Youth or young soldiers but they did not put up much of a fight. It was nothing like what we had to contend with in Sicily and Italy. We were heading towards north-west Germany and Denmark and when we got as far as Lubeck, the German prisoners were pouring back towards us in their hundreds. One or two who could speak English told us that the War was now over but we really did not believe it.

On 8th May 1945 we were told officially that all hostilities with Germany were over and it was VE day. We had no great celebrations to mark the end of the War with Germany, but Oh! what a relief it was. Peace again for better or worse, no more murderous battles or air raids; no more anxious moments awaiting at attack or the sight of men women and children broken in body and spirit; or the terrible sight of old people and young, hungry and alone, praying to God in fear.

We moved around Germany for a while. We went to Wismar in the north-west where we were billeted in a former German flack barracks and our duties here were to check all barges and their contents and movements on the canal which ran through the town. After a short stay there we moved to the mansion of a former German armaments chief at Tangehutte. Battalion HQ and some of the rifle companies were in the next town called Tangemund. Our duty here was to look after displaced persons. Poles, Latvians, Russians etc. They had been used as forced labour by the Germans. We had plenty of guard duties but we also had time to do maintenance on our carriers and a little sport and other duties. German prisoners of War worked in the camp, keeping it clean. They also had to issue clothing and food to the displaced persons and some did the cooking and waited on us in the mess room. Every day top ranking Russian officers came with interpreters and held discussions with our senior officers. On Saturday afternoon we were told to pack all our kit and prepare for a long journey, as this area was to be handed over to the Russians as it was in their zone. We moved out early on Sunday morning and arrived in the British zone in the late afternoon. The little town we stopped at was called Kries-Einbeck and the houses we were billeted in were large and very classy with electricity, bathrooms and modern sanitation. I enjoyed it there very much. We carried on with our normal military duties, gun drill, guards and arms drill, some driving instruction and the usual fatigues. The Battalion soon got a canteen going and called it 鈥淢oonrakers Club鈥�. We were able to buy all NAAFI supplies, fags, cooked suppers, sandwiches and cakes, sweets and chocolate when available. Outside in the grounds they started a beer garden. There were hot showers in town for troops only, a good cinema and theatre and a first class photographer where we could buy film and have it developed. Of course there was plenty of ceremonial parades and even ceremonial guards mounting in the main square of the town. This was mainly to impress the Germans. These parades were accompanied by the Battalion band, and often in the evenings, the band played alone in the square or at Tattoo.

In the summer some of us in the Mortar and Carrier platoons were sent to Pein to help get in the hay and harvest on the German farms. This was a lovely change for us who were lucky enough to go. Lofty Burgess and Jimmy Doyle and a few more of the drivers in our platoon went with me. We had no parades or guards to do and each day we went in our carriers to different farms to help get in their harvest. We also helped in many other jobs on the farm. I found the Germans were generally very decent and they gave us cooked vegetables and fresh milk. It was lovely driving along the autobahn, a perfect road for a long and speedy journey.

After I had been there only ten days, I received a message from Battalion HQ recalling me to Kried-Einbeck. I had been granted 28 days鈥� Agricultural leave to help my brother Ted, on his farm at Sandwich, to get in his harvest. The land girls were all going home and prisoners of War were being repatriated. I must say I was very excited to be going home for such a long leave and when I told Lofty, Jimmy Doyle, 鈥淧op鈥� Comer and all my mates in the platoon they were very envious and pulled my leg a lot. They said I was just a civvy attached soldier. I did not know it at that time, but this was to be the end of my ARMY service and I was never to return to Germany or my Battalion again.

I would not have missed those six years of service during the War, the wonderful comradeship with such a smashing bunch of lads. They really were great and I shall remember them always. Before my 28 days leave was over another 28 days was granted. My brother had applied, and this he did several times. In March 1946, while I was still at home on leave, my ARMY release papers came and I had to report to the 15th Holding Battalion Depot at Gloucester for a medical examination and then traveled on to Woking to get de-mobbed. I was a civilian again and was soon to return to the job that I had been in before the War in the construction industry.

The world was at peace, and so was I

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