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PART. III

England Once Again

Since our arrival in England we heard that all the B.E.F were away in France and the country had fallen to the Germans….what was to follow? Would the Germans invade England? If they had done so we should have been in the same position as France, I think even worse because the Nazis hated us even more then the French people. The first place we visited in England was Eckington, near Nottingham, we were warmly welcomed and given clean clothes and food, but most of all we wanted sleep. A Dance was arranged for us, but there again our feet were a little too tender to take part in such a strenuous pastime. We stayed there for a few days and then moved to Brighouse, a small town in Yorkshire and were billeted in a school hall, every one was very kind to us and made us all very welcome, everything was free to the ‘Dunkirk’ boys. Unfortunately our stay there was rather short lived, we moved again to Hipperholm into ‘civvy billets’ but this time things in general were even better. Most of our time was spent taking various girls of the village out to tea etc, of course that was after duty hours, but the Army did not find us much work as the men were still slowly coming back to the unit, life in Yorkshire was very pleasant for us all. It was there that I had quite a good romance but I am glad to say that it died a natural death. Hornsea was our next port of call, another small place on the coast but the inhabitants made us very welcome. Here we had quite a lot of work to do, machine gun posts had to be erected along the coast, heavy gun positions were made ready to receive the guns. At Hornsea there is a large stretch of water where enemy seaplanes could have landed, this put forward another task for the Engineers, rafts were made and floated into position and anchored so there was no clear stretch of water left, life in those days was still enjoyable even if we were stationed miles from our home. I cannot speak too highly of the people of Yorkshire, they were grand to us all. One night most of the boys were getting into bed, a Sergeant came into the billet and told them to get dressed with full kit as there would be a ‘stand to’ all night, it appear that the word ‘Cromwell’ came through, this meant that the Germans were up to something. The men were rushed to their positions on the cliff top and were forced to stay there all night, the only incident being when one good soldier discharged his rifle at a cow crossing a field, apart from that nothing of importance happened. Normal guards were started again and there was rumours of leave, and on the whole time passed quickly for everyone.
We moved several times after our stay in Hornsea, to Selby, Hull and Bridlington, we went with all the kit and good billets. While we were in Hull we enjoyed the Air Raids and had quite a lot of work to do putting out various fires. Our Officer’s Mess was hit and one or two of the billets had some very close ones but life carried on as usual. Schemes and long exercises commenced in earnest and we moved all over the country, mostly during the very cold weather which was far from pleasant especially when moving in an Army truck. And so time went on until we were presented with embarkation leave which surprised us all, and to put the final touches to this news we were issued with Tropical kit….things were happening this time. We returned to Selby after that leave, I returned as a married man, but I will pass no comments about that. The normal routine continued, we were building Nissen Huts this time with the help of various Infantry units. The unit was split up around Yorkshire and the work carried on. Our final resting place in England before going overseas was Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire, another very small place but hospitality there was nil. The billet was an old Brewery but minus all the beer, snow came through the roofs and lay on the men’s bed and the floor; beer and cigarettes were unobtainable in the village. The only good piece of entertainment which I can remember was a day out in Oxford when several of us went to hear Sir Adrian Boult conduct the London Symphony Orchestra, an excellent performance and really enjoyed by everyone. At Chipping Norton everything was made ready for a definite move, leave was cancelled except for a short embarkation leave of seventy-two hours. Instead of giving the unit a longer leave we were made to march a good distance to hear word of wisdom from Mr Churchill, a few days after that we again marched to receive a visit from the King of England, this had no effect on the morale of the troops, they were feeling far from happy at the time. The time came to leave Chipping Norton, we left the billets under cover of darkness, nobody was to know that we were leaving, the train was waiting at the station and we all took up our respective places. The journey was quite interesting as the train rushed on through the North Country finally arriving at Liverpool. We then went to the dockside by transport and had the first sight of the ship which would take us away from England once again perhaps for five years this time, or even longer. I have covered a period of two years in a very few words but all the small details of Army life would not interest anybody. Another phase on our Army life was closing, we were sailing for an unknown destination and were wondering where we should eventually arrive perhaps after eight or nine weeks at sea. And so we said good-bye to England and boarded the boat.

…â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦..

Continued in Part IV

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