´óÏó´«Ã½

Things Remembered, written by Ken Muncer

Submitted by Elvira Bridges

We learnt a lot in the Royal Engineers. How to build bridges. To know the different explosives. How to use Guncotton, Ammanol, plastic high explosives and Gelignite. The different types of landmine used by the enemy. The Tellermine, the S-mine and other stuff. The use of the Polish mine detector, the forerunner of today’s metal detector. We were also fully trained in the use of rifles, Bren guns and other armaments. Sounds like a lot, but we were getting an extra threepence a day! It was late 1942 and I was nineteen years old.
I well remember a battle course in Street, Somerset. Never heard of Clarks shoes before that. Never heard of ‘Scrumpy’ either, the very basic cider sold by the pint in earthenware pots. So much was new to me. Seeing Wells Cathedral. Marching through Glastonbury in full service marching order, or F.S.M.O.
We were trained in bayonet fighting, the use of hand grenades and all sorts. A lot of it was not new to me as I had originally trained with the Highland Light Infantry, at Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow. We were kept on our toes there.
However, not only did I learn about how to help win the war, I learnt more about myself and my fellow countrymen. Indeed, more about the country itself. Having been brought up in Kentish Town, Northwest London, I had not met many people from the North. The Geordies, the Scousers, the Scots or the Taffies from Wales. Also, we were kept busy doing various jobs in different parts of the country. Consequently, I learned of cities like Derby, Nottingham, Liverpool, Cardiff and many, many more places. To me, not only a training time, but a period of learning about myself and my country. It’s surprising how certain places and incidents stay in one’s mind. We often lived under canvas. I learned why you had to loosen guy ropes of a bell tent if it rained. I well remember hearing a nightingale for the first time in my life whilst on guard duty out in the country somewhere. Wonderful, didn’t get many of them where I came from.
Another time we were under canvas close to Edge Hill in Warwickshire, where a famous battle took place in the English Civil War. We did some manoeuvres with a troop of Paratroopers there. Don’t know who won. I expect they did. What I most remember about the place is doing church parade and going to a service in a lovely old church. We spent time in barracks in Aldershot. Guard duties and Blanco and button polish. Much the same at our official headquarter at Longmore in Hampshire. We were lucky that we spent most of our time away from spit and polish. I must stress that it does not mean that we were scruffy or ‘unsoldierly. Our N.C.O’s kept us up to scratch.
In the spring of 1944 we were posted to a camp in Sussex, not far from the coast. It was all sort of hush hush. Our mail was censored and no leave was allowed. Spent a lot of time doing route marches over the South Downs. More lessons in mine disposal and how to detect and create booby traps. We had the occasional E.N.S.A. concert. Helped to pass the time until the big day. Then it happened.
Our section, about thirty or forty of us were taken to Haywards Heath railway station, loaded on to a train and taken to Newhaven. It was early evening by the time we boarded the American Landing Craft, Infantry Large. Some of the Kings Own Scots Borderers were with us and I can still hear their bagpipes sixty years later. In one corner of the deck was a big pile of tinned food. Stuff we hadn’t seen for years, like tinned peaches. Some greedy beggars made themselves sick. Mind you, the choppy sea didn’t help. We were crowded down below with bunks to sleep in. When our boat bumped into another one during the night it did wake us up a bit. We reached the Normandy Coast quite late in the day. We missed the worst. Transferred to a small landing barge driven by a Royal Marine, carried in so far, then went ashore with water up to our waists, with our full gear on our backs and rifles carried over our heads. We also had with us a Bren Gun, with a box of special ammunition. The cartridge magazines were loaded with a mixture of ordinary bullets, some tracer and some incendiary. This was for use against aircraft. The Sapper carrying it dragged it through the water which rather messed it up. The next few hours are a bit hazy. I remember that we piled onto a lorry to be taken inland. Then the lorry broke down and we had to march back again. Other troops thought that a retreat had started. I slept that night in a slit trench and woke to the sound of a British fighter plane overhead. We spent time in Normandy. Apparantly the advance had not been as soon as anticipated.
We were kept busy repairing railways and roads. Shifting the odd mines and generally being useful. In a way it was a wonderful experience. The sight of all that shipping. The sound of the shells from HMS Warspite. Almost like a train going overhead. The swimming tanks, the Mulberry Harbour. Sights never to be seen again.
There were other bits. Like the bloke who went on to a beach before mines were cleared and had his foot blown off. The frightening sound of the German mortars. The body of a half buried German soldier whose boots had been stolen. Sometimes we would be working on something and a lot of shells would make us scatter. I saw our planes going over to bomb Caen, in what was allegedly a thousand bomber raid. I think that figure was reduced later.
I saw Canadian troops capturing Carpiquet Airfield. Quite memorable that. The biggest German aircraft was a six engine Condor. I saw one of them shot down.
Then came the breakthrough. At last our troops were moving forward. We went through Caen, which was in a terrible mess. Then onwards, passing fields with dead cattle, horses and burnt out tanks. Past Roen and on to Amiens. Here we were greeted by cheering crowds and bunches of flowers. It was really moving.
The good people of Amiens were overjoyed. The relief of France was well on the way.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.