大象传媒

This is an edited version of an interview by Robert Charles Bulpitt on March 16 2004. The original recording and full transcript are held in the Wessex Film and Sound
Archive, ref. BAHS 102.and103. Copyright Basingstoke Talking
History

I was 24 when I was called up in 1939. I lived in the Village Hall, Sherfield and worked at the Mill. When I told Mr Hay, the boss who ran the mill, that I was registered he said 鈥� You won鈥檛 be called up Bob鈥� It was because we made animal feed and flour for bread. The next thing I knew I was called up. I went to Aldershot for a medical, they wanted me, and so I went.
I was a bit frightened at first. I went to Woolwich Arsenal first, to do my training and I was there about six months. They give you a rifle. We went on the shooting range then out to our different units. I went to the Royal Army Ordnance Corp: they did ammunition stuff mainly. I went to Croydon for training and had to pass out as mechanic. We used to go out on Richmond Common to drive the Bren Gun carrier and things like that. I passed out and was attached to the 2nd Army Middlesex Regiment to do repairs on vehicles. I was made up as a driver and had to drive the recovery lorries. On the recovery vehicle I had a welder with oxy-acetylene equipment to cut people out of vehicles and an electrician as well as another mechanic. When the Middlesex did not want us anymore they moved us to Leicester. People travelling from Scotland to the coast down here would get half way and breakdown, so we were doing all round recovery. We were then LAD 19th Detachment Royal Signals but 2 October 1942 they reorganised and made a new regiment: REME, Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, so I was in a different regiment.
We kept on moving all over the place, one time I was at Cheltenham Race Course sleeping on the stand, we had no beds and used our respirators as pillows, sometimes you never had a blanket. On manoeuvres we used the oxy-acetylene equipment to brew tea.
Once on manoeuvres we were supposed to be Germans who had landed at Dorchester and we were coming up round Basingstoke to take London. We stopped at Stratfield Saye the first night and I nipped home, it was just down the road. The next day near Leighton Buzzard we were captured and they treated us like we were Germans. We had half a mug of tea and biscuits. I heard one of the blokes say that they were being pushed back so we made off for our own lines. In the first lane we turned into there were guns turned on us and they told us we were dead. I said, 鈥淣o, we鈥檝e been captured, we鈥檙e going to the cages鈥� so they let us go. My mate and I made it back into our own lines. After that we both decided to head for home. I was not there very long when the Police arrived and told us to move along so we went back to Dorchester. No more was thought of it.
After that we were training, moving all over the south of England. We thought the invasion would be Dover to Calais, everybody did, we didn鈥檛 know. One day we were all ordered on to trucks. We thought this was it- D Day- Tunbridge Wells, Dover, straight across. We went down the road to the railway station where we were weighed, then went back again. That is how it kept on. Another night we were down in Frome, Somerset and there was a 鈥榗all to arms鈥�: the Germans were on the way over, so we went down to the coastline. They reckon they set fire to the sea that day, I don鈥檛 know if it is true.
It kept on like that until the real thing did happen; we were at Tunbridge Wells then. We were never told from first to last but when we moved out that morning and we saw the bombers and all going over we knew it had started but we were never told officially.
I got on a barge at Gosport. We had been training for the barge months before and waterproofing our vehicles. We were going through the Thames and I used to go down there and pull vehicles out. Their exhaust had to go up where it had been in the water and they also found out seawater corrodes brakes shoes. In the real thing you had to pull screens over your brake shoes so they didn鈥檛 corrode. To waterproof your vehicle you had to put stuff like plastiscene on the plugs and everything. I was working to the last minute before I left so I never did mine but I didn鈥檛 go through a lot of water. There were only two vehicles on my barge. You had to back on to the barge then when you got to France the flap went down and that was it. They didn鈥檛 send all the unit in one boat because if the boat was lost the unit was finished. I was recovery so I had to go first in my unit to winch them off the beaches. Although the crossing had been postponed because the channel was rough, when I went it was lovely.
The first thing you did when you got over there was to dig a hole like a rabbit and get in it. I didn鈥檛, I had my recovery lorry and I used to get underneath it. Some of them had tents up. Once when a plane came over, machine gunning all along this bloke went running into his tent! We laughed afterwards!
We were usually a bit behind my brother Vic in the Hampshire Regiment who was at the Front. We were a little way in from the beaches and I wanted to know where they were. I knew what was called 鈥渢he postman鈥� and he told me they were only just down the road. I jumped in a jeep that night and went down to see him. He had a shock when I turned up to see him over there!
One time over there the Sergeant next to me said 鈥淕o on Bob鈥� I said 鈥淚 shan鈥檛 go no further, things have got too hot for me, I shan鈥檛 go no further鈥�. I was remembering the exercise where we had been captured and was thinking 鈥橶hat if we all got captured, that was only fake but this is the real thing.鈥� It was a good job we did stop because we had gone too far, we had gone through the lines.
The Germans kept pushing us, or trying to. The Yanks went that way, we were in the middle and the Canadians went that way. We were told to hold them at all costs and all that time we were getting stuff like ammunition over, everything that we wanted, ready to push forward. No good pushing forward and then you run out of ammunition. Then one night so many planes came over, we were just outside Caen. Bomb, bomb, bomb: they were bombing Caen. Then that was it. The Yanks went that way; we went this way. The Germans struck at the Yanks and were going to try and cut us in half and this stopped everything. The Yanks let them go through and asked Montgomery for help to stop them and that was the Armoured Division. They reckon Montegomery never went fast enough. The Yanks went faster than we did, they left the Gap open too much; there were about 40,00 Germans got out the Falaise Gap, so they said. The worst I ever saw was the Falaise Gap. Dead Germans piled high, thousands of them, and horses.
We went through and after that it was more or less plain sailing until we got to the 鈥楤ridge Too Far鈥� in Arnhem. The Germans were waiting for us but eventually we got through.
All the bridges over the Rhine were blown and so there were pontoon bridges, one up and one down over the Rhine. I did not like the pontoon bridges. I went over the Rhine with my recovery vehicle and then found I was missing this other load. I had to go back. I got to the bridge to go back over the Rhine and an old Yank was there 鈥淲here are you going brother?鈥� he said.
鈥淚鈥檓 going back over there,鈥� I said
鈥淚鈥檝e had dozens go in the drink today and you鈥檒l be next鈥� he said.
I already had one up behind me on the recovery but I said, 鈥淒o or die, I gotta go鈥�. We had no door on the cab, just canvas. I rolled the canvas back ready to jump in case I went over, and then went on.
Once I went outside, I was attached to the Second Army Signals and we were in this big forest putting a line down for Montgomery. We found a bloke who was stuck and I had to go and pull him out. When we came out of the forest I didn鈥檛 know where I was and I said to my mate 鈥淲hich way do we go? I think we鈥檒l go right 鈥榯il we get back to our unit.鈥�
鈥淣o fear Bob鈥� he said 鈥渢urn left.鈥� I thought perhaps we had to go through the lines; anyway we turned left. Good job we did: he was right and we found our own unit.
There were no signposts; there were none over here either. They could not put the names up so you just followed a route. If you wanted to go to Reading for example, you would be told to follow Diamond or Club route and they put up cards with the signs on. They were pretty clever in lots of ways. On the lorry there was a big white star on the top and the sides so our air bombing people knew not to attack us.
I did have to defend myself with my gun at times. We took a lot of prisoners but just put barbed wire round them and let the Army official see to them, we kept on going forward.
When we first got over there we had no bread for two months. When we did get bread it was only half a slice. First there were just biscuits and we were lucky to get them. Then we had compis. These were cardboard boxes with A, B, C and so on marked on them. If you could get hold of a 鈥楤鈥� box there was pretty good food in there, all different, things like corned beef. A big container lorry brought drinking water. When we first went over they gave everybody a piece of toilet paper and a box of matches.
We got into Berlin, the war was sort of over then but we had nothing to celebrate with, and I was exhausted like the rest. Very few got to Berlin. We were there for the Potsdam Conference. The Air Officer said we were very lucky that we had seen history in the making and I took many photographs including a march past for Churchill.
There was a 10 o鈥檆lock curfew and we had passes written in Russian and English. If you gave them to a Russian he would hold it upside down: they didn鈥檛 know what they were reading.
A lot of blokes were getting things Hitler signed. I didn't, I got medals, Iron Crosses and all that. I went down to the Chancellery and there were all these medals in their boxes ready to give to Germans. I gave them away.
The old Germans were better than anybody, better than the Dutch and the French. The French didn鈥檛 want to know us. Of course they didn鈥檛. Where we went there were fields and fields of corn, they were feeding the Germans. They didn鈥檛 want us there. The Belgians weren鈥檛 too bad and they liked the RAF bomber. The Americans just dropped the bombs anywhere and came back. They used to call us 鈥淭ommy, Tommy, bang, bang鈥� when we dropped our bombs right on target.
All the kids in France, Germany and all through Holland used to come round us 鈥� Have chocolate? Give me chocolate.鈥� 鈥滲iscuit for me, chocolate for Mama and cigarette for Papa鈥� In Holland it was different, they used to say 鈥淐igarette for money.鈥�
I was demobbed in Germany and was on a train with wooden seats all day. We came back through Holland, then Brussels to Calais. When we were here we had to go to Woking to be supplied with our Demob suits. Then home.
We were lucky to come back because a lot more didn鈥檛, a lot of blokes I was with didn鈥檛.

Copies of Bob鈥檚 photographs are in held in the Willis Museum,Basingstoke

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