大象传媒

I joined at Newtonhill on 3rd February 1938 at the age of 17 as a member of 鈥淐" Coy 517 Battalion whose headquarters were at Bucksburn, Coy HQ at Stonehaven.

We drilled and trained once a week for the larger part of the year and we had one weekend camp a year in the late spring. In 1938 it was at Lauriston Castle and in 1939 at Fettercairn.

I attended the first week only of the summer camp in 1938 which was termed 鈥楢 Mechanised Route March鈥�. This was around part of the Gordon country. I could only attend the second week of the 1939 summer camp at Dunbar and on this occasion I worked in the cookhouse.

In 1939 the Battalion was at double strength as a result of Hitler's war-mongering and the fact that conscription was introduced. We were then made into two battalions - the 5th and 7th, the latter having its headquarters in Banchory.

When general mobilisation was announced by the government and broadcast to the Nation at 4 p.m. on September 1st I was working some forty miles from home and my employer came and fetched me along with the two other carpenters and, when we arrived back, a Gordon colleague was there to inform me that we had to report at the Drill Hall Stonehaven at 9 a.m. the following morning, Saturday 2nd September. From there we were bussed to Banchory and billeted around the town in various halls, etc. Then on Sunday morning, 3rd September, we heard on the wireless "at 11 a.m. the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced that we were now at war with Germany鈥�.

Early that first week I was asked by 2nd Lt.H. Wilding to be his batman. Then we were off to Aberdeen transmitting station at Red Moss to relieve the guard who had been there for over a week (they had been called up earlier). After we completed our duty and returned to Company HQ the battalion started training in earnest.

During late September and early October the 5th Battalion had been sent down to Cove near Farnborough to form part of the new 51st Highland Division, preparing to join the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) in France, but they had quite a number of recruits who were too young to go into action and a few older men who had to be replaced. I was going to be 19 before the 31st December 1939 and, as this was the age you had to be before going into action, I was one of a draft sent to the 5th Battalion where I joined the Pioneer Platoon of H.Q. Coy.

We sailed to France in early February in awful weather. We landed at Le Havre and then boarded a train which took us inland to old barns with straw or hay to lie on. From there we moved in stages until we arrived at the Belgian border at a place called Point-du-Nieppe about 5 km. west of Armentiers in late March. We stayed there until we were sent to the Front north east of Metz to where the Maginot and Siegfried lines were furthest apart. This was the front line when Hitler began his offensive which ended the so-called phoney war.

I was lucky to be amongst the the first lot to get leave. On the morning of the 11th May my mother brought me a cup of tea in bed and told me the Germans had invaded Holland and Belgium - she and my father had heard it on the 7 a.m. news. I was due to start back that evening.

I arrived back at Battalion HQ late on Monday, 13th May to be informed that it had moved into the front line earlier that evening. During that night the Germans surrounded two platoons of D. Coy and one of C.Coy who were in a thickly wooded position. The enemy shelled our position most of the night and we were withdrawn on the night of the 14th to the rear of the Maginot Line.

After a few days we were put on trains back to base at Rouen. The journey took two days and nights during which time we were living on French Army food. I suffered from sickness and diarrhoea so was not in a fit state to start marching. My Sgt. Major Mackie got me on to one of the Cooks鈥� Trucks.

However the train had to go to another station to get all the vehicles off and after all the rest of the Battalion had gone and the train was still stationary it was necessary for me to relieve my bowels yet again, so I had to squat between two of the flat trucks carrying the vehicles. Soon the train started to move without any warning and on trying to pull myself on to the truck my left foot caught between two rails which was part of a set of points. I had no choice but to lie down while the train moved on. The first wheel on the truck took the skin off the outside of my leg from above the ankle three-quarters of the way up to my knee and and made a hole on the inside of my leg above the ankle. The hole was not too deep but my ankle quickly became badly swollen. I did have the presence of mind to push and got my leg free without any more injury before the second wheel of the truck got to my foot.

After the rest of the train had passed over me I got up and looked around. As there was no-one in sight I started to walk towards the goods yard exit. Two French soldiers appeared on patrol as part of the guard on a factory. Seeing me limping along as my injury was rather painful they took me to their guard room and woke their officer who could speak English. He interrogated me and luckily I had my Part 1 Paybook and also a letter from home in my pocket. (All my equipment was on the cooks' truck.) Fortunately this satisfied him and as they had a medical room there I had my leg dressed and was given a small brandy and a bed until their officer got up and took me in his car to the British hospital after 9 a.m.. I did manage to get my boot on my left foot but couldn't lace it up.

During that morning I could hear bombs going off not too far away and the hospital started to be evacuated. I was put on the last ambulance and travelled some distance to a tented hospital in the grounds of a chateau. After a few days' rest and treatment I was able to lace my boot up again as the swelling had gone down and I was in very little pain.

The atmosphere among the R.A.M.C. and mobile patients had begun to get very tense knowing that the war was going badly. All mobile men were paraded in front of the chateau and informed that the situation was critical as the German army was getting closer and the hospital had to be evacuated. As there were insufficient vehicles to take everyone they asked all those who felt fit to step forward. This I did and was sent on my way back to base at Le Mans by train. Once there the M.O. gave me three days excused duty. I have no idea what the date was.

After a few days of mounting tension as we were hearing about Dunkirk we saw the remains of the HD transport - mainly Seaforth - come into base. They had avoided encirclement at St. Valery but we were not allowed to make contact with them.

Then, one evening, we were told we had to be ready to move at 20.00 hours as we were about to go into action. This happened on the first and third nights and on the second and fourth we were told we were going home. On the fifth night all fit men of the 512st were gathered together - about 400 - all under the command of a major in the Black Watch and informed we were about to move under cover of darkness, on transport, with the object of trying to prevent the enemy of crossing the Seine. This must have been the evening of the 16th June. The following morning before daylight we stayed in a cider orchard until mid morning before getting the order to move on.

As we were approaching the town of Liseux going north we met a French army convoy proceeding south, retreating. There was also quite a number of civilians fleeing from the advancing Germans. Suddenly three enemy aircraft appeared overhead going south, turning and coming back north above the road with machine guns blazing, creating havoc and a lot of casualities to the French convoy and civilians. We were lucky as we escaped without damage or injury.

The wireless truck with our convoy was given instructions to turn west at the first road junction on the outskirts of the town. We had only gone about 5 kms towards Caen when we were ordered to stop at a few of the farms adjacent to the road. This was Friday June 17th. All our transport with the exception of two cooks' vehicles and two wireless vehicles went. We stayed at these farms overnight with a continuous guard on duty and on the following day. Apart from guard duty we rested without knowing what was happening until late afternoon when there began to be lots of activity among the officers and the senior NCO's.

Later that evening we were all called together and told that the enemy was only 5 kms. away and there were only some two-pounder anti-tank guns between us and them and without transport. We had to rest until 3 a.m., get up, eat the sandwiches the cooks had supplied us with the previous evening as breakfast and we were to start moving at 4 a.m. in six sections - three to each side of the road and leaving some distance between each section. Transport would be waiting to pick us up at 8 a.m..

We were only given two ten minute halts in the four hours walking we did. As we passed through Caen the French police were posting notices in the town telling civilians that the Germans were approaching but to stay calm. We were only about 3 kms. out of Caen when a D. R. appeared from out of the trees on the left of the road at dead on 8 a.m.. He directed the leading section section into where he had come from which was a side road - there was our promised transport which we boarded very quickly and moved off in the direction of Cherbourg at considerable speed.

Between midday and one p.m. we left this main road and pulled into a large farmyard with a lot of large open barns where we were instructed to put our kit and rest. We were about to have our meal which the cooks who had gone in front had already prepared when the cry went up,"Grab everything, get back into the trucks as the enemy is approaching fast.鈥� Our drivers drove like bats out of hell towards Cherbourg. On the the outskirts of the town all vehicles were driven into fields where there were already a great many, all closely packed for setting alight or blowing up.

The major who was our commander got us all together and informed us that we had to fight a rear-guard action on the outskirts of the town with one anti-tank gun and our 303 rifles. A senior N.C.O. was put in charge of each small group. We had just taken up our positions when a Brigadier appeared from the town and asked us what we were supposed to be doing. When we told him he ordered us to get down to the dock at once and the sergeant to round up all the men and get them to the docks as there were boats waiting to evacuate us.

At the quay there was quite a large boat almost ready to sail as it was full. Behind it was a smaller one which we were able to board. It was registered to carry 1000 men and their personal equipment but we were told there were around 3000 members of the British army on it that night of the 19th June just after 10 p.m. French time. Jerry tried to bomb us just as we were leaving the harbour. I slept on deck under the fo'scle and woke up to a lovely morning with the ship anchored in Poole Bay along with a number of others.

During the morning small boats crewed by sailors with Army officers on board came around each ship in the bay to find out the numbers of army personnel in order to arrange billets for us all. It was midday before we were taken ashore at Poole on a Buckie Drifter whose crew supplied us with lots of tea on the way. There were buses waiting on the docks to take us to our accommodation which were junior schools around the area whose pupils had been sent home at midday and we (36 Gordons) were able to stay together in a school in Boscombe until we got a train back to Aberdeen and our barracks. There we were granted 72 hours leave - it was great to be back in Britain!

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