大象传媒

The ceremony was to take place at 10.00 hours and the date was June 6th 1944. That date was significant because it was the date we had received for the D-Day landings. The first thing which I did was to get a message through to Bill Smith at the pub in Irthlingborough and to Mr Bains at the shop in Far Cotton to inform them that I would be home in Northampton that same evening and explain the reason for it.
Whatever made me imagine that with all the tight security and cancellation of troop movements that with a pass made out only for London I would be permitted to travel as far as Northampton I don鈥檛 know but I took it for granted that I could get away with it in spite of the invasion alert.
It was fortunate that I did because otherwise Hilda and Dad would have been at a loss to know what to do and where to meet me as I had invitations to admit two into the Palace. As it turned out I had no difficulty whatsoever and boarded the Northampton train without question.
On the morning of the 6th the London train was late arriving in Castle station. At Euston we were really fearful of not being there on time, however thanks to our taxi driver who made excellent time we arrived at the Palace with just a few minutes to spare. Those allowed to enter through the Palace gates were just the three of us and the others waited outside.
I was directed to a side room where we service personnel gathered and were able to smarten ourselves up and where we were inspected for correctness of dress. When the ceremony was about to begin we were formed into service order with the Navy personnel leading, and entered the hall in single file. Here, on a raised platform an orchestra was playing, it was a splendid ornate room with elaborate red curtains and chairs, other furnishing were of gold and white.
As we filed in I noticed where Hilda and Dad were seated among the other visitors. When it was my turn, I faced the King who stood on a slightly elevated stand; I remember thinking as I stood before him that he was heavily made-up. When he pinned on the medal he asked me if I was off to fight again and when I affirmed that I was he said something like 鈥済ood man鈥�. Then we sat until all recipients had been likewise honoured, when all the assembled were then dismissed.
When we had left the Palace and had met the others waiting for us, the news vendors were shouting and the billboards were telling us that gliders had landed on the coast of Normandy; the news was that following the gliders there had been a very heavy support attack by the airforce and the first wave of assault troops were ashore and had established a small bridgehead.
I and those with me realised that when I left them I would soon be landing on that beach. Even so I felt fortunate to have been granted that opportunity to say goodbye once again to my newly-wed wife, my Dad and my friends before being once again involved in the appalling business of war.
To pass the time until boarding our respective trains we had a meal, went to the cinema travelled on the Tube, all of us a little subdued over what was happening over the Channel and then we made our partings. A few hours after my return to Bognor we moved out and drove our tanks down to Gosport harbour. On our way down to the coast hosts of people lined the route and through every town and village they stood, waving and cheering us on our way, enthralled by the terrifying spectacle of unprecedented military might, a great cavalcade of machines of war.
It was all so different from the atmosphere and attitude which I noticed of the people in London where they seemed quite subdued and appeared to me to have an air of everydayness about them, without a hint of anything out of the ordinary taking place. They went about as if to invade a continent was of no great importance to them.
We were unable to board the landing craft because the weather had deteriorated and it was unsuitable to set sail. We slept in the streets and front gardens of Gosport where the residents were most hospitable and plied us with food and drink. The following day we were able to embark and were on our way through calm waters, in spite of that there were some who suffered sea-sickness.
We all had a silent fear of what we would encounter when we drove off the barges because of the unknown depth of water which we would drive into; death in a submerged tank would not have been at all pleasant; it caused one to have a thought of those brave men who daily risked their lives in submarines.
There was no cause for concern at all, the water we set down in was no more than half-way up the superstructure and we drove through and onto the beach with comparative ease. Our beach went by the code name of Gold Beach.
The first town which we drove through was Bayeux which was almost completely destroyed and clear of the enemy. Some miles further on we made leaguer in a field. Overnight and all the next day the rain poured down continuously soaking through our clothing and dampening our spirits a little.
The downpour was cause for concern as the attempt to enlarge the bridgehead depended on more men, machines and supplies arriving and the weather hampered those plans. The territory which we were holding could not be expanded or defended against a German counter-attack if supplies failed to keep being poured in. Then the situation could become critical and there was always the possibility that we could be pushed back into the sea.
After a day or so we moved forward a short distance and later pushed into the bocage country where we found that there were miles of narrow roads and tracks running through the orchards; everywhere a dense growth of trees and as we moved on we passed by a column of cheering Americans hanging around their vehicles and urging us on, their guns being parked under the trees on the roadside.
When we halted they called us to take from them some crates of foodstuffs which they offered which we were only too pleased and grateful to accept. As always we were the 鈥榩oor relation鈥� and they knew their rations were superior to our own. There was a problem of where to store it but in the meantime and as we moved off it was carried on the rear behind the turret.
When we were stationary and had unpacked the contents it was found that there was tinned meat, fruit puddings, coffee, cigarettes and a considerable variety of other luxuries. Our own rations had greatly improved of late but could not in any way compare with those bounteous provisions.
We solved the storage problem by stacking the contents in the space below the turret ring, ensuring that in doing so that the turret was still capable to traverse the whole 360 degrees without jamming on the tins. I don鈥檛 know what attitude our senior officers would have adopted had they known of the method we had used to preserve our newly-acquired food supply. I did tell the crew though that should we receive a direct hit then we would probably die covered in sponge pudding and meat and gravy when the tins exploded.
There was no improvement in the weather; the rain persisted and was a hindrance to our advance. It also gave the enemy valuable time in which to switch his forces to the Normandy area having realised that this was the actual invasion and not a diversion. They had recovered from their initial surprise.
Most of the German leaders had believed that the Calais area was the most likely place where a landing would be attempted and for that reason had erected hundreds of miles of defences known as the Atlantic Wall. We heard that General von Runstedt was quickly bringing his forces into line to repel our advance.
Our Headquarters took up positions in an orchard and our troop of Honeys were out to reconnoitre the road; we cautiously leapfrogged for about a mile down what was little more than a lane, steeply-banked and overhung with hedges and trees giving us little chance to manouvere should we suddenly encounter danger.
Being well aware of what to expect from anti-tank guns, snipers or mines we paused and satisfied ourselves that all was clear before moving forward again. My troop leader turned into a farm track and parked among the buildings there using the upstairs of the house to observe the immediate surrounding area. I left the corporal under cover at the bottom of the track and myself moved on a short way further down the road; all seemed quiet and nothing seemed to be happening and then I parked under the overhanging branches of a clump of trees where I thought I could observe unperceived.
I thought that I heard a report of some sort while intent on searching with the binoculars but there was quite a lot of crackle and buzz of wireless traffic so that I ignored it, it was when we began to move forward again that I felt a sudden stab on my hand and saw the blood begin to flow. Whether the shot that was intended for my head hit me directly or was a ricochet I would never know;
I got the gunner to spray the trees with the Browning and ordered the driver to reverse to where it was possible to turn round and made our way back to the orchard where I thought I would be able to receive treatment. The hand didn鈥檛 feel too bad at all although the rag with which I had bound it was rather bloody.
Later, I understood snipers became somewhat of a problem and dismounted men would be used to clear the roadside before advancing with their tanks. The snipers鈥� objective would be to take out the commander so that the vehicle was out of control; I never found it practical to work 鈥榗losed down鈥�; it would have been safer to have done so but then impossible to observe.
Back at the orchard I approached a group around the squadron leader, showed them my bloodied hand and asked for treatment. I was told to get my tank stationed at the far end of the orchard as there were known to be six Tigers in the vicinity, after which I was to get myself off to the casualty clearing station which the sergeant-major pointed out to be about half-a-mile along a farm track. I found it to be housed in a white plaster-type farm building, little more than a cattle shed.
Outside on the grass were about a dozen injured, either sitting or lying there while the more serious cases were inside. An orderly cleaned up my hand which afterwards didn鈥檛 appear too bad. After I had sat there for some time shells began to fall in the area and close enough to shake the shed causing dirt and roofing debris to fall on those inside. There was a quick move then, the ambulances taking the stretcher cases out of the range of the guns.
The walking wounded were told to follow on accompanied by an Orderly for quite a long walk and stopped just inside the edge of a wood, there I asked if I could leave and go back to my unit but was told the doctor must see me first.
A short time after arriving there I was given a cup of cocoa which instantly made me sick. All of us walking wounded had our boots removed and were laid on stretchers on the ground; I think I then suffered from shock and there was a little pain. The shelling persisted but did not affect us. I was thinking of leaving and getting back to my tank but our boots had been removed so that was not possible. Then suddenly irrespective of our condition, whether serious or not, we all were put onto ambulances and driven to a small airstrip and loaded onto a plane.
I tried to point out that my wound didn鈥檛 warrant further treatment but the Orderly told me that orders were for all of us to be flown back to England. On reflection it was understandable that with the situation in the bridgehead still critical it was easier for treatment to be administered in England than to be an incumbrance and clutter up the small area of operations and of occupation. There was always the possibility that the Germans might force a breakthrough.
I hadn鈥檛 ever flown before and the aircraft was not very comfortable, just a bare interior. We were packed in fairly tightly and only a number found room to sit down. We were each given a sweet to suck and told the flight would affect our ears, so to keep swallowing. We landed at Bristol and then boarded a train for Lichfield in Staffordshire and became patients in Burntwood Hospital.
I sent a card to Hilda informing her that I had received a slight hand wound and of my present whereabouts. I was examined, it was found that the bone in one finger was splintered and the remainder cut and bruised. I received treatment daily and it soon began to heal.

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