大象传媒

On each side of the road were French soldiers laying mines and blowing down trees on the roads, so it seemed like we were the last to come through. I thought that we would take over defences or take up positions but I was wrong. Lorries were waiting to pick up the troops and we lost our passengers, then we were off again, this time towards Poperinghe. About three miles up the road we were waved off the road to the side of a big house, we switched off and went into the garden. Jeff called us together and told us we were in reserve, and we would be able to get our heads down for an hour or two. Before we did, there were guns to be cleaned, tracks tightened, petrol, oil and water checked and topped up. We set to with a will, I could not remember when I had last slept properly, and when we had finished I pushed up the stairs looking for a bed. I found one at the top of the house, and took off my equipment, rifle against the wall, and flopped onto the bed, I remember it seemed like heaven, and off I went.
I guess it was about a couple of hours later that I woke feeling that something was heavy on my legs, there was, about half the roof of the house was on the bed and me. I was choking in the dust as I shifted some of the rubble and scrambled off the bed. Heavy boots came stamping up the stairs and shouting for us all to fall in outside. I grabbed my kit and rushed down the stairs and into the garden, Jeff shouted for us to follow him, and off he went in his carrier. We got as far as the regiment, then he stopped and went running to a conference, we gathered round the Sergeant, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening Sarge? I thought we were in reserve鈥�. He told us that the Germans had broken through the French and we were to plug the hole, but where, he did not know until Jeff came back with his orders. I looked around as we waited, we seemed to be getting a lot smaller all the time, I could see two Sergeants and nine crew including me, and that meant that six carriers and crews had gone, killed or missing.
Jeff came back and talked to the Sergeants showing them on a map what he thought was the area of breakthrough, then he went to his carrier and spoke to his driver. Vic, our Sergeant called us together and told us we were moving up with the brigade and we were in reserve, but we had heard that before, so we expected to be in the line when we arrived. So off we went, Jeff in front and me behind, we could see the lorries with the troops in about a mile in front of us and I saw them turn left, which was very funny, as we were going towards Poperinge and I thought we were going back to our prepared positions, which meant, as usual, we had no idea what was happening. We passed Poperinge, complete with roadblocks, and followed the road to Ypres, everything stopped and the troops got down from the lorries and began to march. Jeff was in conference with the C.O. but not for long, he came back, gathered the Sergeants and spread out a map and told them what he wanted done. Our Sergeant, Vic we called him, got into his carrier and shouted 鈥渇ollow me!鈥� and shot off towards the troops and overtaking them, passing between the lines of marching troops each side of the road. We must have done about two miles before he stopped, then he called the Corporal and me to his carrier, got down and spread out his map on the front of his carrier. I was to go to the right, until I came to the road to Tourcoing, and there I was to wait for Jerry to appear, then watch and observe, then report back to Vic. If he had left then I was to go back to where we had left the regiment, so off we went.
The road when we came to it, was a secondary road a top a small hill, and about half a mile towards Tourcoing was a crossroads, going I suppose, to Roubaix. So, after putting the carrier where it could not be seen, but where we could pull away quickly, we lay in the grass. Pinkie, that was my mate, kept watch with a pair of binoculars that I had taken from a German Officer who had got in the way of a bullet, while I had a sleep.
It was a lovely day, the sun hot on my back as I lay face downward and went to sleep, but it seemed only minutes before he was shaking me awake, he wanted me to brew up. So I took over while he went back to the carrier and done the brew up, we had a tin of 鈥楤ully鈥� with our tea, then he stretched out while I kept watch.
I remember I was getting worried about the time, when I heard the sound of a motorbike, and sure enough about two minutes later I saw a German motorbike and sidecar coming towards the crossroads. I had seen enough pictures on the news reels at the pictures, to know that there was a machine gun on that sidecar, and that the motorbike was a B.M.W. a transverse twin that had won the T.T. about two years before. They were all alone on the road, and when they reached the crossroads they stopped. The bloke in the sidecar pulled out a bottle and had a swig before handing to his mate, who also had a swig. Then as I watched them, the driver took out a map, there was a lot of arm waving and pointing as they took turns drinking from the bottle and looking at the map.
Pinkie was asleep and snoring, so I put the palm of my hand over his mouth and nose, he woke up and made to rise, but I told him that Jerry was near which made him turn over and look through the grass at the two Jerries still drinking and looking at the map. Finally the driver threw away the bottle and put the map in his pocket, kicked the gear in and rode towards us. I grabbed hold of the Bren, and ran, stooping, about fifty yards back, Pinkie with me, and flopped down, loaded the gun and aimed at the crest of the hill. I heard Pinkie put one up the spout, then we waited, we could hear them shouting to each other over the noise of the engine, then first their heads appeared above the hill. I sighted on their heads, then waited until I could see the headlamp, then I fired a burst at the one in the sidecar. As soon as he fell back I moved my aim to the driver, Pinkie fired, he must have been on form that day, for the driver threw his arms in the air, and fell off the bike, the bike swerved and stopped in the ditch. All went quiet, then we were running to the bike, and I was firing as we ran, first at the one in the sidecar, then at the driver, so they were well and truly dead when we got to them. We laid them out at the side of the road, and Pinkie went back up the road to keep a lookout for any more Jerries. He shouted that it was all clear, and I emptied their pockets. Apart from the map and a few letters and cigarettes, there was nothing of any importance, what we did have though was a 鈥楲uger鈥� pistol and ammunition which I hung onto.
Now it was the turn of the sidecar to be searched, I called Pinkie and between us we lugged the outfit onto the road. They had plenty of food in tins, some of it labelled in French, so they had been looting, there was even some tins of 鈥楤ully鈥�, we loaded all of it onto our carrier. Pinkie went back to keep a lookout, and I mucked about with the bike, after a lot of fiddling I got the engine started, in gear, then I was off, up and down the road, changing up and down and really enjoying myself. I would go charging up to Pinkie flat out, stamping on the brake as he jumped out of the way. I could have played with it forever, I was zooming down the road winning the T.T. then I would lift the sidecar wheel off the road as I turned and zoomed back to Pinkie. Of course, he wanted to ride it, and I watched critically as he attempted to take the teeth off the gears, eventually he managed to engage the gears, and wobbled off down the road, the engine labouring in top gear, and disappeared round a bend in the road.
About five minutes later he came back with a carrier behind him, it was Vic, our Sergeant, so I gave a good imitation of a lookout, as he stopped, jumped out and came towards me, while Pinkie stamped on the brake, the engine still in gear, and the bike slithered to a standstill. I told Vic what had happened and gave him the maps and the letters, he checked on the dead Germans and then said we would all go back together. I went to ride the bike but he said he would ride it back, I showed him the gears, we had a last look round and then we were off. The regiment had dug in and were a bit jittery, they saw a Jerry bike, and one or two rounds went off before they were stopped, Vic stood on the brake and it stopped dead, so we had to push start it to get it to go again. Finally we landed at H.Q. and then Jeff collared the bike and the maps and letters, saw the 鈥楲uger鈥� and took that as well, for the Intelligence Officer he said. And that was the last of the B.M.W I thought was mine.
I was on and off guard all night, but nothing happened until morning, then there was a flap on. Jerry had bypassed us in the night and was now moving round the back of us, we were sent off straight away to new positions, the C.O. with Jeff in his carrier, and us behind, the troops marching each side of the road to meet the lorries which were to follow us.
After we came back to England, it became clear that Intelligence had got it all wrong. The Germans hadn鈥檛 bypassed us, they were still coming towards us, it was the Germans pushing up from Calais that had been reported as behind us. It seemed we were surrounded, of course we didn鈥檛 know that then, so there we were, haring off to new positions, thinking we鈥檇 have to fight our way through Jerry to join up with the rest of the British Army. Perhaps if we had known the truth, we would have gone round the bend.
It was late afternoon when we reached our destination, a small village, The three carriers that were left went under cover in a farm. The first thing to do was to make tea, we lit a fire, and put a 鈥楧ixie鈥� on it, then went outside to have a smoke.
I remember I had lit my 鈥榝ag鈥� and was holding my match for one of the others, when there was a sudden crack. 鈥淪nipers鈥� we said and went to ground and waited, but nothing happened, so we crawled over to the farm buildings, stood up and looked around. All was peaceful, which was as it should be, for we had been told that the Germans had not yet reached our positions, they were still some miles away and regrouping. So it looked as though the 鈥楩ifth Columnist鈥檚鈥� were having a go; we had our tea, then I was detailed for advance guard.
Vic took me down to the last house in a terrace, and my post was in the back garden behind a hedge. I stayed there all night with my Bren gun, dozing and waking with a start if I heard anything. I had now reached the point where I could awake at the slightest sound, I suppose I was a bag of nerves, and so at last the dawn came, and with it our friend, the sniper.
As I say, I was in the back garden of a house, my Bren was poking through the hedge. I had a good field of fire as the field in front of my hedge sloped down to a railway line on an embankment. Beyond that the field continues to a small wood, the wood being about 400 yards away, so to my mind, that sniper had to be in the wood, as our lads were manning the embankment. So why was he after me, when the lads were much nearer, but after me he was. The path at my side continued up to the back door of the house and was separated from the garden by a row of upended bricks. Throughout that morning he smashed most of those bricks, and had me moving the gun up and down the hedge trying to pinpoint him. There was a rabbit in a hutch under the house window, and finally he shot that, I remember it squeaking, running round the hutch and then drumming with its back legs as it died. By this time the lads were firing at some targets to their right that I could not see, so I let loose a magazine at the woods, more in anger than anything else, for I still had not seen him.
I waited, but nothing happened, so I thought I would use the house toilet which was outside the back door. I ran over the garden, along the house, and straight in the toilet. When I had finished, I began to dress myself at the same time I leaned forward to pull the chain. There was a terrific crash and the roof of the toilet came down on my back, I opened my eyes to semi-darkness, and then I realised that my head, in ducking, was in the bowl of the toilet, and what was worse, I could not get it out. It took me some time before I found that it was my steel helmet that was stopping me from extricating my head from the toilet bowl. I undid the chinstrap and lifted my head from the bowl, dislodging a few tiles as I did so, then I lifted the seat and recovered my helmet. It puzzles me to this day how I got my head in that bowl, yet could not get it out again.
I looked up at a blue sky, the roof had gone completely, around me was a mound of bricks and tiles so I had quite a job removing them before I could open the door to get out. I managed it at last and ran towards my gun, I had only got half way to my gun, when a machine gun opened up and a hail of bullets sailed over my head. I fell to the ground at once and wriggled like an eel to a home made shelter at the bottom of the garden. I went through the entrance like a rocket straight into about a foot of water twisted round and peeped out the bottom of the entrance. I looked at the hedge that the shots had come from, it was a thin hedge and there was no sign of anyone there, I waited a minute or two but there was no movement at all. I was really frightened now for if that was Jerry firing at me, then I was surrounded, it also meant that the rest of the carrier platoon had been killed or captured and I was on my own. How else would the Germans have got there?

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