大象传媒

My Father, Sgt Truelove, had been in the Royal Horse Artillery for many years, but by 1939 he was a reserve soldier. When it became inevitable that Britain would be at war with Germany, he was once again called to the colours. He became a member of the 54th Battery Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, which was part of the British Expeditionary Force. He was retrained in the use of the 40mm Bofors Anti Aircraft gun and was responsible for the control and efficiency of the gun and also its crew.

The Regiment soon embarked for France and was then ordered to the Bethune/Arras area. Their remit was to provide anti-aircraft cover for the troops on the ground and the guns and all the crews were taken to their positions by the Battery Officer. My father was amazed to see that they were being taken past soldiers in trenches and also other soldiers in forward positions which were little more than scrapes in the ground. He soon realised that they would be in a position in front of the forward troops and he pointed this out to the Battery Officer. The Office rebuked him and said that this was to be the site for his gun.

They finally arrived in a farmyard on a forward slope looking across a wide valley and they made their guns ready. They also tried to make themselves as comfortable as they could in the deserted farmhouse while they waited for their orders. When action came, it came swiftly. Grey clad German infantry emerged from the trees across the valley and were supported by tanks.

At that period of the war, the tank guns were 40mm which was the same calibre as the Bofors gun and they fired an armour piercing round. Unfortunately, the Bofors gun was originally designed to shoot down aircraft made of aluminium, so the shells were made to penetrate soft skins. They were useless against the armour plated tanks.

My father ordered the gun crew into action and engaged the tanks, but they could see the shells exploding on the tanks and having no effect whatsoever. The tanks came on unchecked and were beginning to close in on the gun positions. Realising that they stood a distinct chance of being overrun and killed or captured, my father ordered his crew out of action and notified the rear link operator of his intentions.

The crew packed all the equipment into the Quad 4x4 gun tractor, hooked up the gun and tried to start the motor. Despite all their efforts the motor refused to start and very soon the crew were coming under machine gun and rifle fire. Just when it seemed inevitable that they would have to leave the gun and flee for their lives, the motor started and they quickly made their escape. They found out later that they had met Erwin Rommel鈥檚 鈥淕host Division鈥� which had performed one of its infamous sweeps around the forces facing them to attack from a position that would confuse its enemy.

My father and his gun crew rejoined his Battery and started the withdrawal to the coast at Dunkirk. The long and straight roads made it easy for the German aircraft to attack the withdrawing troops and the refugees, but whenever possible the anti-aircraft guns would pull of the road and engage the attacking aircraft so that the German鈥檚 did not have it all their own way.

On one such occasion my father鈥檚 crew were shooting at a German Dornier 17 aircraft (nicknamed 鈥淭he flying pencil鈥�) which was flying very low. The shells were just missing and exploding behind it, when suddenly one shell made contact and blew the complete tail assembly off. The plane immediately crashed to the ground leaving the next shell to sail right over it and explode against a cottage chimney. The old lady in the cottage came running out, covered in soot, and severely cursed the German pilot.

The gun crews also learned very early on that, contrary to what they had been instructed, not all bi-planes were friendly. On several occasions they were machine gunned by bi-planes.

At some time during the withdrawal my father was wounded by a shell exploding nearby. His injuries were mainly in the right arm and hand as well as about the head and upper body, but he was troubled by the shrapnel for many years as it made its way all round his body.

Finally they were on the approach to Dunkirk and they were ordered to destroy any abandoned equipment that they passed in order to stop it being used by the enemy. Amid the confusion on the beach there was some order being established and the anti-aircraft guns were ordered to get their guns into action as soon as possible. My father got his gun sited quickly, but soon realised there was very little cover so he organised his crew to get as many lorries as possible in a circle around their position to protect them from exploding shells. Luckily, many of the shells embedded themselves into the sand before exploding.

Food and ammunition was in short supply. Foraging parties were sent out to collect abandoned tins of food. Many of the tins had no labels, but it all went into the pot regardless. Apparently it was the finest meal they had eaten for days. Ammunition was another matter altogether and in order to try and conserve ammunition they only fired at aircraft that came over their particular section. One morning, a Frenchman came along the beach and told my father that a barge had drifted ashore during the night and was full of 40mm ammunition. My father and his crew immediately went to investigate the barge and lay claim to their share, but image their disappointment when the discovered that it was 40mm short rounds, suitable only for naval 鈥淧ompom鈥� guns on warships.

While they were waiting on the beach, my father realised that the timing of the German shelling of the beach coincided with the appearance of a British Lysander army corps aircraft. In fact, it looked as if it were being used as a spotting plane by the Germans. He reported his suspicions to a senior British officer and was told to deal with it as he felt fit. It was decided that the next time the plane flew over and the shelling started, they would fire close to it to chase it off, just in case it was really British.

Once all their ammunition was spent the gun was made inoperable and then the gun and the Quad were driven into the sea.

Soon after this they were rescued from the beach and when my father arrived home he was invalided out of the army due to the injuries sustained by the exploding shell.

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