大象传媒

I was a S/Sargeant of the Royal Engineers - 1051 Port Company, posted to Stranraer, making parts for the Mulbury Harbours. In particular the peirheads which were called Whales. We were on 24 hour shifts.

I was 6 months training at Aldershot and was held up in Normandy for 5 or 6 weeks.

I was then transferred to Weybridge and then into Woods, near Newhaven. When D/day (D stands for decided day) was announced we were given French smoe money and told to write our last letter home. I wrote to my mother that i didn't know where i was going but had been given French money, the letter never arrived.

Saturday or Sunday we went to Newhaven docks to see hundreds of flat bottomed barges, the Salvation Army gave us coffee and fruit cake before we boarded. Inside the barges was quite a lot of water which came over the side of the craft, which made it uncomfortable to sit in. During the journey, I was terribly seasick and collasped onto the floor, all the time hanging onto my very heavy browning rifle, the crew then came along and gathered me up to sit supported within a coil of rope with my legs hanging on the outside, at which point I fell asleep. We departed at about 10 o'clock in the evening and I woke up to the sound of gun fire and the smell of diesel at 4 a.m. at which point I was violently sick again. We arrived on the beach and the tide was in so we were able to get in quite far and I was wet only up to the knees. The noise was incredible. The mortars going off and our boats behind shelled by the German positions and the planes going overhead very low to avoid the German radar.

I ran feeling very weak into a shell hole. There was chaos all around with landing craft being held up by broken down lorries ect. The medic came and asked if I was wounded, which was very embarrasing, and I told him I was sea-sick, but I was not alone and the medic was carrying sea-sick pills which he gave me and escorted me to a tent for the wounded and sea-sick soldiers.

Next I found myself digging a trench in a field being constantly bombarded with shrapnel. The trench was dug in a 'V' shape, and when I was 4-5 feet deep, I looked around and picked up a corrugated sheet to protect me from the shrapnel. My mate who was digging the second V trench, claimed that the bit of tin was his and he put it aside to use, and we ended up fighting over the bit of tin until we came to our senses. We had one tin of corned beef and 20 biscuits to share between the two of us, so it was important to remain friends with our companions.

We were in the trench for 3 or 4 days before we started our job of ferrying supplies up from an american supply depot at sword beach and unloading supplies from the mulberry harbours into lorries to deliver to the front line. Major metcalfe who was 26 years old, gave us tickets to get supplies for our unit from another supply depot in St. Omer. When we drove in, we saw an American Sergeant, we gave him a ticket to get supplies, he indicated to take 2 boxes each from the 3 piles and then departed. So of course, I took 3 boxes from 3 piles, as no one else was there! The American rations were very good - we had cans of soup where you lit a fuse and it heated the soup.

We moved through towns that had been bombed by our bombers and in some instances, the Germans had moved out and used it as a trap deploying their superior tiger tanks outside the town. Our main job was setting up supply dumps which we did in relays up until Eindhoven in Holand which we reached after Christmas.

When we were near Bayeux, we found an old piano in a load of rubble and we pulled it out, found that it worked, so we pushed it down a street and sold it to a local cafe

There were instances when we didn't wash for days on end and sometimes if we got to a river, 10 of us at a time would strip to our waist and wash under a bridge. There was one time when a 'look-out' shouted to keep our heads down and an enemy tank went over the bridge. We had one fatality when our look-out kept popping his head out of the lorry window until he lost it to a telegraph pole.

Our job in europe was done and we were taken to Scotland and put onto a troop ship, bound for Bombay. As the war was still going on, we had an escort as far as the Suez Canal. The trip to Bombay took 4 weeks and I was sick all the way! We had 2 or so weeks to aclimatise in Bombay and then progressed to Malaya. We were transferred to barges to land at Port Dixon when we heard cheers all around because news had arrived that the Japs had surrendered. We were told to reboard ship. Fortunately, there was to be an advanced party to drive lorries from Malaya to Singapore and because I was known to be poor sailor, I was included in the party. At our rest on the beach in Singapore, we were told by Major Metcalfe not to go swimming in the sea. It was so inviting, we went in to be surrounded by very large jelly fish, so wevrey soon got out!

Driving the 12 lorries through the jungle, the first night we were surrounded by hundreds of monkeys swinging through the trees with our Sergeant taking pot shots at them, until he was stopped. I got my mosquito net out to sleep on top of a lorry but in the night, the rains came. I jumped off the top of the lorry and tried to get into the cab but when i opened the door 4 irrate blokes fell out, so i ended up underneath the lorry with my groundsheet and mosquito net.

On our journey we came across a convoy of Red Cross lorries coming in the opposite direction laden with what we thought were Chinese troops, so we waved to them as we went past, only to be told by our officers that we were waving at Japanese prisoners of war.

We arrived in Singapore - it was a mess. We were billoted in a Japenese barracks which and had a spiral staircase in the middle. The Japs big nobs, captured by the Para's were in a building next to us. One of them escaped and was caught the next day and we could see him being punished by the para's who put a heavy sandbag on his neck and made him run around in circles with a para every 2 or 3 yards who hit him with a stick as he went around.

We used to get hold of Japenese hooch which was so bad it could make you blind or paraletic. A mate of mine got very drunk and started going around the spiral staircase firing his stem gun. I was in one of the rooms off the staircase hiding behind the door with my troop ready to shoot him if he came in. Finally he went back down and we were able to escape and the Major told me to creep up to the room where this chap was and fire through the window into the ceiling in the hope of sobering him up. One of my bullets richoched off the wall into my mates arm at which point, he staggered out the front door saying "Smithy, what have i done. Give us a fag!" which I was allowed to do.

Whilst we were there we went to the black market as we were supplied with either Capstan or Players cigarettes in round tins which we used to sell off until the authorities realised what was happening and flooded the market with cigarettes.

I was then posted to General Dempseys staff and ended up in the Sultan of Johors weekend palace where we lived in luxury. The general would come and see us and he welcomed me and told me to do my best and called me staff. When he left, my mate who was with me pointed out I had just been promoted to Staff Sergeant. The grounds had a great lawn and we had military bands in the evening marching in formation and criss crossing the lawn when the General had visiting dignitaries and we were able to discreetly watch. My job there was to keep up the supplies from army depots and also go to the market with a lady officer for fruit and vegetables. Eventually I was sent home in august 1947. They used to have a parade and shout out the last 3 numbers of your army number if your number was in the last 3 you were on the next ship home. There was a post for senior NCO's to join the Singapore Police, which I considered, but as they wouldn't let me have home leave first, I turned it down.

I was demobbed in Woking, given 拢40 and arrived in Newbury station where a neighbour saw me, ran off to get my father and in no time, we were having a pint in the black boys inn in Bartholomew Street.

GORDON SMITH S/SARGEANT EX ROYAL ENGINEERS
1051 PORT COMPANY.

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