大象传媒

Chapter Six
鈥淎 German secret weapon old lad!鈥�

So from there we came out at Nijmegan after a very nervous period in that line, we moved on and we moved to a different part of the front.
For a few days then we went down further into Holland to a place called Sittard and we crossed the German border at a place called Verviers it was the end of where the American Line was and we took over from the American Scout Guard Regiment and of course they pulled back and returned to their own area.
It was over the Dutch German border it was a massive area, a massive pine forest, a terrific pine forest and we were dug in at the end. There was a valley and a sort of a township in the distance and one of our young Patrol Officers took a patrol out the first night.
Unfortunately he went onto a minefield and we could hear him screaming and crying all night long, he died. We had to leave him and we couldn鈥檛 go get him鈥hat was hard.
It was Gelsenkirchen was the town that we could see further over, well of course we were gonna attack it and take over but things changed and we were there for about two or three weeks.
While we were there we put a lot of trick players out and what not, booby-traps.
The Americans had done a lot as well and you鈥檇 to be very careful because we didn鈥檛 know where theirs were for sure like.
There was a lot of German Patrol Activity and sometimes they鈥檇 have a dog and they鈥檇 send a dog out.
We realised what was going off and we鈥檇 stay right quiet and still and we didn鈥檛 do anything, the dog would go off again like.
We sent a lot of patrols out, it was a bit hairy and you had to be very careful.
In fact no body dare get outta the trenches on a night because if there was any movement somebody would open up and fire at them like y鈥檏now.
You didn鈥檛 know whether it was Germans so we always stayed in the trenches and said if there was anybody moving it was enemy so you could open up and fire legitimately.
There was an amusing incident I鈥檒l tell you about with Horace. We used to share the same trench like. Well we use to take it in turns where you鈥檇 do two hours off and then it would be your turn to do two-hour sentry on y鈥檚ee and then the next trench would do two hours and so on.
Well this particular night Horace and I are sharing the same trench and he complained that he wanted to go to the loo sort of thing; he said he wanted a clear out.
I said 鈥淣ip over the back Horace.鈥� He said 鈥淣o I might get a bullet in my arse!鈥� So he鈥檚 moaning away there then he says 鈥淚 gotta go Sarg.鈥� I goes 鈥淲ell get your shovel and do it on鈥檛 shovel.鈥� While he鈥檚 in鈥檛 trench y鈥檚ee.
So he had a right good clear out did Horace like and he did himself up and he says, 鈥淲hat shall I do with it?鈥� I said 鈥樷�漌ell I don鈥檛 want it for a pack up Horace, so sling it.鈥�
Thinking he鈥檇 throw it over the back and then he could bury it the next morning, but no鈥e slung it and it dropped to the side, he鈥檇 slung it and it dropped into the next trench!
So there was peace for a minute and then there was such a screech and a shout and it was blood and thunder from鈥檛 next trench. A lad called Shuttlesworth it had dropped on.
Next morning after stand to we鈥檇 go back to do cooking or what not and Shuttleworth their come out smelling of roses. He wanted to know what had gone on so I told him, 鈥淚t must have been a German secret weapon old lad! And I鈥檓 glad to say it wasn鈥檛 me.鈥�
Anyway it died a peaceful death. Aye Horace Camm he was a Doncaster boy, I asked if anyone knew him but nobody did.

After holding the line at Verviers for a couple of weeks we were due to be relieved by an Infanrty Regiment as we had to make for Louvain near Brussels for the armour to be refitted.
Unfortunately the Germans started the high density Ardennes Offensive so we were hurriedly sent down to that part of the front.
Our objective was a place called Nemur which was in the line of the German advance.
The weather was atrocious, frost and fog really savage frost it was.
Suddenly the weather cleared and the bombers went in and really pasted the Germans.
Christmas Eve then and we were at a place called Neeralysum near Belgium, we were going to stay with civilians in their homes who were going to accommodate us.
We got into theses villages, our battalions and tank battalions an so on into Oppoelism and Neeralysum
Well I was billeted, my friend and I Tommy Musgrove we were billeted in this house and there was this Grandmother, her daughter with her little girl Janine and her husband Louis.
Well we were only there two nights and we were called out Christmas Eve we鈥檇 an hours notice to move down to Nemur and the Germans were pushing through.
Christmas eve we got the warning to stand by to move, well we were waiting all night long and like I said the frost was savage really savage.
On Christmas morning itself we were ordered to move down to Nemur.
The Germans were trying to get through the middle to cut us in two and get to Antwerp you see.
If they鈥檇 had got through there they鈥檇 have caused a lot of bloody problems so as I say the Americans were slogging it out at Bastogne and we鈥檇 to move in as a block y鈥檚ee.
We were holding the line Christmas day on Christmas morning we鈥檇 moved down and it was freezing, bone chilling frozen.
You鈥檇 sit in the carrier and I鈥檓 not kidding you鈥檇 sit in the carrier with your head just peeping out y鈥檏now and the frost on your eyebrows it was that thick y鈥檏now, it was absolutely bone chilling freezing cold.
Anyway Christmas night we got bombed and they blew the railway bridge, the skies cleared on that particular morning and the bombers came in and of course they knocked the shit outta the Germans then like. Of course it stopped the break out and eventually they were forced back.
As I say the bombers went in and smacked the Germans so that was possibly the end of the breakout and them trying to cut into the army and get to Antwerp.
Old Monty took charge of the area and he got it all sorted did old Monty. General Montgomery, he took over from me that part of the sector, got things organised did t鈥檕ld lad.
So we went back to our billets then like in this place called Neeralysum in Belgium and we were there about a month with these people.
The civilians offered us accommodation, somewhere to sleep y鈥檚ee in a house, they were very nice you know and it was just like leaving home when we had to leave
For a month we did training and got the vehicles ready again then at end of January the big attack started into the Reichswalde Forest.
Intending to cross into Germany we were ordered to move, all the population turned out of Neeralysum.
It was like leaving home, they were lovely people鈥�(crying now)
I have fond memories of them; in fact I called Janine my eldest daughter, after the little girl where I was billeted鈥anine (pausing to cry.)
We left in February and that鈥檚 when the big offensive started from Nijmegan, we moved out and it was very difficult as it was all waterlogged with the rain, but eventually the infantry lads broke through to the Nijmegan area through the Reichswalde Forest to Germany itself.
We were fighting on German soil then so it didn鈥檛 matter about battering the buildings and all that. We fought through Goch and Kleve and into Germany.
The armour was able to carry on and then we battled on till eventually we did a final action to a place called Wesel on the Rhine.
It was an awful battle, a lot of casualties鈥�(voice breaking.)
There was a lot of bravery; some of 鈥榚m wouldn鈥檛 go where the infantry had to go...(Long pause.)
That was a real test, tanks and all sorts had tried it. They shoved our 5th Battalion in and eventually, we had a hell of a lot of casualties but eventually we cleared it and that was the Rhine cleared up.
Anyway we finally cracked it and that was the end of the campaign so far.
From there we were pulled back to a harbour area, refitted and re-kitted again.
Then in April for the build up there was a terrific smoke screen right along our section of the front.
So for about two weeks they鈥檇 massive smoke screens right along the front like, a big smoke screen as they were building up at the back with the bridging equipment and all sorts of assault equipment y鈥檏now. It was all been built up and then they did an assault crossing across the river which was 1000 yards wide at the time.
They built a bridge across it 1000 yards long was the bridge the engineers had built.
The Paratroopers had landed the other side, there had been some right battling.
Anyway we crossed over and we swung on into Germany till eventually we got up to round about the Rotenberg area when the war finished.

Chapter Seven
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 do anything for them!鈥�
Anyway from then it was different places we had got well into the journey and my turn came for 7 days leave, so I came back to England.
England looked very, very shabby did the country. People were very weary they had had six years of war and rationing y鈥檏now like.
I was, well people were pleased that it was over it hadn鈥檛 been easy for the civilians you know there had been lots of hard times, they had had severe rationing and the people got through it and they had managed like.
Their reaction to me was no great joy, but they were pleased you鈥檇 got home safe like and everything was ok. Some were sad that they had lost those they knew, but I don鈥檛 think they begrudged it to you because you鈥檇 got through it alright y鈥檏now.
Anyway during that leave I got engaged to my wife, Beryl Clough, your Nana.
When I returned it was just prior to the war finishing I joined the Battalion at a place called Osnabruck.
On that particular day Mr Churchill announced that the war with Germany had finished.
While I鈥檇 been away the lads had done a lot of advancing and taken a lot of casualties, it was a very subdued end of the war as far as we were concerned no great jollification or anything.
The line was held for 2 or 3 days till orders were issued to the Germans and then our Division were ordered to disarm a German Parachute Division.
So we got orders then to move to Cuxaven.
It was weird driving through and seeing this great armoured train and Germans stood in gun positions鈥ye it were weird!
We passed an armoured train and they were all stood to their guns were the soldiers like and were thinking 鈥榖it dodgy is this.
We went through them onto the aerodrome and then the Germans had the order to march in and disarm on the airport.
All the Arms were handed in; horses and carts etc and then the Officers were to be separated from the men.
To say they were a defeated army you wouldn鈥檛 have thought so; the column come marching in, and I saw a tall German Officer, Jack Booted! A typical German strutting there in front of his men and they鈥檙e all marching away.
Well they come marching in he must have been 7ft this German Officer at the front and they were all their with their rifles, their weapons. Anyway then the guns followed in and whatever and all the arms were piled up and then they sorted them out.
They took the Officers to one side and ordinary soldiers to the other. Well I suppose they were then taken to be interrogated and then depending on what information they had would have been sent on their way like or dealt with accordingly like.
That鈥檚 how they dispersed them like they鈥檇 to make their own way home like whether they lived at t鈥檕ther side of Germany they were on their own to make it like.
The Germans were just left to go I mean they were ordinary soldiers told what to do like.
They weren鈥檛 the villains, the SS or the Gestapo and so forth were the villans; these were just ordinary fighting soldiers like we were.
Before we鈥檇 moved as an Armoured Division we were disbanded, that was a sad day.
It changed things y鈥檚ee like anything that was disbanded it was like the end of an era sort of thing y鈥檚ee.
The 鈥楾ankies鈥� they were good lads they were our First Battalion.
Well there was the Irish Guards Tank Battalion, Grenadiers and Coldstream and they formed the Armoured Brigade y鈥檚ee.
Then there was our brigade of Irish Guards, Welsh guards and us that was 32nd Guard Brigade and then there was the Brigade with the Artillery and all that sort of thing y鈥檚ee.
So when we were going into action and going to attack you would form a battle group.
The Fifth Coldstream Tanks would be with the First Coldstream Tanks and you worked as a unit together like y鈥檚ee.
We did have some very brave fellas we had one VC.
He stormed this bridge and there were machine guns firing at him he stormed on his own and he climbed the 6ft barrier, disarmed the bombs and got the VC. Captain Liddel they called him Ian Liddel.
A fortnight after a bloody sniper shot him and killed him! But that was bravery was that, Captain Liddel.
Great lads they were...Anyway come the dispersal of the old Fifth Battalion, we took part with lots of sports, and then went onto Cologne and on Guard.
After we鈥檇 done that we moved near Hamburg into all the farming villages, we were holding the land where the occupation were.
We were allocated our occupation area which was Cologne which the Americans had taken.
We moved down in convoy on to the outskirts and after a long move we took up residence there and had a lot of Guard Duties.
There was a displaced persons camp for the Russians forced labour people, and there was a camp for the Polish y鈥檏now, the people who had been used for forced labour.
That was a bad sight to see when the Russians were been taken back, they knew that life was finished for them because they had worked for the Germans even though they had been forced.
It was a Russian prisoner of war camp, at the wire, we couldn鈥檛 do anything for them!
This was up in a horrible area.
There was this barbed wire fence and they were scavenging I don鈥檛 know what happened to them I suppose people would come up and feed them like, it was a pitiful site to see them like this.
We use to take them back up to the Russian zone area, we used to have to put armed escorts with them so they wouldn鈥檛 escape.
I do believe thousands of Russians, because they鈥檇 worked in Germany were exterminated when they got back to Russia. They were seen as traitors even though they hadn鈥檛 fought and they had been forced into labour.
So that鈥檚 why a lot of Russian and Polish people tried to escape and come to England or where ever.
It was an evil regime was communism; They were sent back to the Stallag鈥檚 that were a sad job to do and fortunately I was never sent to do that.
We use to do Guard Duty, there was only one bridge a big timber bridge across the Rhine and as you crossed over it there was Cologne Cathedral on your left side.
All around the streets you would go down the and there was just rubble y鈥檏now, just heaps of rubble all the way around.
Everything was battered.
So we use to do a Guard,the Rhine Bridge was an interesting one.
We鈥檇 both sides of the bridge with sentries on, the train would come over to one side and then they鈥檇 transport to the other side.
The people were going out of the city into the countryside for food and they鈥檇 come back and you鈥檇 have to escort them back across the bridge.
There was a power station too, there was a wine warehouse鈥 never got bloody lucky to land that one!
And there was a slaughter house too, I dropped on all of them but I never got the bloody wine warehouse!

See chapter eight, nine & ten for remainder of story.

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