大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education's reminiscence team on behalf of Bert Cline and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
Bert Cline
DoB : 14-08-1914
Service Number CHX101204
Marine 鈥� Chatham Division

I was called up to Lympstone in Devon, the Commando Training Centre a year after the war started, on the 3rd September 1940. I did my training there, and then went to Deal in Kent (St Margaret鈥檚 Bay) in November. After that we went back to Lympstone for a while, and then to Spondham in Derbyshire. We then went up to Glasgow and got on a troop ship in February 鈥� it was 12 o鈥檆lock on a dirty old night. We went down to Cape Town, and then to Durban where we got a week鈥檚 leave. We then went up to the Suez Canal, but didn鈥檛 go through it on the ship. We came off the ship and went into the desert for a while. Then the Crete do came up when Greece fell and all the soldiers were going off to Crete. We went there too, in the hope of stopping the Germans from invading there. This was in 1941. The battle only lasted a couple of weeks. The Germans dropped parachutes behind us and we were surrounded. Marines only work in Companies, and we were surrounded for four days without knowing it. Eventually one of our officers got through from headquarters and told us we鈥檇 been surrounded. When they started evacuating the troops from Crete we had to go to the other side of the island where the ships were picking them up. One night there was a big queue of soldiers waiting to get on ships, and I was put at the back of the queue and told to shoot anyone who tried to join the queue after me as they weren鈥檛 taking anymore. But the ship never came and we were told to surrender. All the big knobs went off. I was on the beach when the Sunderland 鈥� a flying boat - came in to take them off. They said the island was being surrendered at six o鈥檆lock the next morning, but apparently they hadn鈥檛 told the Germans this because they kept firing on us all the next day. We were on the beach and in the olive groves, and there were planes attacking us. They started when the sun came up and fired on us until four o鈥檆lock in the afternoon. Then the Germans marched down and took us prisoner.

We were on Crete for quite a while before the Germans moved us, then we went to Greece and were there for some time. They loaded us onto railway cattle trucks to take us to Germany, but our guys kept blowing the line up. When this happened we would be shunted into a siding and left. The first day we were on the train they let us off to relieve ourselves, but so many tried to escape that they just put us back on and shut the door. They didn鈥檛 open the door again until we got to Belgrade. I don鈥檛 know how long that took, because every time there was any trouble they put us in a siding and left us.

It was frustrating being a prisoner and not being able to do anything to fight the enemy. I would rather have been fighting. If we got letters they were six to eight weeks old and my family was in London so I worried about them. I was able to write to them regularly 鈥� we were allowed to send a card saying that we were well. When we got to the camps we were allowed to write one letter one week and two postcards the next. My wife said later that she couldn鈥檛 make head nor tail of my letters as they were all blacked out. I tried to let her know where I was. We were quite near Dresden so I wrote to her asking whether her Dad still collected Dresden china. This got through without being blacked out but she didn鈥檛 understand what I was going on about. I was put in solitary confinement for writing in one letter what they should do with Hitler. It didn鈥檛 matter too much to me as it was one of the coldest winters we had ever had and if I hadn鈥檛 been in solitary I would have been working.

I was in a work camp working in an open cast coal mine. We worked from 6am to 6pm seven days a week, with Christmas day off. After a couple of years things relaxed a bit and we got one Sunday off a fortnight. Life was what you made it. The Red Cross parcels were lovely 鈥� especially the Canadian ones. There was more variety in the English ones, but the Canadian ones had better stuff. I have always hated meat pudding and in one parcel I got a tin of it, so I swapped it for a tin of sardines. My mate thought I was mad to make this swap, but as I didn鈥檛 like meat pudding it made sense to me.

We were sometimes sent clothes in the parcels, but I insisted on wearing my uniform because the Germans would take photos of the chaps in civvies looking clean and happy and use them as propaganda. I was determined not to be a part of this. However, I still sent the photo to my mother with the other six chaps in civvies and me in uniform. We had to stitch the photo onto card to send it.

The food in the camp was not good. The only time we had meat was for Christmas. Christmas dinner consisted of a rissole, brussel sprouts and potatoes. The rest of the year we lived on cabbage soup and potatoes. If you鈥檙e hungry it is nice. It fills you up for a while, but in an hour it鈥檚 gone.

There were sometimes a few amusing incidents. We were virtually running our camp and there was one occasion when the camp Commandant鈥檚 wireless went wrong. There was a Russian who was pretty good with radios so he let him mend it. When he got it back he said 鈥淲ell, it鈥檚 going but it doesn鈥檛 seem such good reception as before鈥�. The Russian had taken enough parts out of that radio to make us a little one which you listened to with earphones. We listened to the 大象传媒 news every night and knew what was happening before they did! Also there was a signpost near the camp which said 鈥淢oscow 6km鈥� which referred to a small German village up the road. The Russians, thinking that it was their Moscow kept trying to escape there.

It seemed such a waste to have had all that training and then to fight for only three weeks. It was a lovely feeling when the end of the war came. We could hear the Russian guns for weeks and then on 15th April they woke us up in the night and we were moved further up towards the Russian front to meet up with prisoners being moved from Poland. So we finished up on the Russian front when the war stopped. We were expecting the end any minute. We had been on the road and it had been snowing heavily. One morning we woke up in a barn and it was a lovely day with the sun shining. There was a little spring just outside so I went to have a wash. While I was washing away, doing my socks, my mate came out of the barn and said 鈥淏ert, the war鈥檚 over鈥�. It took a while to sink in but then we celebrated.

We were on the road trying to make our way to the Yanks when we saw two German officers coming along with a horse and cart loaded up with stuff. We got on, and later as we were going round a bend there was a really steep bit in the road as we were in the mountains. The horses couldn鈥檛 stop because of the weight of the truck. There were six of us and two Jerries and the horses ran wild. The officers said they were going to turn the cart over, and told us to get ready to jump, but I was in the middle and couldn鈥檛 get out so I went over with the cart. I landed on my head and was concussed. I saw stars and so they put me back on top of the cart while the others walked.

I got back home on the Whit Saturday, towards the end of May, just a couple of weeks later. When we got to England we were given telegrams to send to our families. I wasn鈥檛 sure where they were living as they had moved, but I had the address and sent a telegram saying that I would meet my wife at Platform Number 11 at Paddington. This was where I had left from when I was called up. I didn鈥檛 know what time I would get there and they had been waiting for hours. They had just decided to go to the toilet and when they came back there I sat on the concourse. It was almost worth what we went through to get that feeling when they said the war was over, and to see my wife again.

I was given three months off from the marines to recover, and then we had to go for a medical before going back to Chatham. (Although I was in Chatham Division this was the first time I had ever been there!). They gave us a pep talk saying that they knew we were raring to get back to fight the Japs. We didn鈥檛 exactly agree with this. We were told that we were going to be sent to be toughened up again. We went on the parade ground the first morning and started from scratch. By lunch time the instructor said to our officer that he鈥檇 never be able to do anything with us, so after a while they sent us back to Chatham and I was put in the fire brigade. We all had little jobs just to keep us busy. I had a pump to look after and my job was to polish it every morning and start it up to make sure that it worked. I think there was only one occasion when I actually managed to start it up. While I was there we were called to two fires and I missed them both. Once I slept through the alarm, and the other I was missing because I had gone up to London. Everyone was so relaxed after the war that I didn鈥檛 get into trouble.

I was finally demobbed in September 1945. I was in the barrack room reading when my mate came round and said 鈥淚f you鈥檇 like to go round to the company office you can get demobbed鈥�. So I went round and he was right. We went and got our clothes 鈥� they rigged us out, and then I was on my way home within 24 hours. They were glad to get rid of us.

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