大象传媒

This is a short story outlining one of many memories I have after landing on the Normandy beaches.

'The war was going well. We had not cleared the Germans out of Caen until the RAF had bombed it in their 1000 plane raid, they then left a few day's later & then our platoon moved in to clear the streets with the help of the Pioneer Corps.

We did this all day, when we were ready to return the first three trucks - myself driving one, we drove to a Convent and parked our trucks in a field outside. With just three DVRS we were told by the officer to mount a guard, myself being the first guarding from 20.00 hrs till 22.00 hours during which I started to wander up & down whilst the temperature remained very warm and was set about by a swarm of bees. I then needed to take cover in my cab until the sun went down. At 22.00 hrs I was releaved. I was told that the others had found a good dug out in the convent's garden, it was a good thing as the Germans then decided to shell Caen to keep us on out toes, it did, one or two shells landed in the gardens very close too - it was too close for our officer who decided to stay with the O.R. In the morning the officer left, he said he would be back later and upon his return said "follow his car". We did this and travelled to Caen catheedral where we pulled up outside the great doors. We entered and inside were maybe a hundred people many of Nuns and lots of children sitting or laying on the stone floor.

There was quite a commotion what with everyone talking all at once - then the Nunns gathered a number of children and moved outside and started to climb onto our trucks. We drivers were the last to be told that they were to be taken to Bayearn for safety reasons. There were a lot of cameras flashing - then we soon moved off. The road we travelled along had a sign saying "DUST DRAWS FIRE", that was dodgy but we arrived safe at the convent in Bayearn with lots of thanks. The war was continuing to go well - we had chased them out of Caen and had pushed the Germans through to Falaise Gap and they were on the run to get across the Saen to safety. Our platoon were now kept very busy transporting supplies to the front line troops night & day none stop until the trucks almost gave up, then we managed to drive to a Chateau where Germans had lived and this is where we rested and maintained our trucks'.

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