大象传媒

Wartime memories of the Royal Norfolks 鈥� Part One

Part one of an edited oral history recording of Major B. B. Coward鈥檚 WWII experiences made at an outreach event of Bedford Museum at Turvey Village Hall on Monday 17th October 2005.

鈥淚鈥檇 joined the T.A. in 1936 and we were called up at the end of July 1939. I joined the Hon. Artillery Company (H.A.C.) and we went down to Salisbury Plain 鈥� Bulford Camp to become an OCTU (Officers Cadet Training Unit). I was commissioned (2nd Lieutenant) from there on the 11th of November 1939.

Now when the war started we (the H.A.C.)marched from Armoury House to Waterloo Station as we had the right to march through the City of London, bayonets fixed and banners flying and so forth. And so there we are marching all the way down Moorgate and when we were down by Moorgate underground station there was an idle looking soldier. Well, he was in uniform and he was smoking a cigarette and he had his girlfriend on his arm and the Colours marched by and he took no notice. He carried on puffing away at his cigarette and the Regimental Sergeant Major - who was 鈥楽napper鈥� Robertson who was a Grenadier - he had this chap 鈥榝ell in鈥� and he was marched all the way from Moorgate to Waterloo under escort and handed over to the Military Police! I often wondered what happened to him at the end of the war or what happened to him at the beginning of the war! Whether he saw his wife or girlfriend again. Laughter!

I was 21 and I went to Norfolk and I joined the 5th Battalion of the Royal Norfolks and I became the Carrier Platoon Commander, the Bren gun carriers. The thing was that I did have a Batman and I had a chap who was quite idle and so I said to my Platoon Sergeant, 鈥楲ook here find me a decent chap as a Batman.鈥� And the next morning there was at my tent an old, old man standing waiting for a job. His name was Osborne, I said, 鈥極sborne, how old are you?鈥� 鈥極h,鈥� he said, 鈥業鈥檓 27.鈥� Which made him seem to me an ancient warrior. Anyway I said, 鈥楲ook here, Osborne, Carrier Platoon Commander, you have got to look after yourself and your rifle and your bayonet, side arms then you鈥檝e got to look after a Bren gun and a Bren gun tripod and 25 magazines and 2,500 rounds of ammunition. Now that has got to be kept clean, bright and slightly oiled and ready for inspection at any time. Apart from that you have got to help Hall, who is the driver of the carrier, in the maintenance of the carrier, track tension and all that sort of thing, it鈥檚 all your responsibility. And apart from that you will have to look after me. Do you think you鈥檒l be able to do that?鈥� And he stood and scratched his head and he said, 鈥業 reckon I can look after you, Sir I used to be a horse breaker before the war.鈥� Laughter! I still think of this chap, a charming fellow. Poor fellow, unfortunately he was killed in Singapore. He was a very nice chap.

We were in North Norfolk and I was in charge of a beach called Weybourne Hoe and you know there is an old rhyme which says:

鈥淗e who would all England win
Must at Weybourne Hoe begin鈥�

That鈥檚 where I was and I had thirty soldiers and we had five rounds of ammunition per man and my instructions were that I had to hold Weybourne Hoe and this area to the last man and the last round. I was lucky because there was a pub at the back of the area and I was determined that the last round would be in the pub. Laughter!

Over Weybourne one morning came a Dornier and it was going woow, woow, woow. As this wretched aeroplane came over - there was an old chap who worked on this farm, he milked the cows and he would skim the milk and that sort of thing 鈥� these bombs came up at seven o鈥檆lock in the morning or whatever it was. This wretched aeroplane dropped 17 bombs across the village and one of them dropped in the midden and the next one dropped in the milk separating house. So we naturally thought old Weston, the chap who did the milking, was blown up. But he turned up later on, he was a typical Norfolk chap. I said to him, 鈥楳orning Weston, how are you?鈥� he said, 鈥業鈥檓 alright Sir.鈥� I said, 鈥榃hat happened to you this morning?鈥� 鈥極h, I woke up this morning and I says to my wife, I said damned if I鈥檓 going down the old farm yet a while, today I stay on in bed. And up I get and I go down the farm and I sit myself down by the old cow. I was milking away on her and I鈥檇 go to hell if those bombs didn鈥檛 drop off right close by. I had to hang on to that old cow to keep her down!鈥� Laughter! Just imagine!

Actually from the military point of view I was very lucky because the 5th Norfolks were in the 18th Division and I got fed up with walking up and down. I was a Brigade Liaison Officer for a period and I got fed up with this you could see the war going on and we were not getting any part of it. So I decided I鈥檇 like to join the Air Force, to transfer. So I was sent to a place in Lancashire, Southport and I had an interview 鈥� they had a test for you 鈥� physical well being to see whether you were fit enough and they gave you awfully difficult questions to answer and if you could answer them you were accepted. Anyway I answered these difficult questions like if 3 3s were 9 what is the square root of 9? And if you can work that out and you were very clever then they will take you into the Air Force. I jumped at that one, I took a guess. Laughter! No actually they were much more difficult than that but anyway I passed this test and luckily I went back to the Battalion and within a month or two an overseas posting, the whole Battalion going overseas. So I thought if you are going overseas I would like to come with you.

I was very lucky because they wouldn鈥檛 take me because I was transferring to the Air Force and they poor chaps went to Singapore. They were all in the bag in no time and they had a most terrible time as you can imagine. I had a large number of friends who were involved in that, in fact the chaps that I had trained with for the last couple or three years.

Oh, one thing I was going to mention you know I was talking about this business of old Osborne who was my Batman. At one stage I was attached to the Northumberland Fusiliers, it was a training course or something so I had to take Osborne with me and after a day or two I said, 鈥楬ow are you getting on, Osborne?鈥� 鈥極h,鈥� he said, 鈥業鈥檓 alright but I don鈥檛 know what they are talking about! I don鈥檛 know what they are saying, they don鈥檛 know what I鈥檓 saying鈥� he said 鈥業 might as well be with a lot of ruddy Germans!鈥� Laughter!鈥�

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