大象传媒

A soldier of the 2nd World WAR

John CUTTS 鈥� 6460639

2nd Battallion Royal Fusilliers

Voice Transfer from Tape: John Cutts 28th April 2005.

I joined the 2nd Battallion Royal Fusilliers (now the Royal Regiment of Fusilliers) in September 1938, I had got involved in Politics and could see what was happening with Hitler, and as a boy I wanted to fight. Before joining I had been a Van boy with Watneys (Breweries) at Victoria, London.

I was sent to the Hounslow Depot for 6 months training, it was hard but enjoyable. In 1939 at the outbreak of war I was at the Grand Shaft Barracks in Dover, and was transferred to Aldershot to prepare for the British Expeditionary Force move to France.

We eventually sailed from Southampton to Cherbourg in a ship that was once a Thames Excursion Steamer, which used to run from Tower Bridge to the North Kent Coast, the crossing was very rough, but fortunately I was鈥檔t seasick.

On arrival in France we were put in French Cattle trucks, about 60 of us in each truck, we received no help or food from the French, and brewed tea from water obtained from the engine鈥檚 boiler, the journey was long, nearly a week before we arrived in Henning Le-tard (Northern France) where we were victualled into the local school. We then began training in the mud of Belgium.

During this period my Father died and I was permitted to return home for his funeral. In his will he left me 拢20, which I blew, before I was detailed to return.
I traveled to Dover, unbeknown to me, my brother had replaced the water in my water bottle with Rum, I was to appreciate this later. I crossed by Ferry from Dover to Calais,where there were trucks waiting to take us back to our units. I was taken to a point just outside Brussels where my unit was, we then moved off to the Albert Canal, this was where I fired my first shot in anger.

By this time we were fighting by day and running by night, I eventually finished up with Sergeant Benjamin, he was a Jew, and a Corporal.

Sgt Benjamin, he was the bravest man I ever met. We finished up just outside Roudenard, I was in Y Company 2nd Battallion we were Rear guard for the 2nd Battallion and we had to have a R/V, I don鈥檛 know the name of the village but it was outside of Roudenard.at 2230 that night cos the clocks were never altered you see out there,so it was still light. Anyway with Sgt Benjamin and Cpl Harding another tough guy, another pre war soldier, he was wonderful. I was carrying a Boyes anti tank rifle, anyway, so what happened, they were shelling and mortaring, they were brilliant, the Jerries were brilliant, and we鈥檙e going through this village, but something hit the road and it was one of their mortars, it blew up and I went through a plate glass window, I don鈥檛 know what happened to Sam Harding and Tom Benjamin, I don鈥檛 know what happened to them, it was a caf茅, and I tumbled down these concrete steps, and down there it was full of wounded and dying, I鈥檇 seen a Grenadier guardsman up at the door with a hole in his neck, a big hole in his neck, then suddenly this officer came up and said 鈥淵ou鈥檙e just the chap I鈥檝e been looking for鈥�. He said, 鈥淚鈥檝e got a 15 cwt laid on to remove all of them鈥�, he was a Medic, a Doctor, This was a regimental aid post.

鈥淲hat I鈥檒l do is, you can help me to take those that have got a chance of living or surviving鈥�. So we carried about half a dozen and put them on the truck, then he said 鈥淲e鈥檒l come back for you, all you鈥檝e got to do is, if they call for help just give them a drop of water about the mouth, don鈥檛 give them anything to drink鈥�. So the truck went. I go back downstairs, I used to have a cigarrette, I was a young boy, you know. So I sat down on a pile of coals and I still had that bloody Boyes Anti tank gun. I fell asleep, it could only have been about half an hour when I woke up and I heard, what I thought was a 15 Cwt and I ran up the concrete steps onto a cobbled street and around the corner, I鈥檇 only seen one at a distance, It was a Jerry armoured car. It had 3 german machine guns, Spandaus, and they told me to stop and I was absolutely petrified, they went up and down but they did鈥檔t fire. they came straight toward me and stopped in front of me and 2 guys in black got out, these were SS, they turned out alright, they were SS infantry, they were in black , the first one came at me with a Luger or whatever and knocked me straight on the deck. They kicked me about, they got my rifle, they tried to, get the anti tank gun which was on top of the steps, I had time to kill both of them, but once that thing came around the corner I was petrified.. I was dead. I didn鈥檛 know what they were saying but I understood 鈥淓nglander swein鈥�, I understood that, I did鈥檔t tell you this earlier on, but we鈥檇 been blooded under fire with the Germans just outside Metz, where they were in an identical situation to ourselves. But they could drop their bloody mortar bombs on a sixpence , they were brilliant, we had a few casualties. But it was over the Christmas, there were German prisoners, I did鈥檔t know about it but eventually they knocked them off.
So I said there鈥檚 comrades down In the cellar.

They kicked me down,but when they saw the guys lying there, they said, 鈥淗ere Tommy鈥�, they gave them wine, well a bottle of wine, I suppose they nicked it, and cigarettes, which I did鈥檔t like, they were Turkish. That was it. Then it was a fortnights walk to a nice place in Holland, Maastricht. Then it was a cattle truck, you were locked in, there were no guards in the cattle truck, they were at the back of the train. But there was no stopping so you could鈥檔t get out and have a wee or anything, we were in the truck for a week. When I was in Maastricht a lovely girl came and gave me a haversack, it was Dutch military, and it was packed with cheese and butter and bread which of course I shared with the guys, and then I had it empty, we had nowhere to crap or anything like that we had a flap in the top of the truck and what we had to do was the guys would help you up and you had to get your behind out the flap,to do your business. but I had this haversack the food I donated to the truck and the haversack I used for, well you know.. Then I finished up at a place called Thorn where we had marquees, tents and that. So then after that, its nothing is it?. I had to work, I went all over West Prussia/East Prussia. We were marched. And of course Poland. We were then a work detail.

Actually I was taken prisoner on May 28th 1940.. Before Dunkirk. I remained mostly in East/West Prussia I worked in all sorts, I鈥檝e been in Sugar beet factories, on the land, farms, state farms, Forestry, learning how to chop trees down, and mines. Went down a couple of times but you were up the top mainly. We were still in uniform, Battle dress, boots worn out, they gave us old Polish, canvas soldiers boots, they were useless, but the Regimental association was good, they sent me out uniform and that, vest and pants, but the Germans knocked off all the grub, they stole all the food, and the Red Cross parcels, the Germans were bastards, they stole the food.

Then the Death march from Konigsberg when I started walking on the 23rd Jan 1945 and I did鈥檔t stop walking until 13TH April 鈥� no grub. It was a walk I鈥檒l never forget. There was death all along the way: it was far worse than being in combat. We POW鈥檚 were forced to walk across snowbound Russia,Poland and finally Germany before our march ended at Stendal, near Hanover, by which time I was riddled with Lice, Crabs and Dysentery, and unable to stand.

We ate Mangle wurzels, Sugar beet and if you could dig them up, because it was all frosted, raw spuds, even bloody green weeds and I went from 13-1/2 stone down to 9 stone when I finished in the Sutton Emergency hospital in Britain.

I walked over the River Vistula in Poland, on the Ice, where further down the road on the ice trying to get over were German lorries, tanks, on the ice. And the Russians were coming like a dose of salts. On the march we were guarded by anybody, ordinary Wermacht,they were bastards, SS troops, and if you fell down and could鈥檔t get up then Bang,not just the SS, the bloody Wermacht would do that, they wanted to get away from the bloody Russians, they did鈥檔t need us, so if
you could鈥檔t get up then they鈥檇 give you one.

At the end of the march we ended up at a beautiful little town called Stendahl, it was a day, when there wasn鈥檛 a cloud in the sky, and they walked out about 50 or 70 horses from these stables, and cos they used to make us up in columns of a 1000 on the march, because you walked for a fortnight and had a days rest, well there were so many dead, out of a thousand there would be 250 or 300 dead, they could鈥檔t keep us all together, because in these big columns we were rampant as soon as we got near a village, we broke into the houses knocked them (the occupants) all down to get grub, but they split us up into these columns but after about 2 weeks you鈥檇 stop, from the column you had so many dead, they did鈥檔t bother about burying them. They make up another column so that you were鈥檔t enough of a force then that, they could鈥檔t stop you. When we got to Stendahl, they knew the writing was on the wall and the guards became a bit gutless.

It was a lovely day and I鈥檇 never seen a Flying Fortress, anyway we got into this stable, then suddenly, they had an air raid siren,and that went, and a guy said 鈥淟ook up there鈥�, and I stood up but then fell down, no grub you see. So I vowed I was not going to walk another step, they could come and give me one.. And there were these bloody silver planes, they were brilliant, and within about half an hour, the poor little town of Stendahl outside Hanover was an absolute heap of rubble, including our stables, at the end of the day rubble all around us. So I said 鈥淐ome on we got to get outside鈥�, so we got down to the end of the town in amongst all the rubble and we heard, an engine, which we thought, it must be a German, but it was鈥檔t , it was a jeep with the Yanks in. And that was it, but mind we still were鈥檔t looked after, eventually we were moved by truck, boarded like cattle, then about 25 at a time into Dakotas, and they flew us to Brussels. No grub, the Yanks did鈥檔t give us any grub, because all the guys were on the floor all dying.. I mean you had crap down your trousers, when I was on that march I used to walk, I had my Battle dress trousers on with the braces outside the battle dress tunic and your overcoat, because if you wanted to go, it was overcoat off, braces down and do it. no pants on, and it was freezing cold, I mean I鈥檝e never been so cold in my life as in Prussia.

We were eventually flown to Westcott airfield, I was in an Australian Airforce Lancaster, where there was all bunting out and everything, could鈥檔t eat, there was a tea party, all the grub, but we could鈥檔t eat you see. Well they lined us up, I鈥檇 had milk and brandy that someone had laid on, They said 鈥淲hat do you want to do, do you want to go straight to hospital or do you want to go home鈥�?. I said 鈥済o home鈥�, but I had no-one to go home to except my sister at Carshoulton,so I was given a travel warrant for the train, it was all laid on. Eventually I arrived at my sisters at Carshoulton, and I collapsed in the evening, they called an Ambulance and I went to the Emergency Hospital at Sutton,Surrey.
There was a lovely Doctor there, not much older than me, and he got me well and got me back in the Army.

Once back in the Army I made friends with Lieut Col J.Fitt, he said 鈥淚鈥檓 going to take care of you鈥�, I was a buckshee Lance Corporal, and he said 鈥淚鈥檓 going to make you up to a Sergeant, and send you on a NCO鈥檚 course to the School of Infantry at Warminster鈥�, which he did., So the first weekend there, I went to a Student dance and I met my wife, Mary.. So end of story really.

But in 1947,there was a tremendously bad winter, now if I could have got married quarters I鈥檇 have stayed in the Army, but I could鈥檔t get them. Now the other CO I made friends with was Brigadier General Sir Brian Horrocks, I was then at 164 Infantry OPTU. and he was my CO. I was a Sergeant Small arms instructor.
Could鈥檔t get quarters so went up before the CO, he said you鈥檙e a F鈥檌ng fool, you鈥檝e got a career in front of you. I said my wife鈥檚 down in Somerset and I鈥檓 up here. I鈥檝e had no life so far. So on the 7th march 1947 I left the Army and a fortnight later joined the Met Police force.

I remained in the Met Police force until the 30th April 1974, I was one of the first Speed Cops.

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