大象传媒

At the age of 18 I was conscripted to the forces with all those who were 18 that year. We went for a medical exam and if you passed AI you were in. You were then sent to training quarters for six weeks training and then sent to your unit if you passed. This consisted of learning to fire a rifle and other weapons, also to carry a Conrad for a hundred yards on your shoulders. I was then sent with others for MT training which was for carrying troops and supply to the front.
I was then sent to my unit which was 284 Fld Regiment RE. The unit same as all others building up for the Big Day.First before D-Day we were sent to the East Coast and were changed from Field Regiment to Assault Squadron for the D-Day landings and were given Churchill tanks and trailers with Liquid Explosive. Our next job was to make our engines waterproof so we were given a clay substance which we had to cover our engine parts with . Our unit with the Canadians were put off at Arramanches on D-Day and we had to crawl along a dried out ditch until we found a field to dig in and that is where we fought that night. We took over from the Ist unit next morning and they really had lost a lot of men. We continued with the Canadians towards Carn and Nymegan until we had to fall back owing to the fact that the Germans were moving too fast for our Churchill tanks. So they left us to pick up pockets of Germans along the coast like Cape Grus Nea where the Germans had the Big Gun firing on Dover.
I'm not going on any further because we were then clearing up debris and getting rid of mines the Germans had laid. So I will stop now and hope I have given you some idea of the happenings at that time. Thank you.

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