大象传媒

There were two fresh divisions already manning the Alamein defences and these with the remnants, such as us, of the beaten forces, were sufficient to stop Rommel. Indeed subsequent history tells us that when he had surveyed his position 鈥� with too few tanks, shortage of petrol, and at the far end of a long line of communication, with the Navy and the RAF sinking much of his supplies he proposed to pull back to the Libyan frontier. But Hitler forbad this. It was now July and in August Churchill and Alanbrook arrived to see what was wrong. The result in the end was the appointment of Alexander as Commander-in-Chief and Montgomery to command 8th Army. This news spread like a breath of fresh air throughout the Middle East and morale shot up everywhere. And then came the welcome news that we were to go to the R.A.depot in Cairo for a rest and refit. Once again the fleshpots were open to us, the luxurious Gezira Club, for instance, gave all our officers honorary membership. Whilst we were there Montgomery fought and won his first battle in Africa 鈥� at Alam Haifa. This was a perfect model of defence , with the RAF hammering the enemy from bases only a few miles away. After four days Rommel gave up and shortly afterwards returned to Germany. We then began intensive training for the attack. Completely new tactics were to be used 鈥� tanks used en masse and not in 鈥榩enny packets鈥� and to lead the way through marked passages in the minefields. The guns, too were to be to be directed onto magna-targets, whole regiments, and divisions and even the entire Army, to be bound together 鈥� this demanded very accurate surveying to put us all onto the same 鈥榞rid鈥�. I was a GPO (Gun Position Officer) as the battle started and read the message 鈥榝or all troops from the Army Commander鈥� - 鈥淲e are going to hit the enemy for six right out of Africa鈥�. This was met with riotous laughter 鈥� not entirely ironic. After the historic opening barrage the fighting - a 鈥榙og-fight鈥� Monty called it, lasted fourteen days, as he had forecast, and we were then out once again into the open desert.
During the dog-fight most of our firing was programmed by the regiment or higher formations- planned barrages to support advances by the tanks or infantry. There were also ops out in the light tanks (Honeys) that were used for this purpose and they did direct shoots when targets presented themselves. I was out in this role several times but mostly I was with the guns. There was much confusion, Stuka raids several times a day and sporadic enemy shelling. We were glad to see parties of German prisoners coming in from time to time. We were moving forward slowly a mile or so at a time - much evidence of enemy withdrawal over ground pitted with many shell holes and abandoned trenches littered with battlefield debris. We captured a German ambulance complete with doctor and staff and eventually all signs of enemy resistance faded and we could stretch out in the open desert. One great problem at Alamein was the congestion - worse than a smash up on a motorway.
Attempts to cut off the fleeing enemy were thwarted by heavy rain, many vehicles bogged down to their axles in mud and for four days we had no petrol - supply trucks were stuck. We were directed to a training area south of Tobruk - we were told for three weeks - to relieve congestion on the coast road. But in fact we were there for three months whilst our heavy trucks were 鈥榖orrowed鈥� by the units following up closely on the enemy to augment their supply columns. So we did not fire a gun in anger until we reached the Mareth Line in March 1943. This enforced break was uneventful and monotonous but it did not stop us having a very merry Christmas. We had plenty of turkeys and other goodies and there was much jollification. The Anglo-American landing in the west was going well and 1st Army had started their advance to Tunjs. This no doubt hastened Rommel鈥檚 retreat so as to consolidate the German forces in Tunisia. He did not stop until he reached the Mareth Line. On 3rd March we at last got the order to move and covered the 1500 miles to Medanine in 11 days. We were to take part in the assault on the strong line built by the Italians to keep the French out. But this was only partially successful and we were detached to join the New Zealand Division who were making a left hook through Wilders Gap to take the Mareth Line from the rear. This did the trick and the battle moved on to the next obstacle - the Wadi Akarit. Another full scale attack was necessary and again we took part in a left wing hook and after some fierce fighting we emerged onto the plain with a clear run to Tunis. From time to time we glimpsed the Americans away to our left - they were part of 1st Army and had done well but had suffered bad casual ties when Rommel sent one of his Panzer Divisions to raid them. I talked to some of them - they were very complimentary about our long advance, and gave us some of their fabulous rations 鈥� such things as steak and kidney pies, marmalade, rice puddings, boiled puddings and Players.
In April we were 鈥榣ent鈥� to 1st Army for the final assault on Tunis. There was fairly continuous fighting with large barrages along the main line of attack and on 12th May we fired our last rounds in Africa. Enemy morale had crumbled in the last weeks, with the prisoners coming in in droves - the Italians very happy that it was all over, but the Germans still defiant - I spoke to some who told me they would still win the war!
After a Victory Parade - at which the French colonionists were jubilant - we moved back to the Tripoli for rest and refit, and in August the regiment moved to Bizerta to help with the preparations for the invasion of Sicily - in which we took no direct part. But I went on a Staff Course in Palestine. This however had to be aborted as I caught jaundice - a victim of the epidemic then all over the Middle East. This meant seven weeks in a General Hospital in what is now the Gaza strip! October saw me back with the regiment, which had then moved to Rovigo in Algeria, to be billetted on a farm whose main crop was the vines from which they made their abominable red wine. They were in trouble with the Allied Occupation Authority for objecting the plough up the vines to grow corn to save shipping space - happily we were not involved in this political wrangle.
We had a very pleasant time there and enjoyed another very jolly Christmas - we organised a dance in the Village Hall to which carefully chosen local inhabitants were invited - and I drove fifty miles there and fifty miles back so we had the company of twelve nursing sisters from the main hospital in Algiers.
After Sicily was taken we took our first steps onto the mainland of Europe. First with a minor, mainly fortuitous landing on the toe of Italy, then with landings at Salerno and Anzio. Neither of these were fully successful 鈥� we were destined for Anzio but there was no room for any more guns so we were diverted to Benevento.
We sailed from Algiers to Naples, where I saw for the first time a war-damaged city - I had missed the Blitz and there was no bombing of cities in Egypt. My most uppermost thought was 鈥淲hat an untidy mess!鈥� but then war is a mess in every respect. At Benevento we were in reserve and whilst we were there we provided the guns for the Central Mediterranean Training Centre. Two impressions whilst there - first I went with our Colonel to reconnoitre our positions near Cassino, where we were to go shortly. On the way we watched a large fleet of American bombers sent to bomb the monastery at Cassino miss their target and hit a similar mountain feature some twenty miles to the south - well within our lines - no serious damage, the region was virtually uninhabited. But what a waste! And on a visit to the Allied Combined Headquarters in a large palace at Caserta, on an administration job, I found every desk occupied by one British officer sitting alongside one American of equal rank - truly a combined effort! Another memorable sight - Vesuvius in major eruption - a large mushroom cloud and thick dust everywhere for miles around. But no action and no shooting. I had decided to ask for a transfer to A.O.P. (Air Observation Post). Why? Well, I had been abroad for four and a half years, was I homesick, or getting stale? A bit of both perhaps. Prompted by a visit to a regiment by Oliver Leese, the Commander-in-Chief, who had replaced Montgomery (on his way to command the Normandy invasion) and he was flown in by Auster. This was a light aircraft used by the A.O.P. and the two pilots spent the night in our mess. They told us all about their job. Artillery observation from the air was not a new idea, in 1914-18 they had used balloons, but had been developed in the 1930s - firstly using RAF pilots. This did not work very well, and when the Auster became available, easy to fly and able to land and take off in a field, why not use gunner officers. Then arose the long running squabble about flying - the RAF insisted it was their job and nobody else鈥檚. The Navy won with the Fleet Air Arm, but the Army did not succeed. So R squadrons were formed to which RA officers were posted. This worked very well and there were now thirty or so such units, one of which had been with us in Tunisia. By apt coincidence the very next day we had a circular from Army HQ calling for volunteers for this service. My Colonel tried to dissuade me but eventually agreed and so I was off. I sailed from Naples in a converted passenger liner (name forgotten) after fond and somewhat liquid farewells, and after an uneventful voyage came up the Clyde just as a Naval convey, including the Nelson, was sailing out to join the Normandy invasion fleet.. Because of long service abroad I accepted the offer of four weeks disembarkment leave. Seeing old friends and my relations again was a great thrill. My parents and I had a short seaside holiday. I tried to borrow a tennis racquet from a public court but none was available - 鈥淒on鈥檛 you know there鈥檚 a war on?鈥� an indignant attendant asked me
Then I had a very pleasant three months at the Elementary Flying Training School at Cambridge. The Auster is quite easy to fly and I went solo after ten hours. At that time the sky over eastern England was full of aircraft of all kinds - the greatest hazard was avoiding them, while taking care to keep below a flight of Flying Fortresses overhead one could miss a squadron of Spitfires underneath! In November my course transferred to Andover to join the Operational Training Unit there. And now at last I could get back to shooting. Most of our time was spent on the ranges at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain. I found I had not lost the knack and so passed out and put up my wings in time for a spell of Christmas leave.
The course reassembled on 5th January 1945 at the old Royal Artillery barracks at Woolwich to await our postings. Most AOP Squadrons were now in North West Europe some in Italy and a few in the Far East. So it was a fair bet where we would go. I was destined for Nijmegen to a unit supporting the 1st Canadian Army and set off for there on 20th January. Not sorry to leave London - very gloomy, much bomb damage, the odd and bang of a V2 rocket. By train up the main line of communication for 21 Army Group across bitterly cold and snowbound country. Nijmegen was on the banks of the main stream of the Rhine, with its bridge still showing the damage it suffered during the Arnhem debacle (Montgomery鈥檚 only serious mistake) and untouched by the Battle of the Bulge - Hitler鈥檚 final attempt to forestall Nemesis. The squadron occupied an airstrip alongside a tall building which housed in parts a kind of nunnery but was occupied by a miscellaneous rabble of British Army units. We had several rooms on the ground floor, but the ambience was so discouraging, and the smell so disgusting, that I elected to join kindred spirits in tents 鈥� in spite of the cold - outside by the airstrip. The whole of the Rhine delta was in flood, and the fighting was confined to the west bank, thickly wooded by the Reichwald Forest, in which a German Parachute Division was putting up a desperate fight. The Canadians were engaged with OperationVeritable - to clear this area. Very few targets presented themselves - nearly all the shooting was by Corps or Divisional fireplans, so our sorties were confined to patrolling - too often my log book read N.M.S. - N.T.R. (No movement seen, Nothing to report). We had virtual air superiority the only German aircraft I saw for some time was a single jet fighter which flew down our runway without firing a single shot - as if to say 鈥淟ook what we鈥檝e got)鈥�. Jets then were fairly new idea.
On 23rd March the Rhine Crossing took place - we did shoots on suspected gun positions. The whole operation was a success and thereafter the end was in sight, we moved forward finishing up on a large airfield which served Canadian Army Headquarters out side Bremen. 鈥淰E鈥� came on 7th May with little to mark it except absolute quietness and a feeling of finality.
Anyone brave enough to have read to here will have seen that by far the major part of my contribution to victory was in North Africa. I found N.W.Europe disappointing - the weather most of this few months was bad, and I never got used to there being buildings and people to get in the way. In Holland we were obviously polite and welcoming as the civilians came flocking, usually in the evening, to see what we were doing. But in Germany it was different, we kept them well away from the air strips and other places we occupied - not that they wanted to intrude, the few we saw were sullen and despondent.
When the fighting had finished we became a taxi and mail delivery service. A remarkable number of senior officers were coming and going to Canadian HQ - some needed a lift back to the UK. This obviously involved crossing the Channel and we had to be careful of the weather as there was no air to ground air communication. Leave was plentiful - I had a week immediately after VE day and saw London making merry - then another longer one in August. The threat of a posting to the Far East - which applied mostly to the later entrants - receded after Japan surrendered.
In October I had an interesting 鈥榟oliday鈥� in the Harz mountains, where a German glider flying school was opened as a leave centre for officers. They used these units to train Luftwaffe pilots bedevilled by shortage of petrol.

They had very efficient machines - all made of plywood and plastic. And we were not allowed to go solo - the instructors were RAF people and very knowledgeable. Launching was by winch and being in mountainous country it was not too difficult to pick up currents. One day we had got up to 4000 feet when I suddenly felt a rocking and banging about - I was in the front seat with the instructor behind me. I called 鈥榃hat鈥檚 wrong?鈥� he replied I鈥檝e dropped my cigarette. Don鈥檛 worry, it鈥檒l blow out the back鈥�
I made sure we got safely back to solid ground very quickly!
In November we moved back to the UK to be the resident squadron at the OTU at Andover. Our time then was spent in giving joy rides to different kinds of people. There were still senior courses at the School of Artillery at Larkhill - these included a day spent with AOP - lectures and air shoots, And we gave 鈥渁ir experience鈥� to groups of cadets from schools. By far the most interesting of these duties was our liason with the Royal Navy鈥檚 main submarine base at H.M.S. Dolphin at Portsmouth - they came to us for flips around the country and we went to them for underwater trips to the Nab Tower and back. They had many of their craft in reserve and every day one had to be taken on a short trip to test its seaworthiness. These, it may be imagined, were very much social occasions.
Then on 28 May 1946 came final demobilisation. For six years and eight months His Majesty had provided me with board and lodging, and had paid my travelling expenses without doubt or hinder. And what did I get for it? The technical knowledge was of little use - how to shoot field guns and fly light aeroplanes, But the overall experience and the understanding of how people behave in all sorts of situations has stood me in good stead all the rest of my life.

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