大象传媒

Part 4:
Then came the attack for the Rhine and we took ammo of all sorts up to the 15th Scottish Division who spearheaded the attack, 1 ,600 guns laid down the opening barrage and the Jocks captured 13,000 prisoners in three days.; At midnight we got prisoners aboard and took them to Nijmegen, we saw all the gliders which took the Airborne up there, still lying in the fields where they landed. We continued this job until the 11th, when I got back at six in the morning, and went out again at dinner time, this time to Shijlden station with petrol and it was about eight when I got finished. For the next couple of days I was out on ammo and petrol details going via Eindhoven, Best, Tilburg, and on to the dump at Turnhout. We then returned through Tilburg, s'Hertogenbosch to Gemert.
On the 19th we went on a coke detail to Stein, we travelled through Weert, Maesyck then over the Maas and the Princess Juliana Canal, and returning the same way.
On the 21st Feb we left for our new location at Grave, we travelled through Boxmeer, very close to the front line.
Our supply columns did marvellous work, but only thanks to the Pioneers who kept open the muddy roads by sheer guts and hard work, we hope they get the recognition they deserve after this lot is over, being out on the road daily you can see how much they achieve with next to no materials.
On Sunday the 26th we left location at l0 am (after breakfast, of course!) and we travelled to Nijmegen for orders, then over the river on the beautiful bridge and so on to Gemert. We loaded up with rockets, the first we had seen, and travelled up through Grave to the Reichswald on the main Kleve - Gennep road. We parked here and had a kip in the cabs, to the incessant roar of gunfire not far away, I was rudely awakened early in the morning by the skirl of the pipes from a nearby Scottish unit, these lads have fought and died for this territory. In one corner of this meadow were the graves of thirty Britons, some English, some Scottish. We had to wait all day, and it was six o'clock and dark before we were allowed to go up to the rocket positions, which were through Kleve, which is almost completely destroyed.
The last day of the month saw us move location up through Kleve into Bedburg in the Third Reich, we are lucky to have a roof over our heads even if we have thirty of us in a semi-detached house. All the furniture is still in the house so we can make ourselves quite comfortable. There are a few civvies about, but we are not allowed to talk to them, even if we could. The Canadians cleared this town and many houses have been emptied by them, simply by throwing everything out of the windows, some had furniture from the ground right up to the upstairs windows. At this time we saw Rocket firing Typhoons going into action for the first time. We can hear the guns firing continuously not many miles away. The enemy got a bit cheeky on the 1st of March, a Thursday, he came and strafed a convoy right outside our front door, he caused no serious damage though.
The 2nd of March arrived and I am packing to go home on leave On the day I travelled home, the Canadians took Xanten on the banks of the Rhine, evidently the weather was terrible with wind and rain, this was what I was told, but it turned out to have been the 8th, a week later, they waited until I was out of the way? "When I got back on the 17th, all resistance West of the Rhine had ended, except for a few isolated pockets, our barrage balloons were soon being put up near the river.
I really started work again on the Sunday, the 18th, we went into Venlo, then back through Goch, which was taken while I was on leave, then we went via Hechtel, Diest, Louvain and so to load up near Brussels. My co-driver now was Bill Lowe, and as we could find our own billet for the night, I decided to look up our friends in Waterloo. Louis had joined the Belgian Army, but was home on a weekend pass, little Andree was pleased to see me, I am not sure if it was me or the chocolate I took for him. Anyway it was nice to see then all again.
We moved to a new location the next day, this time to a little battered village three miles from Goch, the name of the village is Asperden. On the way up here we came through. Kevelar and Goch, both towns quite badly damaged.
The Battle to cross the Rhine was now hotting up and Spring-like weather with warm sunshine was drying out the ground, the Artillery were lining up for the offensive and by the 21st of March we were keeping very busy and had a hard time passing daily through Goch and Udem delivering ammo to the Regiment. Udem was badly battered the same as Goch, these towns are similar to the towns in Holland and Belgium in the fact that the flags are all flying, but the big difference is that all these are white flags, the flags of surrender, I noticed that as we pass through Goch daily, despite the destruction, the clock on one of the Churches is still going and keeping good time. Our Regiment was now shelling over the Rhine and on the 24th we were told that we are now over the Rhine in strength, which is good news.
For the next three nights, the only sleep we got was catnaps, as we continually supplied the guns with ammunition. Planes were now coming over nightly on bombing runs, but we still escaped them and one night we saw four of them shot down only a few hundreds of yards away. We heard afterwards that 3,300 guns fired a barrage on a 25 mile front for an hour, the Divisional Artillery fired for five days and 13 Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery fired nonstop for 15 hours sending 16,800 rounds over the Rhine, which was now even more congested with Barrage Balloons. On Tuesday, 27th of March we again moved our location up to about two miles from the Rhine, living in a partially destroyed farmhouse. We were taking ammo up to the guns regularly and now the guns are on the banks of the river near Rees, the enemy shelled the positions while we were up there unloading but he missed us once again.
Easter Sunday was a day of rest for us, the rest of exhaustion, we went after lunch to a mobile bath unit at Bedburg. In the evening I wrote home to let them know that I am still in the land of the living.
During the month of March we delivered 23, 384 rounds of ammunition to the Regiment, making a total of 164,098 rounds or 2,564 wagon loads since landing on the beaches, no, I didn't count them all but the Regimental Quartermaster did.
A lovely bright sunny morning greeted us on the 5th of April when I drove a group of ten men back to Brussels on a forty-eight hour leave, it was a long trip, but never mind I can have the same leave even if I am officially on duty. I went via; Udem, Venlo, Diest, Louvain and so to Brussels in about five hours. We booked into the Leave Centre at two p.m. and then made for the shops, three of us then visited the Metropole and saw Abbot and Costello in 'Society' a good laugh. The next day we looked round the city, I could show the others round as I had already spent one leave here. We visited Au Bon Marche; the Anspaach Bazaar and we all had our photos taken to send home. The last morning we did a little more sight-seeing such as the Palais de Justice, the Vauxhall Gardens and the Bourse followed by some last minute shopping before leaving, we returned the same way and got back about nine o'clock in the evening.
The 8th of April 1945 was a Sunday, we had a little Service from a visiting Chaplain and then to work. I went on a detail to Antwerp docks to pick up rations, I went via; Udem, Kleve and over the Maas at the Walsh Bridge - one of the many Bailey bridges which the engineers are so skillful at building, then on to Turnhout in Belgium and so soon to the docks. I came back the same route and when I got back it had turned midnight, I had covered 280 miles, what a way to fetch a tin of milk. A couple of days later we went with four wagons, through Udem to s'Hertogenbosch where we loaded up the No 6 Canadian General Hospital. I was loaded with medicines, bandages, stretchers and filing cabinets etc, on the return journey I was accompanied by a young Canadian doctor from Toronto. We returned over the pontoon bridge at Gennep. crossing the river at Emmerich and up into northern Holland, to a town called Ootmarsum, this part of Holland has only been freed about a week.
We came back the next day through, Almelo, Borneboek, Delden, Hengelo, Enschede, Hooksbergen, Groelo and into Germany at Anholt then through Rees and over the Rhine at 'Westminster Bridge' and so back "home"!
Sunday the 15th saw us moving location once again, this time back to Holland, to a little village called Heuman near Grave, from here we took ammo up to the guns at night, loading in the day and going up at dark, they are at a little village called Elton, eight miles from Arnhem. The only trouble is, the bridge is at Emmerich, so we have to go all round that way, the journey up and back is well over l00 miles, so it is about five in the morning before we get back.
We moved again on the 18th, this time we went over the Rhine at Emmerich and into Northern Holland. The flags of orange were all flying, kiddies waving and cheering and of course asking for sweets and chocolate - which they received. We arrived at the village of Denekamp, where we are billeted in a dairy, the locals are so happy to be free again.
The next day I went on a petrol detail and we went round Almelo, Hengelo to Rijssen, then up to the front between Lingen and Meppen, we then moved to a little wood near Meppen, on the banks of the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Some of our mob then found a rowing boat, so we went for trips up and down the canal. Daily now we see freed prisoners from Holland, Belgium and France trying to make their way home on foot, some of them have handcarts and although in rags, they are all in good spirits.
I went on a detachment to a Canadian R.C.A.S.C. unit on the 24th of April, where I am the cooks wagon, the rest of our platoon are on petrol details. This Canadian unit is at Wahn 15 miles from Meppen. Wahn was a village which was used as a target on the Krupps range, all the roads and gardens have been grown over with grass and weeds, but here and there a shrub rose or two are growing from between broken bricks and concrete. These Canadians are good fun to be with, all the officers are called by their Christian names; being the cooks wagon the next day I went for rations, and on the Dutch border at Nordhorn a big sign had been erected; "Here ends the civilised World. This is Germany, behave like Conquerors, No Fraternizing'. The Canadian Corporal with me said, "Some bloody hopes, my grandparents came from. Germany, I have lots of relatives to look up when we have freed them from the bloody Nazis".
On the 27th we came up via, Melstrup and Lathen, then over the river to a little place in a wood about a mile from Herbrum. At night we went up to the guns which are now covering Emden, we went up through Aschendorf and Papenburg - all these towns are now flying the white flags of surrender. By now, the front stretched from Bremen to Celle, with fierce fighting at Ibbenburen in the Teutoburger Wald where units of the 'S.S.' and Hitler Youth were resisting strongly.
By the 2nd of May I was helping the Regiment to move, the next day we went l5 miles through Leer, then owing to some unexploded bombs in the road, we stopped and spent the night at the railway station. We continued the next day after a bomb disposal team had defused the bombs, we went another twenty miles and are now facing the Port of Wilhemshaven, this was memorable because I was with "A" Echelon and we spent that night in a civvy house - with a kitchen where we made ourselves chips, eggs and beans for supper. The next morning we all got breakfast, and as the last tenants left a toaster and the electric was working, we had beans on toast. The news and the rumours now started to mount up, Hitler is dead, Mussolini has been hanged, Berlin is occupied by the Russians, Resistance in Italy is finished, Hamburg is declared an Open City. We were all hearing horrible tales of the concentration camps with thousands dead and dying, even prisoners being exterminated in gas ovens. Can this all be true, it seems so incredible?
Saturday May the 5th, still with the Regiment, we were told this morning that all German Forces surrendered at 8 p.m. last night, except for some pockets in Norway and in the Bavarian Redoubt. I was checking up my wagon this morning and four German soldiers came up to me - they were "S.S." troops and they wished to surrender, I took them to the Guard Tent and they were taken to the nearest P.O.W. cage. The trouble was, this cage was manned by Polish troops and as they were "S.S." they were absolutely scared stiff. I wonder if they made it to the end of the war ? This little village is called Ostersander.
The next day the Regiment stopped firing so we moved back with them to a few cottages called Papen, south of Meppen. On the first evening there, two Italians who are in a camp nearby wandered in, one of them spoke perfect English, they had been put in a camp for not fighting with the Germans, along with about 400 others, having had very little to eat, they were skin and bone, many had died in the camp. Their guards had now run away so they were enjoying freedom once again. The English speaking one told us how before the war he had been to England for the Clay-Pigeon shooting Championships, he had also studied English for four years in Italy, he was a well educated man who was disgusted with Mussolini for drawing them into a war.
Tuesday the 8th of May is to be V.E. day, we have just heard this on the radio, I came back to the platoon today, Monday, so it is Victory in Europe, at last. We are in a little wood just outside Meppen, and on V.E. day we celebrated first by visiting a Mobile Bath unit in Meppen, then we had a slap-up dinner in this little pine wood in Germany. Capt. Barrows our C.O. thanked us for our hard work and at nine p.m. we all listened to the Kings speech on Capt. Barrows radio, as soon as it was over a battery of Bofors opened fire with a Victory Barrage high in the sky, now before we kip down, it is one minute to midnight, when the Cease Fire officially comes into force, Cheers all round, as on the radio Big Ben chimed, then all went to our beds.
The next morning we had nine o'clock Reveille and at eleven-thirty we all went on Parade in best Battle-dress and scrubbed belts for a speech by the Lt. Colonel commanding the 53rd Medium Regiment R.A.. He thanked us for our work from the beaches of Normandy to the gates of Berlin. He said we had moved over 170,000 rounds of 5.5. shells since landing, which is the equivalent of moving a large Warship. We had also moved large amounts of rations and petrol, all delivered in all weathers by day and by night, and all in a good spirit. We have done our bit and won the war, he said, now we must hope the politicians can win the Peace as convincingly. The End...

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