大象传媒

Memoirs of W/CPL Shaw,D.

I was 16 years old when war broke out. I joined the L.D.V which became the Home Guard and spent two nights a week Home Guard duties and two nights a week on Fire Patrol. I continued doing this for two years until I was called up. Straight after training I was on a ship to Africa with the 8th Army troops. We left England early 1942 and set sail from home, cutting through the Atlantic toward Africa. Landing at Durban we spent some time training, as we were to be deployed to the Far East, but our orders soon changed and we were then on course for the Gulf of Suez. We arrived at our waypoint in the early hours of the morning, I remember the troop carriers all lined up, ready to take the boys from Suez. 700 men and Officers for one week of dessert training. Before long I was part of the 10th Corps, and we pressed the offensive toward Alexandria, while the 13th Corps attacked further south of our position. I remember that we had a difficult job keeping up with the advance, chasing from Egypt through Tobruk, Benghazi and Tripoli! By now we had began really gritting our teeth and 鈥檚ticking it to them鈥�. We were also wearing the 鈥橠essert Rats鈥� flashes on our uniforms. Once in Tunisia we rested for 3 days, and made provision to waterproof our kit, equipment and even vehicles! Then again we were loading onto the L.C.T (Landing Craft Transports). As we were beginning to load up, I noticed that American planes were flying low overhead, each towing a pair of Gliders. The airborne was on the way.

We noticed a strangely red sky over Sicily, the anti-aircraft fire was very bad. I remember thinking of the American soldiers in the planes and gliders whilst the anti-aircraft bullets raged into the sky. We later heard that many of them had been dropped in the sea, others had overshot their landing zones greatly. Whenever in action we heard the pipers playing.

With war in full swing we didn鈥檛 often get the opportunity of a good feed, so we made do with what we had, and often had to improvise! We had issue biscuits that were too hard to eat, even the buts of our rifles bounced off them so we used to put them all in a dixie and cover it with water, by the time we woke we they were soggy. The cook would add two ladels of sugar and a few tins of condensed milk, we called it Biscuit Porridge!! In Tobruk we once ran out of bread for 6weeks so it was arranged for a Destroyer to set moorings in Tobruk and use their kitchens to make bread for us. They baked hundreds upon hundreds of loaves for the troops! I had joined R.E.M.E and was part of the regiment the first day it was formed. Now we were on the brink of the invasion of Italy. We landed at Reggio, and began unloading our vast amount of equipment and vehicles. As we were unloading onto the beach I heard shouting 鈥淕et Down! Drop Flat!鈥� Tanks of Goerings' Division had broken through where we were landing! There were only five or six of them but they came really close. We were still unloading our 3.7 AA Guns so we couldn鈥檛 fire at them. We were lucky there was one of our Destroyers in the harbour, it opened fire on the tanks from the bay. Within 20-30 minutes we were attacked again by Stuka Dive Bombers, but within a few minutes a single spitfire engaged them and soon chased them away.

We continued up through Italy. The 5th Army (American) had already arrived at Cassino. Not long after, the line of advanced was forced to stop because of the battle at Cassino. Within a few days the 97th were also ordered to Cassino. We were in the 10th Corps, 1st Indian Division, the Polish Brigade and the Gurkas. The Americans had a few gun batteries, and we were there for 6 weeks while it was shelled and bombed. We often heard an American soldier who was operating the Guns shout 鈥淭eselring, call that roll boss, here she comes!鈥� Then the earth shook as the artillery went up. As we drove into Casino we passed Americans and they were calling 鈥淗eya Limeys, welcome to the shooting Gallery!鈥�

One afternoon it was a quiet and sunny Sunday, we were on the side of a hill amongst the trees when we saw a huge column of men, similar to monks with hoods and habits down to their ankles. They turned out to be French Moroccans, about 100 of them in a line moving silently. They had one officer, at the front, a huge man with a long dagger in his waist band and a Colt automatic in a holster. Behind the column were seven women on Donkeys, then behind them were 8 men herding about 60 sheep. They went up the hill and vanished without a sound. The next day they attacked the 20 German Pill boxes on the hills, wearing just loin-cloth and carrying daggers and hand grenades! We nicknamed them 鈥榯he Goums鈥�. Once we took Cassino we continued on our way.

Soon we were joined by the 1st Army, and the advancing line stretched across Italy. (1st Army, the 5th Army and the 8th Army). Once we reached Milan we had orders to drive through to the main park where we were to take a short break, as we went along via Rome we saw that they were hanging Mussolini with his women and others. About 21 in total were hanging upside down from this garage gantry. The blood dripping down on the pavement had made a great mess. The partisans had come down from the hills, hundreds of them. That evening we stopped up in the park. Towards nightfall, myself and a friend decided to try and get out to the town, although we were ordered not to go out for fear of trouble with the partisans. Anyway, we did get out. We hadn鈥檛 seen people like this for months so we decided to look for a few bars. We enjoyed a good drink before deciding to head back at about 11pm but when we went outside we could hear the music and see the lights, hundreds of partisans, men and women celebrating.

As we stood there watching the music suddenly stopped and a voice came over the microphone. A man announced that two English soldiers had come to join the party. They made sure we always had a drink for the whole night, and the girls were lining up to dance with us. We were the only two soldiers from any army amongst 3-4 hundred partisans! We were treated like royalty! It was 4am by the time we were finished shaking hands and parting with everyone, but after months and months of war, this was a thing never to be forgotten! On the way back to camp we were surprised to see one of our Jeeps, jacked up on bricks, wheels missing. As we neared we noticed an officer standing outside a flat on the second story of the building, he was shouting us to fetch wheels from Camp! It actually made us feel a lot better knowing we weren鈥檛 the only ones to leave camp for a good night. The next day we pushed up to the front again.

Being in the R.E.M.E was non stop, such a lot happened. If it wasn鈥檛 guns not working it鈥檇 be tanks breaking down or vehicles needing recovering or wirelesses needing repairing! One of our biggest jobs was rescuing and recovering a 鈥楩lying Fortress鈥� that had landed and sunk up to its belly. During Cassino a British Tank got half way up 鈥楬angmans Hill鈥�, on the side of a Monastery! Nobody ever found out how it got there! We also passed 鈥楳illion Dollar Hill鈥� at Cassino, it was called that because that鈥檚 how much it cost the Americans to take it in men and equipment.

I could talk on about the villages where we stopped off to eat and rest, the children and the old people lining up with empty tins, waiting for some of our food. We always did our best to try and spare them a ladle of beans or a tin of bully.

There鈥檚 just so much to tell about 5 years serving my country in the Second World War, and I wouldn鈥檛 have missed it for the world. I sometimes find myself thinking back on the war, and what we left behind, and how lucky we were to come back alive. There are times when my mind goes back to those of the Royal and Merchant Navies, the Royal Airforce, and the Army, who did not return home. We will always remember them all.

W/CPL Dennis William Shaw (REME)
Attached to 97th HAA
10th CORPS
8th ARMY

THEATRE鈥橲 OF WAR:

*MIDDLE EAST *NORTH AFRICA *SICILLY *ITALY

DECORATIONS:

*AFRICA STAR *DEFENSE MEDAL
*ITALIAN STAR
*1939-1945 MEDAL
*1939-1945 STAR

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