大象传媒

Bills Story Part 4

ON FRENCH SOIL

After driving ashore we were directed to our assembly point to receive our instructions how to find our battery, which we did without any difficulty. This turned out to be a village called Coalville where we stayed in action defending the section, our division was holding against the enemy, and it used to get a bit warm at times. After the section had been stabilised we were able to go to the beach and have a swim in the English Channel for an hour or two and see what we could buy in the shops in this coastal village. As I have said, it used to get warm at times when the Jerries fired back towards the coast where other troops were landing. One day I was sitting at our make shift table under a cover we had erected to make a sun shield to sit under. While I was writing a letter to my wife, the enemy decided to have another bout of shelling on the coast and, one of their shells landed in a tree not so very far from where I was writing my letter and Boy did I hit the dust, I have never moved so fast and made a mad scramble down into the dugout. When it was all over my mates and I came out to see what damage had been done to any of the vehicles but they were not too bad, but, when we checked where I had been sitting we found a nice piece of shrapnel embedded in a ration box inches from where my feet had been. Somebody must looked after me that day, and as this story is being written and I start thinking what good does all this warring do? And, does any good come out of it? The time we spent at this position turned out to be about six or seven weeks and as the action moved so we had to do the same so that we could give the support when needed.
After this first dose of action it was time for us to move to new positions, which took us to a new position in Lebisey Wood, that turned out to be a very exposed position. One night there was a 鈥� flap鈥� on when the Canadians who we were supporting at this time got a scare on, and started firing their machine guns from their armoured cars around the gun positions and command posts. Why? We never got to know. The action only lasted just over a week, and then it was on the move again, back to support the 6th Airborne Division, this time into a position near Blainville which was situated on a strip of land between the River Orme and the Caen Canal. We got to thinking that the enemy had spent a lot of time getting the range for this spot because they put a lot of counter firing, but we were lucky in that we only had one casualty and he belonged to one of our other batteries. It came out later that the higher ups decided the heavy firing was an attempt to destroy the Pegasus Bridge that the Airborne Division had built but they were not as good shots as our gunners this time. While we were at this position we managed to mess about on the canal, as we had found a small rowing boat, and could have a row up and down the canal, and generally, had a bit of fun, but very mindful of any accidents, or we would have been put on a charge for self inflicted injury. It was at this position that one of our lads had a nasty scare, as, he was eating a biscuit, spread with jam he was stung on the tongue by a wasp and within seconds it was so swollen he could hardly breathe. The only thing to do was to get him to the first-aid post quickly, so I got one of the drivers to get his 15cwt truck and we rushed him off to get treatment. We managed to catch the MO and explained what had happened, and he gave the fellow an injection to counteract the poison from the sting, and said we could take him back to our position at the canal, by which time the swelling had nearly gone down and he was back to normal. I think that by cutting channels we saved a lot of time and, probably saved his life, but that is a thing you do without thinking but pleased to know you managed to do someone a good turn.
At the end of July the Regt. was moved to a new position in support of the Canadians and the Highland Division. This position was situated between Escoville and St. Honorine. At this time we were under the command of 33 Armoured Brigade who were standing by preparing for another go at clearing the Germans out of Caen. By the 8th of August this action saw the clearance of this obstacle, after this it was onwards moving from one position after another as the line advanced forward from one action to another in support of the 6th Airborne Division. Our Regt. along with others were constantly on the move firing our guns from all locations in support of the lads in front and who were relying on our shells helping to clear the way forward for them. In these actions we had fired over 100,000 shells since joining the fighting in France. The race was now on until we reached a place called Prestot and we were not getting a lot of counter-battery fire back again. While we were there we had a scare as the enemy turned coastal gun Cabourg and unfortunately he landed one of his shells on one of our guns injuring all of the crew but only slightly thank goodness. It was at this position that the guns were taken out of action for what was termed a rest period as the Regt had been in action ever since landing in France but not for long. This rest was only for three or four days and that was spent cleaning the guns and all the vehicles using very precious oil and petrol after we had been told time after time that these were a precious commodity. If we protested about this, the orders were, do as you are told, therefore, we did as ordered.
After this short rest period it was time to move on to our next bit of action. This time we were to support the Highland Division and the 33rd Armoured Division in their bid to take St. Valery. It was here that the Scots, got a very bad mauling in 1940, and so they were very pleased to have the chance of getting their revenge for that defeat. They did not have to worry so much this time as the Germans gave up the ghost and retreated very quickly and moved out. With the taking of St. Valery General Montgomery gave them the honour of marching through the town led by their band of massed pipes and drums which I am certain was a lovely sight and sound to hear and watch.
After this scuffle was sorted out, the next move was supposed to be an attack on the port of Dieppe but this was a no go job, as the port was taken without a battle. Pity there was not a few more like that so that we could have got cleared much sooner, but that is war I suppose, and we had to soldier on to the bitter end.
The next objective our regiment was involved with, was to give support on the battle for the port of Le Havre which we did. The build up to this attack was a large double bombing raid to take out the enemy A.A. positions so that there would not be too much loss of lives. As it turned out, this battle did not last very long, only about a week or more and the anticipated casualties were smaller than was expected which pleased everyone except their dependants back home. While the action was going on to take this port back from the Germans, a lot of the people that had been evacuated from the city were waiting near the gun positions hoping that we were not damaging their homes too much. They did say that the only damage was to a farmer's haystack near the cookhouse but the Sergeant cook managed to convince him that it was an act of God and not the cooking stoves being used to prepare meals for the Battery. Well! after all this was over the Regiment was drawn out of the line for a rest period as we had been in constant moves and actions we were ready for it. As usual it was back to bulling up the guns and the wagons and also blancoing all our equipment so that we all looked nice and clean when we took to the road again, which was not very long.
Dunkirk was the next in line, but, as the enemy had with drawn, they had left a strong force behind, but this was considered a minor detail, and, so it was decided, to have units round about, as holding forces until things altered which it did for us. Our destination in this situation was what they called a village and was named La Panne, but it looked more than a village to us, as it turned out we found that it was more like a small town and not a village. After we had got sorted out with all the guns in position and the vehicles in the wagon lines we were able to settle down and get the vehicles filled up with oil and cleaned up. After a few days we were able to relax, and get all our equipment sorted out. When the guns and everything was sorted and everyone was settled in we were able to get our clothing cleaned up a bit and try to look a bit smart and respectable. About a week or so the vehicles were moved to a large house just a few minutes walk down the road and a distance from where our guns were dug-in. During our time here we were under the command of the 107 (Canadian) A.A. Brigade and in support of the 1st Czech Independent Armoured Brigade.
A short time after settling in here we watched the planes and gliders going over to begin the attack on Arnhem, which as we all know now was one of our failures, thank goodness we did not have too many of them. We got to know later that our guns were in action on the old defensive positions of the B.E.F. of 1940. The enemy had left a good number of troops behind and they made a good number of sorties but did not reach as far as they would have liked and so they were kept pinned down in the port of Dunkirk as the Allies were not interested in trying to capture the particular port so all we had to was to sit there and not let them out. The time spent in this position was the longest in any kind of action since landing in France so we had time to spare, we had a cinema in the town but I cannot remember if we saw any films but I do know that the Regt. did organise a few dances when times were slack.
According to my notes when it was possible, a number of members were allowed to take trips into Lille, Ghent and Bruges. There was only one disaster while we were here and that was not our fault. A field that was needed for a gun position had not been cleared of mines, through the lack of engineers to clear them. The only alternative was to send parties of our own members to do this job, things were going well until the urgent call came through for stretcher bearers and first aid kit that the worst had happened. One of the mines had gone off killing the sergeant outright, an officer and one of our drivers died from severe injuries, another sergeant was severely injured and several more of the party were injured but not so serious as the others. This was the most serious incident that our Battery had to contend with during the time we had been in action, and it had to happen at a port the Head Boys were convinced they did not want to bother attacking as it was unimportant to lose too many lives for. The time of year was moving on and we were now into October, and we did not have a lot to do apart from keeping the vehicles clean and ready, for any move that we would have to make if the occasion warranted it. For the people not wanted on the guns or such duties we had the chance to visit places like Lille, Ghent and Bruges. I, along with a group of the rest of members from the wagon lines went on one of the trips to Lille, which we found to be a very nice place. As we looked around we could see that there were some very lovely buildings and it made one wonder how many such places had been destroyed in the taking of such places. The Regt. were having quite a different time now apart from the guns doing answering fire to Germans in Dunkirk but a few weeks on I am afraid we were all in for a shake up.

DISBANDED

What happened towards the end of November all the Regt. except one man to gun was summoned to the cinema one afternoon, and every one attended. The atmosphere was electric as we all started asking questions as to what was happening that we had to gather in the cinema but we were not kept wondering long. The Colonel of our Regt. was in attendance and soon told us the reason for the gathering that afternoon. He told us all that he had received a letter from General Montgomery that the Regt. was to be disbanded, because they were having difficulties replacing the casualties in the infantry So it was decreed that a number of artillery regiments had to be disbanded and to our dismay our Regt was one of these that were to go.
There was not much we could do but gasp and say where shall we all finish up after this shaker to us all. As you can guess this announcement was a shock piece of news to everyone in the cinema that day, but as I have said before there was not a thing we could do about it, this had come from the great man himself Monty. On going back to our quarters and guns respectively, the topic was where do we go from here, no more going into La Panne and having a quiet drink in the caf茅鈥檚 which was the title of a place we call a pub.
After this shock revelation you can guess we were all wondering what was going to happen to us next there was not many of us looking forward to joining the P.B.I. (Infantry). The only thing we could do was sit back and wait and see what the Big Boys, decided to do with us. It was not before long we got orders to prepare for a move for the anticlimax of our Regt. so it was back to the old routine of getting every thing all packed up ready to hit the road again. By mid-December we were settled in the small Belgian village of Heule near Courtrai. These were comfortable billets as we were allotted to live in the civilian homes along with the people and I must say my sincere thanks to all them that put us up for the time we spent with them.
We knew that we would not be staying here very long so every body did their best to relax and not think of what was coming next. All the villagers helped to make our time with them as enjoyable as they could and so there was plenty of invitations to their homes and also organised a few dances at the cafes to help to jolly us up a bit. While this was going on we started disposing of our guns, vehicles, and all of the signals equipment. Being one of the drivers I must have been lucky and classed as a trades man and so avoided being dispersed, and sent along with the rest to join the P.B.I. in England. I am sorry to say that this was the end of an era in which our Regt. became non-existent and a lot of friends and buddies were destined never to meet again after being together since 1939 and along with a few newcomers later on. We lost a few men and some injured but we managed to get through but never thought we would see the Regt. disbanded so quickly. But never mind, we all had some good moments and not so good but you put those behind you and carried on with life and hoped for the best.
After all this the rest of us were all transported to a transit camp where the rest of us were sorted out and allocated to different units, and that is how I and a few others finished up in the 51st Highland Division where I saw out my time till my de-mob in 1946
Continues in Bills Story The Return

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