大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Deb Roach of the CSV Action Desk with 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Bill Cutler and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

I was trained as a driver in the Army and was attached to a small unit that was to liaise between Army units and civilians--to get the local government working again. This changed to a military government unit as soon as we crossed the borders.
I don't suppose many people knew that before we took our vehicles into Normandy, we had to water proof them. This meant covering most of the engine in a tpe of plastic with a snorkel from the carbeurator over the top of the cab.

We drove through London to Tilbury Docks, seeing a number of doodle bugs flying over London to be loaded into a liberty ship. We had to stay in the cabs of the lorries, as we were lifted by the crane and dropped in the hold of the Liberty Ship. We were kept in the lorries so we could park them on board ship.

As we sailed down the Thames, a big illuminated sign on the bank of the river wished us good luck!

On arrival at Normandy, we were lifted out of the Liberty ship into a T.L.C tank landing craft--the driver in the cab--again very scary.

We were some miles offshore and were taken in to about fiver or six feet of water and had to drive off the T.L.C., in first gear at full throttle standing in the cab ov the Lorry through a maked out line on the beach through the cleared land mines.

I'm afraid my memory does not recall much of what happened between Normandy and Antwerp, as after spending a few days in Normandy we moved rather quickly only staying for a couple of days anywhere. You must remember it was over 60 years ago.

Read about Bill's travel on to Antwerp in the next chapter.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.