大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Helen Oram, Scotland csv in behalf of Jim Glennie and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

SOLDIER KILLED IN TRAINING

On joining the Gordon Highlanders I spent six weeks training at Gordon Barracks and ten weeks at Sunnybank School in Aberdeen. The last week of training was a Battle Course at the Black Dog. We had to crawl under wire, wearing small packs. Live ammunition was fired over your head. When they lined us up to count us one man in the next platoon was missing. Blood and body were all over us. The biggest part of him found was his leg.

While training at Shalford in Bucks I had a big scare while we were firing 3 inch mortars. One soldier put the bomb in the wrong way. With us shouting at him he came to his senses and got the bomb out in time.

D DAY

After two or three days on a boat, sleeping in hammocks on the deck, we landed at Sword Beach in the afternoon. Shells were flying, but we charged on. When I stepped on to the beach, there was a body lying there. I said to myself, "What am I, a Turra loon, doing here?" (a young lad from Turriff, Aberdeenshire).

Going inland, you had to go gingerly, keeping to the sides of the roads, as the fields were all mined. I looked back to the beach from a small hill and saw hundreds of ships offshore and the wrecks of sunken ships.

CHASING THE GERMANS

We chased the Germans here and there, through farms, etc. An inn which we scouted had a cellar with big barrels of wine. A few of the older soldiers tapped into the wine and were ordered off by an officer.

A few days later the corporal ordered us to get our gear on and take as much live ammo as possible. We went through a wood and landed near a six-pounder. After about two hours a carrier came up with two paratroopers They told us that the Germans were "a football park away". Two of our boys were captured and shot by the Germans.(After the war the villagers of Tirtavel put up a plaque in their memory.)

I was in a ditch when German Tiger Tanks came up, spraying bullets. I knew that the German infantry would be behind. I was shot in the arm in that wood by a Schmeiser and taken prisoner.

POW
The Germans searched me and my ring and watch were taken. My pay-book, which you were not supposed to lose, was thrown on the ground. I bent to pick it up and they roughed me up. Being young and keen, it went through my mind to hit the young German - stupid, as I would have been shot on the spot. With some others, I was marched to a bungalow and interrogated, then put into a barn. My mate Norrie, who had also been shot, was with me, and an American pilot who could speak some German.

Next day I was sent to a hospital at Alencon, to be treated by a British Doctor who had been captured. I went under gas to be operated on. "Achtung Swastikas" was what flashed in frontof my eyes.He got one bullet out of my arm and gave me it as a souvenir. The other bullet was lodged in my arm but eventually worked its way out through my hand. The German patients in the hospital asked about our rations and I kidded them on that we had plenty sugar, chocolate, bananas,etc.

PRISON CAMP

After hospital we were taken to a small camp then put into a box cart train, 70 prisoners crowded together. It was intensely hot by day and very cold at night. There was no water.

We arrived at Stalag 4B.I was the youngest British POW. There were 8000 prisoners, of all nationalities. There was very little food.

At Christmas 1945 I was on a work party filling up bomb holes at a Benzin factory. In a few months time the Germans were retreating from the Russian and American advance. A German Sergeant-major put us on a march. There was no food. We slept rough for a night. We came to a big building -Colditz. After two days working there on a farm, we were liberated by American tanks.

LEIPZIG

I was one of a group put in charge of German prisoners along with a few Canadians. We started walking back to our lines. We commandeered a house from a German family, giving them an hour to get out. They returned with a German woman who spoke perfect English. She told us the family were quite willing to to let us stay. They knew that the British were far preferable to the Russians, who were ruthless with civilians. We spent a night in the house and they gave us a meal.

We left the next day with one of the Americans for Leipzig. There was nobody about - they were all hiding. We looked in garages for a car. We found one with an inscription on the side saying it was the Mayor's car. People were watching us fron windows. The Canadians, who were older than I was, drove the car. We got food from the Americans. We set off down the autobahn, which was empty of vehicles. We travelled for miles over the next two or three days.
We were stopped in the darkness in one of the German towns by American soldiers: "Who goes there?"

The next morning we were shipped to a big American camp on the French/German border, for a few days. I was given American Army uniform. And so I landed back in Britain dressed like a Yank!

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