大象传媒

The beauty of it was that although we had done everything as if we were going to stay there for a considerable time, in fact we only stayed for 4 days.
I have been talking about Platoons, Companies and Battalions etc, I had better explain them.
Section Platoon Company
i/c Corporal i/c Lieutenant i/c Major
6 Riflemen 2 i/c Sergeant 2 i/c Captain
2 i/c L/Cpl Batman /Runner C.S.M.
No 1 L M G 3 Sections 2鈥� Mortar Team
No 2 L M G P.I.A.T. Team
2 Signalmen
3 Platoons
Battalion
Bn H.Q. Headquarter Company Support Company
C.O. Lt/Col C.O. Major C.O. Major
2 i/c Major 2 i/c Captain 2 i/c Captain
Adjutant Captain Platoon of Pioneers 3鈥� Mortar Platoon
R.S.M. Platoon of Signallers Anti-Tank Platoon
O.R.Q.M.S. Platoon of Motor Transport Heavy M/Gun Pln
2 Clerks
4 Rifle Companies
A Brigade was 3 Battalions A Division was 3 Brigades A Corps was 2 or more Divisions. An Army was 2 or more Corps.
I belonged to No 11 Platoon. D Company. 5th Bn Wiltshire Regiment. 129 Brigade. 43[Wessex] Division. 30 Corps. 2nd Army

When the fighting was over, we became occupation troops, and a no fraternisation order was in force. This meant that we were to have no social contact with the local population. Our Battalion was to occupy an area around the town of Wittengen Kriese (County) Gifhorn. My Company occupied a neighbouring village of Knesebeck. We had to commandeer our own accommodation, and my platoon took over a large house at a crossroads on the outskirts of the village.
The inhabitants of the house were told that they had 2 hours in which to pack up and leave. You can imagine the panic this caused, and in the confusion they took very little with them, we immediately commandeered what was left. It was a beautiful house with stables and outbuildings at the rear. In the lounge, there was a grand piano. This brings me to the talent that there was in a normal infantry platoon. One of the men had been a concert pianist, another was an accordionist, a third could play the trumpet, whilst a fourth played the drums. I don鈥檛 know where the drums came from? , They just mysteriously appeared. There were some wonderful musical evenings, and on Sunday afternoon the pianist played classical music. The grounds inside the garden walls were soon filled with troops listening to him, whilst outside a large number of the local population gathered.
Another member of the platoon had been a cartoonist with one of the London newspapers. One of the cartoons he produced for us was of an incident that had happened during the war. A platoon was dug in on a railway embankment, whist about 100 yards in front a German squad were entrenched in a small wood. Every evening, our hot meal was brought up in large containers, at the same time a horse drawn field kitchen came to the Germans {live and let live}. The cartoonist drew a sketch of the field kitchen with the Germans lined up to get their food. On the end of the line were 2 British tommies. A caption read 鈥� Hey! Jack I think we are in the wrong queue鈥�.
Now that the European war was over, and the Japanese were still fighting strongly, it was decided that 100 men from every Battalion in Europe should be withdrawn and sent to the Far East. Naturally it was to be 100 of the youngest and regular soldiers who were chosen to go. As I was both young and a regular I was one of those picked. All were gathered together at Reinforcement centres in Bruges. Belgium. Shortly after we arrived there, the Americans dropped the first Atom Bomb. Our move was put on hold, then the second 鈥淎鈥� Bomb was dropped, and our move was cancelled. All of us were given the choice of two options?. We could go back to our units in Germany or volunteer to join one of 4 Regiments that were being formed in Britain. I decided to volunteer, and so another long journey confronted me.
After going through the Channel Ports, I Boarded a troop train at Dover, travelling through London destined for South Wales, arriving at Pembroke Docks where lorries鈥� waited to convey us to a Nissen-hutted Camp on the coast at a place called Angle. The camp had been a Coastal Artillery Site, and it seemed that it had been un-occupied for a considerable time, consequently it was in quite a bad condition, fortunately! we were not to stay there very long. I was now joining the 8th Battalion Manchester Regiment. On arrival The Officers and Senior N.C.O鈥檚. greeted us as if we were new recruits from a training Depot, this was because we had been completely kitted out with new clothing at the transit camp in Bruges, and must have looked like Rookie Soldiers. None of us had, had any home leave since our embarkation leave prior to going to France. Naturally we asked when our disembarkation leave would start. It took the threat of us not going on parade, that convinced the officers to check, and so we were granted 14 days leave.
On returning from that leave, we settled down to peacetime soldiering, and all its attendant spit and polish. Shortly afterwards, we were moved into the town of Pembroke and into Lanion Barracks. This was a brick built camp, very much like the first barracks I ever went to in Ireland. Going into a proper barracks meant that we really settled into peacetime soldiering. This included Sunday morning鈥檚 Church Parade. The whole Battalion formed up on the Barrack Square, and were inspected by the Commanding Officer prior to marching to the town鈥檚 principle church. Before marching off, the order was given for the non-conformist鈥檚 to fall out and make their way to their relevant religious establishment. (This meant Jews, Methodists, and anyone other than Church of England. As I had been raised as a Weslyan Methodist, I went into Pembroke and found a Chapel of that denomination. The service was exactly as I had been used to, so I felt completely at home. After the service, as I went out of the chapel, the preacher was at the door saying goodbye to the congregation as they left. He shook my hand and thanked me for attending his service, he then turned to a civilian couple and asked them if they would take me to their home and make me welcome. They did this and although everyone was still on rationing, they gave me lunch. I thanked them and went back to barracks. That evening I went back to that chapel for the 6 o鈥檆lock service. Again they made me very welcome, and this time a different couple took me to their home, giving me supper. For the rest of the time at Pembroke I went to that chapel for the Sunday morning and evening services.
When I had been with the Manchester Regiment for about 3 months, a notice was posted on the Company Notice Board saying that a new Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment was being formed to go to the Middle East. Wanting another move and especially wanting to travel, I volunteered, and was quickly accepted. I had to leave Wales and travel to Berkhamstead in Hampshire where the 11th battalion was being formed. It took about 2 weeks to get organised and to receive our tropical clothing. The Battalion then travelled by train to Liverpool to join the troopship 鈥淓mpress of Scotland鈥�. She was a 28,000 ton ex- Canadian Pacific liner originally named the 鈥淓mpress of Japan鈥�. It was quickly re-named on the outbreak of hostilities with Japan. When the war first began she was taken to America to be fitted out as a troopship, here they converted her the American way, putting in bunk beds instead of hammocks, which was the normal British conversion.
Our journey from Liverpool to Port Said in Egypt took just 7 days. Our Commanding Officer went ashore to find out what was going to happen to us. When he came back on board, he spoke on the ships loudspeaker system, telling us that we had not been expected, but arrangements were in hand to get us ashore and to a new camp. Presently 2 troop trains came alongside the dock. We got on the trains which took us to an unknown destination. This turned out to be Tel-El-Kebir. Here 20 ton trucks transported us out into the desert. When they stopped, all we could see was a huge pile of camping equipment still in their packaging. We were told that until we had erected the tents, we would have to sleep rough under the stars. Most of the men had not seen that type of tent before, and as I had erected that type when I was in the Army Cadet Force, I was in great demand to help them.
The next morning our Commanding Officer walked down the road to the nearest Army Unit, he borrowed a Jeep and driver from them, and proceeded to General Headquarters. Cairo., When he returned to us, he gathered everyone around him to tell what he had found out. He said that we should not have been in Egypt, but in Scotland. The nearest we had got to Scotland was travelling out on the 鈥淓mpress of Scotland鈥�. However we were going to stay in Middle East Command, and so all the equipment that we required to make us an efficient fighting force began to reach us, after about a month in that horrible camp, we were on the move again. This time it was to Cyprus, so back to Port Said to catch the ferry to Farmagusta. We were taken by a 陆 size mineral railway to Nicosia the Capital of Cyprus. The only accommodation capable of billeting a Battalion was at the R.A.F. Station Nicosia. The billets were made of stone walls with an arched corrugated iron roof, and were extremely comfortable. I had by now been made Anti-Tank Platoon Storeman. And so I made my billet in the stores.
I now got into the routine of going to the N.A.A.F.I. (Catering Establishment) every evening and buying a bottle of the local Keo Sherry, taking it back to my billet, where I consumed it while writing letters home. The sherry was such good stuff, that I was to write letters of great length, that my Mother wondered what had made me so garrulous. While at R.A.F.Nicosia, we were ordered to build a new camp for ourselves on the other side of Nicosia to the aerodrome. It was called for some unknown reason 鈥淲aynes Keep Camp鈥�. We were never to occupy it, as were now ordered to make an emergency move to Tunisia. Pre-war, this had been an Italian Colony, But now the native population wanted their independence, and so they began to murder the Italian settlers in order to obtain this .
We travelled to Tunis in the most terrible transport that you could imagine. A Squadron of Hampden bombers had been going back to England to be scrapped, and had called in at R.A.F. Nicosia for re-fuelling, and such was the urgency for us to get to Tunis, that they were ordered to take as many men as they could carry, without any alterations being made to the aircraft. This meant that we had an extremely uncomfortable journey. Also going with us was 6 Dakota transport aircraft which each carried a jeep and trailer. These were the only vehicles we had when we arrived, so the battalion had to commandeer civilian buses and lorries. Of course this made us unpopular from the start, and led to all sorts of little problems. Still it wasn鈥檛 to matter, as the British Government decided that we shouldn鈥檛 become involved. This led to the disbandment of the Battalion, with most of the men returning to England. Several of us went back to Egypt and were sent to No.5 Base Ordnance Depot at Tel-El-Kebir. The staff of the depot belonged to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and so as infantrymen we were treated a little differently, one of the differences was that they asked us what we would like to do. (This was something that never occurred in a Battalion, we were always told what we were to do).
I said that I would like to drive, so I was given a jeep and told that I was to be the Adjutant鈥檚 driver whenever she went out of camp. Inside the camp a German P.O.W. drove her around. The Adjutant was a Junior Commander in the A.T.S. (Equivalent to a Captain in the Army.) I was at various times to drive her all over Egypt, quite often to Cairo. Once I had to take her to Palestine for a conference, this involved going over the Sanai Desert from Quassasin on the Canal to Gaza on the Egyptian Border. At Quassasin and Gaza there were check-points where everyone crossing the Desert had to report. If you hadn鈥檛 reported to the second check, a breakdown vehicle would be sent to look for you. It was just my luck, that as I had been the last vehicle of the day to go through the Quassasin check, I had the misfortune to break down, this meant that we would have to wait until the next morning before anyone came to look for us. In the desert , as soon as the sun went down the sand did not retain the heat so it soon went quite cold. I always carried my bed-roll in the vehicle so at least we had three blankets to keep us warm. This was to be the only time I slept with an officer and a female one at that.
While at Tel-El-Kebir, a new type of vehicle came there, which was to be a replacement for the American Jeep. It was called the Land Rover, and had to be tested under Desert conditions, so a very thorough test was set up that involved crossing the Sanai from the Suez Canal to Aquaba (now Eilat) on the Gulf of Socatra. A complete break-down unit and other supporting units were to go as well as a brand new jeep. I was fortunate to be chosen to drive that Jeep, it took over a week to get to Eilat, giving both vehicles a rough time. The Jeep was a faster vehicle, but the Land Rover endured everything that was thrown at it.
Also while at Tel-El-Kebir, I had my first known contact with classical music. One evening I was in the N.A.A.F.I. (Other Ranks Canteen)
and a German P.O.W. Orchestra came to entertain us. Before they began to play a particular piece of music, one of the French horn players went outside. The orchestra started playing, with the horn playing outside. It was an eerily beautiful symphony, but unfortunately I have never been able to find out its title. Many, many years later, I was on a train going to reading to visit my daughter when a young lady got on the train and sat opposite to me. We soon got into conversation, and I found that she was a cellist with one of the London Orchestras, and her husband was Adrian Leaper an orchestra conductor. I told her my story of the P.O.W. orchestra, and she told me the name of the piece of music, however as we were deep in conversation, by the time I reached reading I had forgotten it. When I had been at Tel-El-Kebir for about 6 months, the inevitable happened, me Regiment wanted me back, and so began another journey back to England.
I was going to Morpeth in Northumberland, and as the train passed through Leicester, and I decided to break my journey to see my parents. When I told Dad that I had a 2 hour wait at derby, he suggested that I call on my Aunt Ruby. Until then I did not know that I had an aunt at Derby. As I was travelling with all my equipment including my Rifle and Bayonet, I knew I could leave all my equipment in the left luggage office at the station. So I arrived at my Aunts with my Rifle slung over my shoulder. When Aunt Ruby answered my knock, she took one look at me and said 鈥測ou鈥檙e a Swindell鈥�. And although she hadn鈥檛 seen me since I was a baby, she made me very welcome and said she was delighted that I had taken the opportunity to see her. All too soon it was time to catch the train to Morpeth. On reaching the station, I was met, and taken by truck to a nissen-hutted camp at a place called Bedlington. The year was 1947, the coldest year in my memory, fortunately alongside the camp was an open-cast coal field. This meant that by night time raids we were able to keep our billets warm.

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