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Memories of a Sapper, Royal Engineers Part Four 鈥� From Marseille to Timmendorfe Strand on the Baltic as part of the Occupying forces. Demobilised in 1946.

Part four of an oral history interview with the Hon. Alderman Bill Astle conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

鈥淚 had one particular friend of mine, you never counted the costs. If he was broke he鈥檇 probably want to borrow a little bit, none of us had a great deal, a little bit from you, you were laying in bed and your trousers were laying over the end of the bed and you鈥檇 used to go, 鈥榳ell, go and help yourself.鈥� He鈥檇 take two or three coins out of there, whatever he wanted. He was a character and he proudly kept newspaper cuttings and came from a part of Edinburgh called Gorgi still is called Gorgi, Edinburgh and the newspaper cutting had the headline, 鈥楥hicken thieves busy鈥� he said, 鈥楾hat was me!鈥� and he kept (laughter!). He was a lovely bloke, a character! He was amongst other things a sign writer and when he was doing the Divisional signs or you know re-doing them he had the stick you have with the ball on the end and the sign writer, he always used to say, 鈥楯ust call me Rembrandt!鈥� He was a really good character, you know.

Here is another humourous story about the latrines - It was a building that was partitioned off with the various places to sit and perhaps old Bill would be sitting there, now this is the sort of bloke he was, somebody would dash in there quick, probably having to go quick and they鈥檇 call out 鈥楾here鈥檚 no paper in here!鈥� and old Bill would call back, 鈥榰se your head, boy!鈥� That was the sort of humour he was, he was a character. One day the sanitary orderly, this building that I told you about, after a time of course it鈥檚 not very, you know it鈥檚 got an odour to say the least! You dig a big pit for a start and then you build the latrine seats over it. And this sanitary orderly had a brilliant idea that what he would do he would pour some petrol down the holes and then all the holes connected and he would drop a match down you see. The lids that covered the toilet seat, was a lovely square shape and it went back and it was always kept at angle so that when you got off it dropped which was hygienic, as a matter of fact that鈥檚 in the Royal Engineers Manual, that鈥檚 how you build them. And anyway unbeknown to him there is a chap on the end seat and he dropped a match down and this poor blighter! All the seats went off like a bomb, all the seats went up and this bloke鈥檚 behind was scorched, on the end!

From Marseille, landing with the Americans, the transport went by road and we went by train, it took us about a week to get there. Penultimately I finished up on the Baltic. The Christmas of 1945 I was at a place called Timmendorfer Strand on the Baltic sea, near Travem眉nde where they sent the rockets and the experiments and that from Travem眉nde. The River Trav there. The Russians were one side of the river and we were the other side. And it was on the Baltic and the sea actually froze for about 5 kilometers out, the salt water actually froze which it usually does in the Polar regions and the snow was up to your waist.

By that time the war was all over and we took over a cul-de-sac and the civilians had to depart from this cul-de-sac. The Army had already taken it over when I was there because I moved from one Unit to another and we were in this cul-de-sac in private houses. And they all had to hand their shot guns and things into us, which is another amusing story. We had, in the bedroom I was in, there was a cupboard in the corner that was all stacked out with 12 shot guns and all sorts, we thought we鈥檇 go shooting one day. We鈥檇 got the guns and ammo there so we went out of the back and it was all woodland out the back. There was deer out there you wouldn鈥檛 believe it so near the sea would you? And a dog started to follow us, me and this Scottish chap, Bobby Kerr. He鈥檇 been before, I鈥檇 never been with a shotgun after game in my life. Me and this Scottish chap and this dog started to follow us and we chucked stones at it or snowballs whatever we鈥檇 got and it wouldn鈥檛 leave us. And all of a sudden he said, 鈥楲eave it alone, it鈥檚 done this before.鈥� And we went up one edge and the dog went up the other side of the hedges to drive anything through, it had done it before, the dog had done it before. We never caught anything, I鈥檒l be honest with you, never shot anything, what we did do coming back, there was a level crossing sign and we shot out the level crossing sign (laughter!) That was it!

It was in the region I suppose of L眉beck, it was on the Baltic you know, L眉beck and Kiel were along there. It was actually on the Baltic, L眉becker Bucht which means L眉becker bay. The actual address of it, I pride myself here a bit, was Timmendorfer Strand, L眉becker Bucht, Krieseutin, Deutschland and that鈥檚 it in German.

We were all occupying forces. The people made their way over from the Russian zone. They used to make their way from the Russian zone to the British zone. Every Unit had to do and this is a horrible thing to tell you - if it was your turn where they came over - everybody had to muck in you couldn鈥檛 expect two or three blokes to do it - they used to equip you with like a bicycle pump which was filled with what was known as AL63 which was louse powder. And women that came towards you, you had to get hold of the top of their dress or their blouse or whatever pull it forward, one of you pull it forward and the other one get this pump and pump the anti-louse powder down. Well I mean these poor people hadn鈥檛 had a bath or anything else, some of them were lousy - they鈥檇 been that long on the road getting away from the Russians you see. It didn鈥檛 show in subsequent history, they didn鈥檛 show too much humanity towards them, whether they were women, children or anything. The Russians, they鈥檇 suffered themselves so much to them it was a revenge and their Commanders weren鈥檛 too fussy about it. They didn鈥檛 necessarily issue orders they weren鈥檛 to do it - they weren鈥檛 too fussy about that sort of thing you know.

The Germans couldn鈥檛 get over quick enough, they couldn鈥檛 get over to our part quick enough. Because you can image that being a crossing point, most of these people came from what they called East Prussia, East Germany, K眉hlungensborn for example, they came, fled in front of the Russians to come across, to come across to escape from their path.

I missed, by going to Germany I missed what was known as LIAP, Leave in Anticipation of Python. Python was a code name for demob leave. But when we did received our number I always remember getting on the train to come down to Calais from Timmendorfer Strand, we had to change the train at Antwerp in Belgium and the nuns were absolutely terrific. I had a chap from Liverpool from my Unit was coming home with me - he was well and truly stewed. The nuns wouldn鈥檛 carry his rifle - that was out, they carried his kit. They carried his kit for him but they wouldn鈥檛 touch his rifle, I had to carry his rifle, they wouldn鈥檛 touch his rifle and they carried his kit those nuns.

I was demobilised in 1946, I had done near enough, nearly seven years then Regular Service and within a year, we were all on Reserve when we came off. Well I went back to work,l initially we were all glad to get out, I came back to my wife. But I have to tell you that after I started work back in Bedford a lot of them were very unfriendly towards us because we had come back to work at Allen鈥檚 and they had had to move from whatever they were doing somewhere else. Some of them, not all of them and I couldn鈥檛 settle very well. After a month of that had I have not been married I would have gone down to Chatham and re-enlisted in the Royal Engineers again, I missed the life. I mean, I鈥檇 gone into the life at the age of 18 and 8 months and it was a life for me, it was a way of living. I joined the Territorial Army again when they re-formed it in Bedford and I actually finished in 1967. My Service, because I鈥檇 never actually broken Service, was counted as continuous and I did 28 years. I ended up as a b鈥�.. Sergeant, I was one of them!鈥�

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