大象传媒

This story is taken from a manuscript by Lawrence Travers Dorins, and has been added to the site with his permission by Bruce Logan. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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DOULLENS
We moved off from St. Saens early in the morning, without being told where we were going, but we soon realized that we were moving roughly in the direction of the Belgian frontier. The Germans had attacked Belgium and Holland on the 10th. of May but we had heard very little about the military situation and had no idea how serious it was, although we were apprehensive. The convoy moved along at a steady pace with two of us sitting on a pile of kit in the back of a 15 cwt. Bedford truck. We started to climb a hill with a grassy bank beside the road and a path leading down. Two teenage French girls were coming down the path and as they saw us they smiled, hunched their shoulders, shivered, and said in English, "It's cold." It was one of those very ordinary events, quite unremarkable but I still remember it after fifty-eight years. It was a flashback to ordinary life at home, like the girl next door saying good morning at the bus stop and we were trundling along towards a frightening unknown.

It was perhaps as well that we did not know. In The Battle of France, published by Simon and Schuster, Philip Warner writes on page 93," On the 20th. of May the spearhead of von Rundstedt's Army Group A, a force composed of five armoured divisions, was approaching the Canal du Nord. Immediately behind were two more armoured divisions. The spearhead contained seventeen tank battalions with guns varying between 20 and 75 mm. two thousand machine guns, fifteen battalions of motorized infantry, five motorcycle battalions, twelve field batteries and a number of anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. This massive balanced force was confronted by two British infantry divisions, one of which was the 23rd (Northumbrian) mentioned earlier, and the 12th. Both were territorial and both were under trained, under strength and having about half their normal complement and without artillery. As they took up their position, seventeen incomplete guns were found from a nearby training school. Neither of the two T .A. divisions had ever been in action before and they were already weary from lack of sleep and long marches. Although they did not know it, they were about to take on some of the most experienced and battle hardened troops of the German Army, troops who had learnt their military lessons in the Polish campaign and applied their knowledge in the present one against the Belgian and French armies."

We passed through Amiens and then turned north and travelled on until we reached Doullens. There had been little sign of military activity which gave the false impression that the war was being fought miles away in Belgium, although we were disturbed to find that nearly all the civilians had fled. We quickly took up residence in the empty houses and flats, a disturbing experience living surrounded by the hastily abandoned personal possessions of other people. As a unit we seemed to be very much on our own as I remember it. There was no sign of the infantry battalions which were part of the 12th. Div. A French artillery battery pulled up near H.Q. but they only stopped for a few minutes and then drove off at speed. Later a company of French infantry came through. They looked weary and disheartened and gave the thumbs down sign, shaking their heads and muttering, "Allemande pas bon."

We had left St.Saens on Saturday morning and spent Sunday in Doullens but on Monday morning a section was sent out to do an exercise in mine laying on the outskirts of the town. After capture, someone told me that before going out, they had gone into the Salvation Army canteen where they had listened to the news from London. They thought the Germans were still in Belgium and were shaken by the news report. It said," Yesterdays report that the Germans had taken Doullens is not confirmed. They are, however, thought to be on the outskirts of the town." The people who were running the canteen were just pulling out and our chaps realized that this was for real. During the morning we occasionally heard sounds of gunfire in the distance and trucks were going up and down the hill which led out of town at regular intervals.

At about four o'clock the order was given to move out and we set off in convoy. Not very from town we pulled off the road and up a track at the side a field beside a dry sunken water course with trees beside it, which provided limited air coves and waited for further orders.

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