大象传媒

The War brought me to Northern Ireland with the 53rd Infantry Division when about 15,000 of us arrived in 1940, to support the local Army Garrison units.

There were two main events 鈥� part of Northern Ireland war-time history which took place. It was feared that Hitler might land Paratroops on the Cork Peninsula and so our Division had a plan 鈥� named the 鈥淲 Plan鈥� to go south should such a landing take place. In this connection I quote an extract from a letter I received from my senior 鈥� then the Divisional general Staff Officer Class II 鈥� a regular Army Officer of the Northumberland Fusiliers, Major W.R.M Clifford, since living in Temple Guiting, Cheltenham.

鈥溾��.Belfast and Ireland was fun especially when I was sent down to the south, ostensibly for a holiday. In fact to make sure of the roads we were going down in case of invasion. We got a special licence and fortunately had our cars in Ireland and put our fishing rods and new togs in the cars and set off. It was great fun and we stayed with two separate family relations. If I ever wanted to see if a bridge was suitable I could be seen hanging over a bridge with fishing rod in hand so I would not look unusual鈥�.

The other event was a Conference that took place in our Divisional Headquarters in College Gardens (occupying two houses now part of the Queens鈥� University Common Room building) when the French General Georges came. The purpose being that as France and Britain had lacked in France the Army/Air cooperation which the German army operated so well and thus had won the battle in France 鈥� we now had to practice such operations. I was seconded with Major Clifford (GSO II) and we took with us a Signals Section to the little stone bridge just near Banbridge. There a signal was sent to the RAF and then a Lysander aircraft would come over and (yes!) bomb the bridge with flour bags!!

We witnessed the bombing of Belfast and the crowds of bombed out folk travelling up Lisburn Road to find accommodation in the countryside. Then we moved to Castlewellan Castle for the rest of our stay in Ulster.

We left Ulster very early in 1942 and took up station in Kent where we remained until June 1944 and then Normandy, landing at Arromanches (Gold Beach).

Our Division was what was termed a 鈥渇ollow through鈥� formation and we scrambled down the rope nets from the Liberty Ship into the landing craft underneath the massive barrage of warships such as the Rodney and many other battleships and destroyers. Our job was to push through the perimeter which the Paras had held. Then the battle for Caen, the Falaise Gap battle, the Rhine crossing and the Battle of the Bulge 鈥� Hitler鈥檚 last push 鈥� when Monty pulled our Division astride the road to Brussels as a precaution. We finally fought around Bremen and then were switched, along with 7th Armoured Division to occupy Hamburg which surrendered a few days before the end of the War. There we witnessed thousands of German troops marching 6 abreast through our ranks, through the streets of Hamburg with their rifles which they were to hand over. These thousands of troops were surrendering so as to escape from capture by the Russians. At the same time seeing the local population especially women searching for firewood and pushing prams with all their worldly goods. Such are the fruits of War!

After living in some luxury for a month in the Atlantic Hotel in Hamburg near the Alster Lake where all around was devastation due to the fire-storm raid on the city some weeks before, we moved to Hilden just outside D眉sseldorf for our 鈥減eace-location鈥� in order to feed the local populace and organise 鈥渃ivics鈥� for the area. Demobilization came on 1st Jan 1946.

For interest please see attached a copy of the original signal sent out by despatch riders to all our Divisional Units to signal the orders to cease fighting at 001 hours 9 May 1945.

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