大象传媒

The Day War Broke Out

I remember it well. It was a beautifl Autumn Sunday morning, my friend Dennis Balman and I were digging slit trenches in Leazes Park next to St James's Park - home of Newcastle United. Dennis and I were sales clerks for ICI Newcastle and in 1938 we both joined the Territorial Army selecting the 72nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery. Everyone knew in 1938 that war was imminent, except Neville Chamberlain, who returned from Germany waiving a piece of paper and chanting "Peace in our Time".

After over sixty years it is not easy to recall all of my experiences of almost six years service, however, some are embedded in my memory forever.

During the Cold War, we were billeted in Newcastle until November and then with bands playing marched to Central Station and embarked on a train bound for France, or so we thought. However, our destination was a little village called Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. I well remember us Geordie lads from the North East entering the local pub and to our astonishment everyone was drinking Cider (Scrumpy). We pulled their legs saying they should drink a man's drink - "Newcastle Brown Ale". They said nothing, looked at each other, smiled, winked and nodded their heads. The next morning we knew why. We all had terrible headaches and still felt drunk. As it was Sunday we all linked up for Church Parade - the line was very wobbly. Our RSM was constantly shouting at us to straighten the line. His name was Pratt - very appropriate.

After basic training we set off for France in January 1940. I was a driver and drove through Northern France in the worst Winter I can remember. On one occasion our convoy got lost and we were stuck in snow all night in temperatures below zero. Next morning, a rescue patrol found us - we were all suffering from hypothermia. They guided us to our headquarters and immediately the C.O. ordered double rum rations all round.

We eventually arrived at our destination - a small town called Wingels on the French/ Belgian border. There we wiled away our time playing cards, sampling the Franch wines and trying to get friendly with the local girls. This was during the Cold War - we wondered why we were in France. Then on the fifth of May, Germany invaded Belgium and we were immediately rushed to the front. It was my job to lead the regiment with an Lieutenant. I was travelling so fast the convoy had difficulty keeping up with me. The Lieutenant tapped me on the soldier and said, "Slow down, the war will wait for you!"

The German blitz was so quick we were constantly having to move our gun positions. The only place we were static for a while was at Ypres, where we were supporting the Welsh Guards in Arrass. It was the only time the Germans were halted. The Germans were infuriated as they couldn't find our gun positions - they were so well camouflaged. Our command post was in the war cemetry of the First World War and our vehicles were hidden by an avenue of trees. Eventually, the Germans sent over a bomber at tree top level to try and spot us. As they flew over the crew waved to us. Later bombers came and tried to bomb our vehicles to immobolise us. Some damage was done. One Sergeant was killed and when we saw him, there wasn't a mark on his body - he must have been severely concussed. Eventually we had to move as the Germans were trying to encircle us.

As the front was constantly fluctuating, a Lieutenant and I were constantly on the move trying to find new positions for our guns. It was very tiring work. On one occasion, we were travelling down a road and were stopped by the East Yorks Infantry. They asked us who we were and they thought we were Fifth Columnist, as they said there were only Germans in front of them. They checked our credentials with our regiment and left us to our devices.

Sleep was difficult. We bedded down in farm barns or anywhere when there was a lull in the fighting. This went on for weeks - fighting rear guard action until one day we were told to spike our guns and make for the coast. I drove all night through German lines. The only light available was from a light shining onto the differentials of the vehicle ahead. The differential was painted white. This was a manouevre we had practiced several times. It paid off on this occasion.

Next morning I arrived intact at Dunkirk. A name then unknown to me but later to go down in history. I was so tired from driving all night that I slumped over the steering wheel and fell asleep. I don't know for how long. I was awoken by the Colonel and told to put a pick axe through the petrol tank and set it alight, then make for the beach. We arrived there, late in May and I have never seen such chaos. Soldiers were lying on the sand completely exhausted. Vehicles were stranded. Boats that had tried to evacuate troops had been blown out of the water. Soldiers were lined up on the moat (pier) waiting for ships to come and take them aboard. The navy were excellent -constantly trying to get destroyers or other vessels to the soldiers.

In the meantime, Stukas were bombing and fighters were straffing the beaches. Casualties were high but because we were on sand, the impact of the bombs was lessened.

We lay there thinking that this was the end until the Colonel came and said our only chance of getting off the beach was to unload a small Dutch cargo vessel that had Bully Beef and hard Tack Biscuits on board. We all set to and formed a human chain, passing cases from one to the other, at times up to our necks in water. When the tide was too high, we used a raft from the boat and continued working for hours all the time the Germans were bombing and straffing. I'm sure someone up there was looking after us. We had a German prisoner with us and he worked as hard as anyone. Eventually, we unloaded the boat and scrambled aboard. We all fell asleep absolutely exhausted. We hoped that when we woke up we would be on our way to England. We awoke at daybreak only to find that we were stuck on a sand bank and had to wait for the next tide to lift us off. We all said "That's it - we've had it". Miraculously, the boat eventually got under way and hours later we arrived at Margate. We were treated like heroes. The British are wonderful people. However, we didn't feel heroic we felt we had been let down by bad planning from people higher up and had been inadequately armed.

I had another 5 years to serve. Unfortunately, almost 3 of these was as a prisoner of war. Thousands of us were captured at Gazala in June 1942 - again due to bad leadership. Rommel addressed our party and said "You got away at Dunkirk but for you the war is ended".

So ends part one of my war experiences. They will never be forgotten.

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