大象传媒

Continuing from my previous story after 'Dunkirk' in June 1940, which led up to us leaving Cherbourg for Southampton.
When we arrived back in Southampton, we were very easily recognisable by our battledress. We were deloused and the battledresses were all a little bit wrinkled, so we were very easily recognised by the local population.

We moved from Southampton to Bedford. I had a girlfriend there called Joan Perry. We all lived in private billets at this time and I got very friendly with this girl and she tried very, very hard to persuade me to desert, which I nearly did, for the second time! I鈥檇 nearly deserted in France. Anyway, I didn鈥檛 and I went back with the boys and we were moved to Baythorne End in Suffolk.

We slept under canvas, six men to a tent, a little bit overcrowded. I remember I got into a little bit of trouble with a lance corporal. I think I insulted him. He used to be a great friend of mine, but he put me on a charge. I was given a discreet Court Martial and sentenced to 28 days detention, to be sent to the glasshouse. Lucky for me the glasshouse was full up, so I had to do the detention locally, in the camp in Baythorne End. It was the best 28 days of my Army career!

I was in detention in a tented area. One very important thing for me, another prisoner was a man called Craig. He was a real character, a big man about 6鈥�2鈥�. Everyone was a little bit apprehensive of him, because he was a 鈥榟ard case鈥�. Anyway he took me under his wing and for the next 28 days we spent our time polishing dixies (large iron cooking pots) and army cooking utensils in the lovely summer sunshine, while the rest of the company were out doing route marches, and coming back completely exhausted. There we were sitting in the sun, polishing dixies. The funny thing was we had to queue up in the marquee where we had our meals and the cry went up 鈥淧risoners to the front鈥�. Craig and I and the rest of the prisoners went to the front of the queue and were served first, before the rest of the company. It makes me laugh when I think of it now. It was the best 28 days of my service in the Army. It was really great!

Around that time, we were called out to a German aircraft that had crash landed very close to our camp. I was one of the six that went out there to this aircraft. There was a young German pilot who looked about 18 or 19 and he was very arrogant. He wasn鈥檛 even injured, the plane was a wreck but he was OK. He was very arrogant and kept saying 鈥淓ngland kaput! England kaput!鈥� He was a typical German, blond hair, tall. We took him back to our camp and the MPs took him to their tent, where he was held overnight till he was taken to a Prisoner of War camp. I noticed next morning when he was taken away he had two black eyes. I wonder if that stopped him saying 鈥淓ngland kaput!鈥�

In Baythorne End our main job was to patrol the Suffolk coast, because we were expecting our old friends, the Germans, to invade. This would be about July, August 1940. So we had to patrol the beaches round Suffolk, waiting for the Germans to come. The funny thing was we were in jeeps which held six soldiers at the back, two rows of three facing each other, a driver and an NCO who sat in the front. But we only had three rifles between six men. I don鈥檛 know what they were expected to do, the three men who didn鈥檛 have rifles, if the Germans came. Should we throw stones at them? Funny when I think about it now. This went on right until the start of winter 1940 and it wasn鈥檛 funny. It was really freezing cold in that jeep. I think if the Germans had come we鈥檇 have been too cold to do anything. We did these patrols for three or four hours. It was really cold, I鈥檒l never forget it.

We were next moved to Scotland, to Crieff. Our battalion the 5th, Highland Light Infantry, were stationed in a Hydro in Crieff and it was a lovely place. It was a health spot before the war. Six of us were put in the one room. I remember the room number was 128. Six of us in one room, all sleeping on the floor of course. But we were all great company, all great friends. I can remember the names roughly. There was Al Brown, he was a Lancashire man. He was very tall, slim. He was 6鈥�4鈥� and his friend, also a Lancashire man, was only about 5鈥�5鈥�! And there was a Glasgow man called Robertson. He was coalman, used to deliver coal around the tenements in Glasgow. We called him Ollie, because he looked a little bit like Oliver Hardy. Then there was Larry Barn who later became a CSM. A nice man. Then there was Jimmy Carter. My friend, who carried the mortar bombs for me in France, Jimmy McCrimmon. Another soldier called A T Hislop. We were called the men of 128, in the Crieff Hydro.

I remember we used to do these manoeuvres, with the Polish soldiers. There were a lot of Polish soldiers in Scotland at this time. We used to do a lot of manoeuvres in a place called the small glen. You鈥檇 be walking along the road one minute, and next minute you鈥檇 be running up the hills at the side of the road. We did those manoeuvres with the Poles; they were always 鈥榯he Germans鈥�. We also used to go to Perth. There was a dance hall in Perth where we used to go dancing, but we had a little bit of trouble with the Poles. The Polish soldiers were very, very polite to the Scottish girls. They were saluting them, bowing and scraping and all that. 鈥淢ay I have this dance?鈥� Whereas the Glasgow men used to say 鈥淵e dancing?鈥� There ended up a little bit of trouble in this dance hall in Perth. The Poles were inclined to carry knives and it got a little bit bloody. A few soldiers were injured with these knives, and I think we were barred from the dance hall.

We had to do manoeuvres with the Polish soldiers and that also got a little bit bloody. I remember on one occasion on a manoeuvre one Polish soldier was killed. He was decapitated. They strung a rope across the road and he was the Despatch Rider on his motorbike and it cut his bloody head off. So it really wasn鈥檛 very funny.

While I was stationed in Crieff, it was the time of the Blitz. There were two very, very bad air raids on Glasgow. They were aiming for Clydeside. Well I was born and bred in the Gorbals, which is next to Clydeside. At that time I had my mother and younger sister who was only about 12 years old. And of course we heard these bombers going over, hundreds of them. And we knew they were heading for Glasgow. Then we heard about the first air raid that was very bad on the first night. When they took the roll call next morning, after the first raid, I think nearly half the battalion were missing, including me. We鈥檇 all made our way back to Glasgow to see how our relatives and friends were. Thank God, my mother and sister were OK. But we had to stay the next night because the Germans were at it again, they came over a second night. Luckily we escaped that again, but there was a lot of devastation, especially around the Clyde.

We got back to Crieff, and I don鈥檛 think they could have sentenced us all to imprisonment because there were so many of us. I鈥檓 talking about hundreds. So we got off lightly because we all reported back for duty when the air raids were over.

Next thing, I was rejoined with my favourite weapon, the 2鈥� mortar, which I hated! I had to carry this 36lb, 2鈥� mortar around my shoulder and also carry a case of bombs, with six mortar bombs in it. We had to go on manoeuvres in the Western Highlands with the commandoes. We were practising invasion tactics. We didn鈥檛 have proper landing craft like they had later on. We had, I think they were improvised fishing boats. We had to jump off the front of the boat into the water when it landed near to the island. The water wasn鈥檛 too deep, about three or four feet, but carrying this 2鈥� mortar round my shoulder and also a case of bombs, every time I jumped in, I went completely under the water and was absolutely drenched! Then we had to run for miles, either being chased by or chasing these commandoes.
The result was, if I remember right, I caught pneumonia and I had these horrible pains in the chest because of so many soakings I鈥檇 had. I ended up in Edinburgh castle, which was a military hospital then. Eventually, I had these very severe pains and I was discharged from the army at the end of 1942. That was the end of my army career.

I wonder if any of my comrades, who鈥檇 be about the same age as me now, 85 (October 2004), I wonder if some of them are still alive. I would love to talk to them.

Thomas James Burns 3319289. 鈥楢鈥� company, 5th Highland Light Infantry.

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