大象传媒

I was a driver with 1589 Artillery Platoon, 319 Coy RASC, supporting the 53rd Medium Regt, RA - attached at various times to the 7th Armoured Division and the Polish Corps of the 1st Canadian Army.

The following is an extract from my diary, beginning when training was completed and we were awaiting D-Day.

On parade

One lovely sunny day we were called out on parade and told that the Invasion had begun that morning, 6 June 1944. Troops had been landed on the coast of Normandy. We then realised where all the planes overhead were going to.

We were told to be ready to move at an hour's notice, but first of all we took our trucks to various dumps: some to pick up ammunition (heavy five-inch shells); some to pick up jerry cans of petrol; and the rest to pick up rations of all sorts, but mainly, tinned soups, bully beef and hard rations in boxes. These included biscuits, chocolate, a chewy cereal and other goodies. Myself, I ended up with a load of petrol - as my mate said, 'One spark, and we shan't know much about it.' We reckoned the ration wagon blokes would feed themselves to death, so they had nothing to worry about.

Departure

Then came the last night on our straw palliate beds in Titsey Hall. We had all had our final orders, and when we awoke we were told to be ready to move in less than an hour, as promised.

We moved off early in the morning and arrived at the marshalling area in about an hour. We stayed overnight and waterproofing on the wagons was examined by REME blokes and passed as all correct.

The next morning we moved again to the docks area. We sped in our wagons, racing through the streets of Tilbury. Passers-by, knowing by now where we were going, waved, blew kisses, and shouted, 'Good Luck, boys!' Some were weeping.

Aboard City of Vancouver

A day's hard work and our wagons were loaded on the 10,000-ton cargo boat City of Vancouver.

On D+3 we embarked and so began our sea voyage, which was very calm. For the first night we anchored in the Thames estuary, sailing in convoy with the tide the following morning. The voyage consisted mostly of playing cards, sleeping, reading and eating. Everyone was filled with wonder at what tomorrow would bring!

D+5 saw us safely past Dover and out of range of the German cross-channel guns, and as we had our last glimpse of England for some time most of us wondered if we would see it again. Indeed - some of us would not.

D+6

On 12 June (D+6) land was sighted; so these were the beaches of Normandy, France. We anchored at noon and started unloading the wagons into LCTs (Tank Landing Craft). The weather on this day was glorious - a clear blue sky and a lovely warm sun. While the unloading was going on an enemy plane came over and started bombing the ships, just missing a large cruiser. We were delighted to see a Spitfire spurt across the sky and bring him down in the sea.

My wagon was safely on the LCT at seven o'clock, but as the tide was wrong the Captain of the landing craft would not land us until five o'clock in the morning. Thinking back to getting into the landing craft, we had to climb down scrambling nets and then jump into the craft when the swell was right - it called for careful timing but we all made it safely.

An Armada

Before resting we had a good look round and never before have I seen such an Armada of ships than those lying off that Normandy beach that night. In the setting sun the cruisers and destroyers, including HMS Rodney and HMS Warspite, were pouring shells on to the shore. The RAF bombed the same targets - the noise and smoke was terrible. The remains of the Luftwaffe took advantage of the darkness and kept bombing the landing craft. We had many near misses and the ack-ack guns were firing continuously all through the hours of darkness.

This was our first night in any theatre of war and a night we would never forget. About 24 of us were crammed into one little cabin. When dawn broke, we found we were all ready, moving with the beach quickly getting nearer. Then before we had time to realise it we were ordered to man our vehicles and prepare for the run up the beach.

The craft grounded on the shore and off went the first wagon with no trouble, then the second and - now wait for it - my turn, up the beach we went in only about two feet of water. We were on foreign soil for the first time in most of our young lives.

On shore

The Normandy countryside opened up before us. Cornfields were gently waving in the summer breeze. We drove through German minefields, all wired off and marked with the skull and crossbones sign - good of them to mark them for us. We drove up the road, carefully keeping between the white ribbons denoting mine cleared areas, then we made shelter and rapidly de-waterproofed our wagons. From here we were sent straight away to the location, which had been allocated to our unit.

Unfortunately, our little convoy of five wagons got lost. Not a bad start, we made our way as best we could, with no maps, to where we thought our location should be. After travelling a couple of miles or so, we were stopped by Military Police and told to turn around as quickly as we could, as the enemy were only a mile up the road. This was quite close to Pegasus Bridge, which the Airborne Division dropped near and held.

We turned round and made our way back faster than was probably safe, with shells whistling overhead and mortars landing all round us. The enemy had seen the dust we had kicked up. We created hell with the Liverpuddlian Corporal we had. He said, 'Don't bloody blame me. I ain't been here before, so how do you expect me to know the bloody way?!'

Digging a trench

From here we found our way to our first location in France, which was in an apple orchard, and the first thing we saw was a wagon like ours that had been burnt out after being bombed the night before. This was one of the assault RASC wagons.

All through that day, 13 June - and with batteries of 25 pounders each side of us, firing away - we were kept busy digging slit trenches in which to spend the night. The first trench we dug was a long one in which four of us could sit down. We slept like that and every time the guns fired, which was incessantly, the earth trickled down our necks. My word, was it stuffy and humid?!

This first night was not without action as the enemy planes were over most of the time and they completely wiped out the Battery HQ of the 25 pounders, about 75 yards from our slit trench.

A new day and a sacrifice

Dawn brought us peace from the enemy planes and we had orders straight away to move our location. We moved out about ten o'clock and it took nearly two hours to reach our new location, travelling very slowly and having to make a lot of detours where the roads had been bombed and shelled.

We arrived at a location, which had quite recently been vacated by the enemy, leaving a lot of clothing and equipment behind. A small white cross marked the last resting place of one of our fellow countrymen who had made the supreme sacrifice. The horror of war was shown to us now when we nearly tripped over a blackened withered arm sticking out of the ground.

We spent a good part of the day digging a fresh shelter in case the enemy continued his nightly raids. The day passed quietly, but sure enough night came with the usual raids - even so, I slept amazingly well, mostly from exhaustion.

Still advancing

By the next day, 15 June, we had changed our location - advancing yet again and waiting for the big guns to get located. This time we were in a cornfield, or at least all round the huge hedges bordering the field. We were lucky to have lovely dry ditches under the hedges, which we deepened and covered to make a quite presentable shelter. About a mile from here was a little town which we discovered was called Douvres la Deliverande - the first town we had seen so far.

A mile and a half from us was a German strongpoint, holding up our advance. Commandos were surrounding them but patrols were coming out and we got sniped at by one of these patrols. Luckily, we took cover in time. That night the ack-ack battery across the other side the field fetched down three planes, which had been trying to bomb us.

Guard duty

The next night I was on guard duty, which was a lot different to those scary guard duties at Titsey, for now we had loads of noise including: bombs, shells, guns of all kinds, and not just noises in trees (such as leaves rustling - of course, we had that too but never noticed it).

Then suddenly over came the planes. The Bofors opened up and one of the planes was hit and came tumbling out of the sky. This happened three times while I was on duty; they must have had a good range finder on one of the Bofors.

No shopping this weekend

The 17th June came round and we realised it was a Saturday, but no going into town for shopping or visiting the cinema this weekend - in fact, we moved once again as the German strongpoint had been stormed by the Commandos, and it was safe to advance.

This time we moved to a location just outside the little town of Reviers. Here we were lucky - we commandeered a nice little dugout, which had been left intact by the last tenants.

We met some of the Commandos who had captured the strongpoint and they told us they had been reinforced with Marines and engineers, who had put dynamiting charges on the pillboxes under cover of darkness. They said they captured over 350 soldiers and loads of equipment.

The strongpoint was in fact a radio station. The fortress was 60 feet beneath a field of corn. There were three floors and it covered an area of four acres, and the nuisance value of this defensive position was intolerable. At last a plan was decided: it was shelled for a week but still machine-gun and anti-tank fire stopped everything getting near it.

It turns out (as we were told) that Sappers blew in the doorways under cover of darkness. Then 7.2 heavy guns fired for 15 minutes, then our 5.5 medium guns fired for half an hour. Next 9.2 mobile howitzers gave cover for a party of Marine Commandos, who hurled grenades down the steps. The Germans, now surrounded, surrendered immediately.

Our total casualties were: one killed, two wounded. The place was lavishly furnished, including bars and a NAAFI. It had taken three years to build, and the huge air-conditioning generator was still running.

Kept busy

We were now kept busy daily, carrying mostly ammo' and petrol from the beachhead dumps up to the forward areas where the Artillery picked it up. A lot of enemy air action was now taking place, mostly anti-personnel bombs and incendiaries. Most days, the whine of enemy shells passing overhead could be heard. They were trying to hit the ever-increasing supplies as they were landed on the beaches.

The next Saturday we saw a Flying Fortress shot down. The wing was shot through and came spinning off. The crew jumped - eight parachutes floating down - and the plane crashed on the beach.

Tilly sur Seulles fallen

By now, Tilly sur Seulles had fallen after heavy fighting, and on Saturday, 24 June, we had a lot of enemy air activity, probably because the next day the British 2nd Army opened an attack south-west of Caen to try to reach the River Odon. We were now going through Tailleville, Basly, Reviers, Amblie and Douvres up to the guns at Theon. The attack near Caen had crossed the Caen to Villiers Bocage road by the 27th June, and the next day the Odon river was crossed.

The Normandy dust was a dense yellow and, together with the stench of battle as we drove back and forth daily, it really was terrible. Thousands of men, cattle and horses were rotting under the hot sun. No Church bells, no clocks chiming - everywhere seemed dead, only softly waving grass and the buzz of millions of greeny bronze flies, feeding on the wreckage of humanity.

Within three weeks of D-Day, with the traditional efficiency of the Royal Artillery, the ease with which fire power could be brought to bear was outstanding. Over 500 guns could be trained on any particular target.

July

The Bridgehead by now was very congested. Thank God for the RAF. Side roads were only made passable by the hard work of the Pioneer Corps road gangs, which eased the situation quite a lot. We must have smelled a bit bad by 1 July because we had to all drive in one of the wagons to a mobile bath unit at Theon. They had fixed up showers in an old German HQ and the walls were still covered in German notices, covered in Eagles and Swastikas.

On 4 July, two major attacks were started on the Caen area and Carpiquet Airfield was taken by the 1st Canadian Army. It had been defended by over 500 of the enemy.

Bombing of Caen

The 7th July saw allied troops crossing the River Vire and now the bombing of Caen began. This evening, at dusk we witnessed the Lancasters coming over, hundreds of them escorted by fighters, and we could see the bombs leaving them. We were only about four miles away and the noise of the anti-aircraft barrage was as bad as the bombing. We only saw four planes shot down by the guns as we were watching. This raid followed a day of naval bombardment on the city, and at 0400 hrs the next morning the 900 guns of the encircling artillery laid down a terrible barrage.

I went up to the 53rds gun position with ammo' and you could see clouds of black smoke over the city. One gun battery had fired over 300 rounds alone and the great naval guns were still firing into the ruins.

A three-pronged attack had started on Caen and we heard that the bomber raid was by 2,000 planes. Our forward troops had entered the city and, by the 11 July, 54,000 prisoners had been taken. Just before Caen fell two new Panzer divisions arrived from Russia. The RAF greeted them with a 500-bomber raid, and as soon as they got within range 500 artillery guns fired on them for six hours. This meant we had to cart ammo', ammo', and still more ammo' for the attack.

Delivering ammunition

Every day then, and most nights, we were fetching ammo', or petrol from the dumps and going up to the gun positions with them. Troops were now at a little place called Beauville. When going through Gazelle, we saw three Tiger Tanks, still smouldering. On one trip we stopped in a little village (called Amblie) and had some coffee at a little Cafe - queer stuff, made of ground Acorns, only two francs a cup though!

On 14 July, enemy planes came over in considerable numbers, shooting up a petrol wagon and a signals HQ. Seven planes were fetched down all round us and it was quite frightening for a time.

The next day the 2nd Army made a night attack between the Rivers Odon and Orne. It was on the 18th that Monty struck across the Orne from north of Caen with three Armoured Divisions and infantry. The Para's had held Pegasus Bridge all this time and the armour went over the bridge to Breville.

A large factory on the outskirts of Caen, east of the river at Colombelle, was still holding out, so the RAF sent in 500 bombers to deal with it.

Visit to Bayeux

At this time a couple of us took our wagons and went back to that old fashioned city of Bayeau. The place much damaged, but a lot of civvies were about. We picked up some special mystery supplies, all in large heavy packages.

On 20 July, our Regiment moved up over the River Orne, and this day was a really wet one - heavy rain all day - and everywhere was a sea of mud. Our dugout got a bit damp, so we put a bit more roofing on, which we found. This kept most of the rain out but not the mud.

The bridge over the Orne was a Bailey bridge, put up in record time by the REs. They named the bridge 'London Bridge'. We kept replenishing the guns with ammo', petrol and stores, often getting stuck in the mud and pulling each other out.

No casualties

A couple of days later the enemy came over at dusk and machine-gunned our wagons - luckily, no casualties, only a few bullet holes in the tarpaulins. the wagons were all empty.

At the end of that week, we moved location once again, advancing to a little village called Piere-sur-la-Dan.

On 25 July, the 2nd Army began an attack-astride the Falaise Road. Falaise is only twenty miles from Caen and was the birthplace of William the Conqueror. The army moved out towards Troan and the Canadians took Fleury.

Read Part 2 of this story.

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