大象传媒

These chapters sumarize two interviews with George Bailey, with his daughter Margaret Lole and his son-in-law Bryan Lole present.

This chapter covers George's experiences in Belgium, Holland and Germany as the allied armies advanced, the period afterwards when George was involved in the effort to look after people in the German slave-labour camps, then the long wait for demobbing, when George and his friend Harry were moved around Europe from place to place. Finally, there is the period immediately following demob, and how people at home learned about what the continentals went through. It is not in as much detail s the earlier chapters as I didn't have enough time to do a full transcript of interview 2. Both interviews were recorded by Jim Donohoe under Public Access Licence Agreement PAL-JD-17/08/2005, and copies of the interviews can be obtained under the terms of that agreement.

At the start of this interview, George and five of his mates had become attached to a Canadian sapper unit, as they had become detached from the rest of their unit in the D-Day landings.
At the start of it, we were at Caen. We were transferred to the third company (a relief company) of the Canadian Royal Engineers in Caen.
We stopped at Rouen, it was a rest place, we just stood by.
That was the start of it, we were going up through Belgium and Holland, shuttling along all the coastal roads, units would be leapfrogging each other, all up the coasts.
The Belgians and the Holland people were meeting to sort out the fifth column.
The road was like a motorway, our driver burst out crying, we were driving so long.
We took the Holland road, the weather was dreadful, freezing, blowing, raining down. We stopped at some old fashioned huts for the night, there was a little water heater for the heat.
There was very rapid movement up to Bastoigne in Holland, all the companies rushed up through Holland. The Germans were doing something but we didn't know what. We were on a twenty mile stretch of road and a German plane buzzed us, but he didn't fire.
We stopped outside a village near Bastoigne. There were Germans in the area so we were looking out for an ambush.
The German attack didn't come off. The Germans knew the Russians were coming. The Russians landed near Bastoigne, then the Americans came and took over. There was heavy air cover (for the attack on Bastoigne).
We were 200 miles from Caen with the Canadian sappers. The Americans dropped back when the Canadians moved up. We were in a little valley lying in the snow.
We were leapfrogging. We built a bridge after Rouen. We built a bridge at Rymegan, Germany. We kept moving between Holland and Germany. There was a German general saved (the bridge at) Rymegan - he refused to blow the bridge up. He saved 75,000 men. There was a single railway track over the river.
We were splicing steel wire ropes to cross the river. There was an artillery barrage across the river, both sides were going at it, two hours or more.
(There is a break here.)
We were in a pine forest on the coast where they shot doodlebugs from ramps. The Germans were very clever - they built the ramps just to the height of the trees. You couldn't see them from the air and you couldn't see them from the ground.
The Germans were up to all sorts of tricks. They wore stolen uniforms to try and break through our lines. We were bombarded for 2 days by the Germans. We went back on the coast.
There were three rest towns of the Danish border - Briemen, Willemshaven and ...
The Germans hadn't done any damage to Denmark. They were after the Danish butter.
(We were at one of the German slave-labour camps.) Everyone was after food. The Canadians turned the place into a rest camp.
There were refugees everywhere. They would walk up the road five abreast. They had to get out of the way when lorries went past.
There were a lot of people stuck in German work camps. They expected to be released when the lies came (but there was nowhere for them to go.)
The sappers made camps for 50,000 prisoners. They were mostly women in the slave-labour camps. They were in a dreadful state. We were on the North side of town. They would queue up for food and water. We had Danish butter and some portable bread ovens. We used rocket fuel from the doodlebugs.
Our job was to be soldiers first and tradesmen second. The sappers were put on repairing huts. I was put on repairing showers. The prisoners had broken them up (when they thought they were getting out.)
(At the end of the war) Harry and I were sent to the office and transferred to Hanover. The railway station at Hanover had been blown to smithereens. In the autumn we went to Brussels. The transit officer made us stay for a week. We stayed in hotels. I was worried because our transit papers weren't signed. We got chits every day that let us get supplies from the nearest company. There were soldiers everywhere. They chucked people out of schools so that they could billet soldiers.
We were sent to Paris, we had 8 months in Paris. Harry's nerves had gone. We were sent down to South France to Toulougne, where there was a naval base, then to Marseilles. There were lots of Singhalese soldiers there. There were very good with knives, and we were warned to steer clear of them.
We went to the pictures in the south of France. It was very different. The audience was walking round and they were selling sweets.
We were in a (recuperation) camp. There were four columns, they had different coloured armbands. There was red for Asians, blue for Mediterraneans, brown for anybody else, and green for invalids and those in poor health.
Every day we would have a bath, get food, then there would be a free issue. We would get silk underpants and vests.
We came back to Hereford to be demobbed. We got back pay and a travel warrant. We were inspected medically before we came back by a woman doctor. I was passed ok. We had two leaves before we were demobbed. One was in the Hook of Holland, troops were everywhere, some with musical instruments.
Coming home on leave I brought a silk dress from Belgium, traded with the French for food.
When we landed in England, MPs looked at everything we brought back. If we had anything we shouldn't have, we were shipped back to Holland. I had had a tip-off that this would happen.
All the demob offices were in railway stations. I had to go back to Hereford after my home leave.
The Scots were demobbed early - they had farthest to travel. I got demob pay of 拢35, a brown suit and trilby. I never liked brown, but I was one of the last, so there wasn't much choice left.
I enjoyed the war. I wasn't conscious of danger and I had plenty of food.
The continentals were in a very bad case. They came into camp practically barefoot, were deloused and medically inspected. They were mostly women.
There was some discussion here about how people back home learned what had been going on the continent. Bryan and Margaret talked about newsreel accounts of Belsen and the other German P.O.W. and labour camps. Bryan's uncle was in a prison camp - starvation. Another prisoner was talking at a school about how he was whipped by barbed wire.
There was plenty of humour. Harry and I were in a German park. The Germans were desperate for food, they would trade anything for it. There was a man beckoning to us from the bushes. He had binoculars and watches. Another two girls wanted to barter two suits. Harry wanted to get a suit but I told him to come away, he'd got his watch.
We were billetted at a school. Harry managed to find me a spring bed. We were all worried - would Japan do something, now the European war had ended?

End of interview 2

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