大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Gwilym Scourfield of the County Heritage Team on behalf of Denis Manners and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

Hitting Them over the Heads with Beer Bottles 鈥�
a Soldier鈥檚 View of the War

I suppose everyone remembers Winston Churchill saying, 鈥淲e鈥檒l fight them on the beaches, and the landing grounds; we鈥檒l fight them hand to hand鈥e shall never surrender鈥tc.鈥� Less well known is that he put his hand over the microphone afterwards and said to those present鈥� 鈥漌e鈥檒l hit them over the heads with beer bottles, because that鈥檚 about all we鈥檝e got!鈥� I owe that story to the old red Dean of Canterbury. He was amongst those in the room when Churchill made the speech.

Churchill鈥檚 unpublicised aside was very close to my own experiences of the British armed services. I was called up in May 1940. My calling up papers told me to report to Seaford in Sussex, near Cookmere Haven, to the Royal Sussex Regiment. On the train down from Victoria I discovered several other lads who had been given identical instructions. We didn鈥檛 have to report until the evening. We had to report to an ex-girls鈥� boarding school that had been evacuated for the purpose. Naturally we got together and all decided to have a night out on the town prior to reporting to the school. Being rumbled was our first experience of British military life.

When we arrived at the station there was a great big open army lorry ready to take us to our new headquarters. A screaming regimental sergeant major wasn鈥檛 in the least bit interested in our 鈥榮ightseeing鈥� plans. We were grabbed, checked out and herded on to the lorry.

They paraded us on what had been girls鈥� public school playing fields, The houses all round were where posh people lived. Many still had maids. To our amazement and disgust they said,
鈥淪trip to the waist. As the M.O. comes along, drop your trousers!鈥� There were these maids looking out of the windows. We were in full view. The M.O. had an officer鈥檚 baton which he used to move aside and examine parts generally regarded as private. A cockney joker on camp said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 seen many a nest, but that鈥檚 the first time it鈥檚 been up on a perch!鈥�

They had no uniforms for us, so they gave us khaki overalls and plimsolls. They equipped us with rifles that had been used in the Boer War and we each had six rounds of ammunition. We had no idea how to fire it or anything, but that was all we had down on the beach there, down in Sussex if the Germans came. After the first couple of days they took us, when we were off guard duty (ie facing France!) and took us back to the Sussex hills and told us to dig a slit trench. Most blokes hadn鈥檛 got a clue, but I had done some digging with my father in the allotment, so I knew how to dig a reasonable trench. There was one chap who worked for Sussex County Council on the roads 鈥� he was called, 鈥楽tumpy鈥�. He couldn鈥檛 read or write, but he dug a perfect slit trench.

The officer who came round, -he was obviously out of Sandhurst - saw this trench and said,
鈥淪ergeant. Make this man up to a corporal.鈥� Poor bloke was illiterate, but an NCO in his first week! It was two or three further weeks before we had proper uniforms. I well remember, on my twenty-first birthday, in the following January, standing on the beach at Seaford, in a snow storm, waiting for the Germans to come.

By August we had proper rifles. The Regimental Sergeant Majors were a great shock to those of us from good Christian homes. 鈥楥olourful鈥� is one way of describing their language: - 鈥淵ou may be all the world to your mother, but you鈥檙e a pain in the arse to me!鈥�

I was seconded from the Royal Sussex Regiment to 219 Infantry Brigade 鈥� Intelligence Section. We were stationed at Dover. When it was fine enough to see, we watched from the cliffs, facing out towards the Channel. We had to report immediately we saw a flash. There was about four minutes of warning before the shell hit land. We went down tunnels and along openings in the cliff face. You could go along the face for about a hundred yards.

It was during a tour of this duty that a soldier very close by was killed. A shrapnel shell exploded over the harbour with a deafening detonation and he dropped to the ground, bleeding profusely. I looked down to see, to my horror, that his body had been torn open by the shrapnel. Much of his guts was hanging out. It was a terrible shock 鈥� the first person I had seen dead or die from enemy action. Sadly, I was to witness many more, but you never quite get over the first time you experience what war is all about.

Whilst we were in Dover a man with not much clue about anything got promoted to corporal. We were all off to seek out a Womens鈥� Institute restaurant in the town to have a few treats. He nabbed us for some duties delivering provisions. We had to go into town with a hand cart to fetch them. It was pitch black in the blackout and we were coming back. You couldn鈥檛 see your hands in front of your face.
鈥淢arch to attention!鈥� he ordered.
鈥淏ollocks!鈥� I said, hoping the darkness would give me cover. He put me on a charge. There was a lot to lose in such situations. They could give you a really bad time. It all seemed so petty. The regimental Sergeant Major sent for me. I explained to him why I had disobeyed an order. He was furious, not with me, with the bolshy little upstart of a corporal. I couldn鈥檛 help hearing him get one hell of a dressing down when I came out.

There were other daft instances of pettiness like that. After two years of service at Dover, during which time we never got bombed, (I later discovered why. Hitler had ordered that Dover Castle should not be targeted, because it was his choice for his headquarters when he came to Britain as its conqueror.) 259 Brigade was split up. The Brigadeer went to Africa to set up a new front. I returned to the Royal Sussex 鈥� Bypass Camp, Exeter. We had to do our turn on lavatory fatigues on Christmas Day. I couldn鈥檛 believe there would be an inspection of the squad, so I told the men not to bother whitening their gaiters. The RSM did inspect. We were all put on a charge.

Later that year I was in charge of a concert party. I had written a skit. The Colonel and the RSM were both in the audience鈥�

EXPLOSION 鈥� Enter soldier

SOLDIER: Sir, There鈥檚 a bomb dropped behind the canteen!
RSM: No worries, soldier. We have to expect this sort of thing. There鈥檚 a war on.

FURTHER LOUDER EXPLOSION 鈥� Enter soldier

SOLDIER: Sir, there鈥檚 an even bigger bomb that鈥檚 exploded on the parade ground!
RSM: Carry on, Soldier. Can you fetch me more tea?

SOLDIER enters with tea

SOLDIER: Sir, There鈥檚 a platoon crossing the parade ground without blancoing their gaiters.

RSM 鈥� LEAPING TO HIS FEET 鈥� SCREAMING

RSM: What! This is outrageous. Put every man on a charge!

Fortunately they both laughed at it along with a hall full of soldiers. I was pretty relieved!

I was sent up North to train to go to Africa with the Hampshire regiment. We were to see action in Algeria. It was my first battle experience. We had to trudge through dried up river beds (waddies). General Alexander briefed us the night before.
鈥淲hen you go in tomorrow we鈥檒l provide your cover with a creeping barrage. It will make El Alamein look like a firework display. You will face only battalions of prisoners 鈥� not elite fighting troops鈥︹�� ( We were all thinking the same thing: if this is to be so cushy, why are they providing this bloody creeping barrage?).

We were to have cocoa with rum. We suspected someone got to the rum before us. When the barrage ceased we found ourselves at the top of a hill. The Germans (probably not a single prisoner among them!) were right in front of us. We couldn鈥檛 go forward or back. We had very little time to dig the slit trenches. They couldn鈥檛 have been two feet deep. The Germans made damned sure we didn鈥檛 put our heads up, either! We were there in the desert heat all day. I was dying to answer a call of nature. In the end my bowels were more frightening than Gerry. I cannot describe how difficult it is removing your shorts and underpants and doing the necessary under such circumstances. I managed it without being hit by a sniper and took a spoon from my pack to scoop up stuff I preferred not to have in the trench with me and put it outside.

One chap shouted out,
鈥淭hey鈥檝e got me!鈥�
鈥淲丑别谤别?鈥�
鈥淚n the knee.鈥�
鈥淵ou lucky bastard!鈥� He was on the bus home!

The Germans were retreating and needed their snipers to keep us at bay. They succeeded. We all kept our heads down. We found a waddie with some water in it. There were lizards in the bottom and a funny film on top, but the water looked clean, so we all washed our selves in it. We soon discovered that the film was a secretion by the reptiles. We all had to have all our hair cut off. It set like jelly!

When war in Africa finished the 5th Hampshire were trained to do a beach assault. We trained alongside the navy. We had no idea where we were going. It was the Mediterranean, but that鈥檚 quite unspecific, isn鈥檛 it? Eventually we were landed in huge US landing craft. It was September 1943. We had detailed pictures of the place where we were supposed to be; a couple of houses, the tributary of a small river etc. Our training enabled every man to know every inch of the place. The Americans may not be good at maps. Anyway we were dropped five miles in the wrong place. What a cock up. I was floundering around in the sea when the chap next to me asked,
鈥淲hat outfit are you?鈥� I told him. 鈥淩eally, I鈥檓 your dentist!鈥� he said brightly Don鈥檛 ask me why I didn鈥檛 feel pleased to meet a dentist landing on an enemy beach in God Knows Where?

Once again we were given totally duff info; no real Germans 鈥� you鈥檒l meet Italians. Great! We ran into a German elite Panza division. We were sheltering in a gully when a German tank came straight for our position. We would have all been crushed under the tracks. Our platoon commander ordered us to throw down our weapons and surrender to the German tank commander. That was at Salerno. I was a prisoner of war for two years from that moment. I had no fear of surrendering. We didn鈥檛 hate the ordinary German soldiers. The SS was entirely another thing. We were soon to see first hand what the Nazis could do.

We were transported to a place in Poland called Sasnovitz. It was about five miles from Auswitz. I was in Stalag 8 B. There I met a Jewish German woman who I assume was about sixty. She was actually only twenty-eight 鈥� almost killed by hard labour. We smelled the evil of fumes that came from that terrible camp and saw terrible sights. One day I witnessed a plough, yoked to twelve women cutting through a frosty field with a man cracking a whip over them.

We saw the Russian aircraft in 1944 and heard their artillery. I told my fellow prisoners it wouldn鈥檛 be long before we were liberated.

At midnight on a freezing cold January night in 1945 we were marched non-stop out of the camp across into Czechoslovakia across the River Oda through the Sudetenland across the High Tattas. The snow and ice was unbelievable. Even then a cockney lad with us said,
鈥淵ou know, some people would pay a fortune to come to a place like this!鈥� Amazing what human beings come up with, isn鈥檛 it?

We were eating from clamps; mangles and potatoes, anything. I got terrible dysentery. I was about six and a half stones. The medical officer at the camp was with us - here鈥檚 a coincidence 鈥� he was my GP, doctor Seaford in Civvy Street, back in Harrow. He had been captured at Dunkirk and taken to Poland.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 go on tomorrow,鈥� I said. He advised me that the alternative was an SS bullet. He managed to persuade the Germans to allow me to cling to their provisions wagon for fifteen miles or so. He 鈥榗ured鈥� my dysentery by giving me a charcoaled potato to eat.

Between the January and May we marched over 900 miles. We were covered in lice. We had DDT squirted at us through every orifice of clothing. They cut off our hair when the US soldiers liberated us. Strangely enough the Americans were the only ones who ever bombed me. Three times altogether over the whole war, but they were the ones who got us back home.

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