大象传媒

My story about Dunkirk is somewhat different to the sad story of the men on the beaches,but it does have a bearing on the events at the time.
I joined the Territorial army in 1937 aged 18. I signed up with te REME at Southall in the Searchlight Battalion. I transfered to the Queen Victoria Rifles in Davies Street West London after about a year as the Searchlights didnt interest me enough.
When war was declared I was at our annual camp and was therefor immediatly retained.
I was sent to do Guard Duty in Oxford St London for about 2 weeks and from there was sent to Paddock wood Kent for further training.
On the 20/5/40 we were dragged from our beds at about midnight and told to entrain for Dover. Onarrival at Dover we boarded a Passenger Ferry and were shipped to Calais arriving the same day.
We were ordered into the town to defensive positions.We had been sent to Calais to act as/create a diversion to draw some German fire away from the BEF who wee retreating to Dunkirk.
On the 26/5/1940, after several days of fighting, my company surrendered to the Germans on the beach (to where we had been pushed back). To my knowledge there was no attempt to evacuate troops from Calais.
Eventualy, with the rest of the Regiment and other units, we were marched into Germany, we were then put in cattle trucks and taken to Stalag 8B (Lamsdorf)? in Poland. This journey took about 5 weeks!!
Once at Lamsdorf most of my war was spent on working parties in the Sosnovitch? area working on Drainage digging,labouring in Iron foundries and Coal Mines and at a Saw mill. Most of the Polish people I worked with were kind to me.
My memories of POW life are of freezing temperatures, lack of food, and the delight of receiving Red Cross Parcels.
Eventually in 1945 about 20 of us who were on a working party awoke to discover that out guards had fled during the night because of the advancing Russians,leaving us to our own devices.We decided to head towards the approaching gunfire and were met by the Russians.
The Russians, once they were satisfied that we were British, fed us on food ransacked from local shops, and gave us as much vodka as we could drink.
The following day the Russians put us on a truck and sent us to the Americans.
The next day we were flown in USAF Dakotas to Rheims and then in RAF Lancasters to an airport near Oxford.
After 2/3 days we were given civilian clothing and sent on leave.

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