大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of WJ Cockerill and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Transcript of an original letter written by Bill Cockerill to his mother in June 1940.

5252598 PSM Cockerill W.J.
鈥淎鈥� Company., 7th Battalion. The Worcesters. Regiment.,
Dewsbury, Yorks.

11th June 1940

Dear Mum,

Well here we are, back in old England and having a simply wonderful time. For a start we were at Aldershot in a reception camp, and from there sent to Halifax to a divisional centre, and here split up to our individual battalions, and finished up here. I had often heard of Yorkshire people鈥檚 open-heartedness, but had never imagined anything like we are now experiencing. The people simply can鈥檛 do enough for us, the picture houses are free, the theatre, and all the clubs have thrown their doors open. They ply us all with cigarettes, beer and food, often to the point of embarrassment, but after our experience it seems quite like heaven.

How long we shall be here I don鈥檛 know, but as we have lost 4/5th of our lads and everything we had it will be bound to take rather a while to refit us. Our division had the worst of the fighting, and the heaviest losses, in the whole of the B.E.F. (Editors note, British Expeditionary Force). We have 22 left in our company of 130, and no officers. There is only one of my pals left now, and it seems like a bad dream. I formed part of a rear guard left to keep 2 bridges, and only got off 12 hours before the last boat. We stayed 3 days on this job, and although we had no hand to hand fighting we were shelled and bombed incessantly the whole time.

In our house, where we occupied the cellar, we were hit 5 times in a minute with heavy artillery, and yet did not have one casualty. In another a bomber scored a direct hit with an incendiary bomb which set the place on fire immediately, and we just managed to escape through a hole in the wall as the place crashed in. After that two of us were in a hole in the ground, and a bomber dropped an enormous bomb at us which landed in the road about 10 yards away, throwing a piece of road weighing 30 or 40 pounds, which landed between us and buried us. Some of my escapes have been miraculous.

At one point I was with my officer, and we were shot at for about half an hour, and neither of us were hit, although we could feel the wind of the bullets. A little later, as we were crossing an open field the Germans started shelling us at close range, the first killing an officer one side of me, and badly wounding a corporal the other. All I had was a lump of shrapnel which went through my legs tearing both trousers legs. At this particular time only 5 of us out of 14 got out.

I expect to be home for 48 hours this weekend which of course doesn鈥檛 give me time to go anywhere. I should love to see you all if you could get over, so will give you a ring.

Goodbye for now,

Yours,

Bill

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