大象传媒

page2/6 by Jack Nicholls

We marched to the Public Baths, where we found that the Swimming Pool had been drained, and pipes in which small holes were drilled, had been laid over the Bath from side to side. Intermittent spurts of water were coming out of the holes. We undressed, went down the steps and tried to get under one of the holes in the pipes, which was quite a job as there were so many of us in the Bath. The trouble was that if you did manage to get under one of the holes, the water emerged scalding hot one moment then stone cold the next. The language was lurid. We dried off and queued up on the Bath side, still
starkers, then one by one paraded before the M.O. He stood there with his cane in his hand which he used to assist him in his inspection from time to time. One of the younger chaps was found to have a very hollow chest; how he had got through his first Medical I don鈥檛 know but he was discharged shortly afterwards to his great disappointment as he was looking forward to the excitement of Army life.

A driving test was next on the list to
establish if we really could drive. We were tested on a clanking old Morris Commercial six wheeler. The test consisted of going up through the gears into top then down again into bottom. It had a crash gear box and double declutching was essential otherwise the gears wouldn't engage so there were some right tunes played on that gearbox. The distance covered was not much more than a couple of hundred yards and that was the test, we were passed out as Drivers. Then we were asked if we could ride a motorcycle. I had been a keen Motorcyclist for some years and rather fancied myself as a Don R., so I said I could and was tested on an old side valve Royal Enfield that vibrated as if it had got St. Vitus Dance. The test was to ride round a path in a field watched by an Officer. I passed the test with no trouble.

The weather during that period was intensely cold. There were a couple of Tortoise stoves to warm the Billet but the cold from the concrete floor struck through the canvas of the camp beds, so it was even cold in bed. A large number of us developed coughs and colds and some were even taken to hospital with pneumonia.

Our initial training finished after about four weeks and we were ordered to pack our kit as we were going by train to a place where a new
R.A.S.C. Company was being formed. We marched to Mansfield station, and after a long stop start and tedious journey, arrived at a little country station named Addlestrop in
Gloucestershire. There we tumbled out of the train and fell in on the orders of our new Sergeant Major. He was a small wiry bloke, a regular, dressed in tunic and peaked cap and he certainly had a voice. A lot of the lads still had very bad colds and as we fell in there was a lot of coughing, barking and sneezing going on so his first remarks were, " What sort of invalids have I been sent to form a Company out
of.?鈥� We were marched off to an old rambling house set in its own grounds, about a mile away, called Daylesford House. It was said that it used to belong to Clive of India and by the state of it, it hadn鈥檛 been lived in since he died. There was no electricity, no running water except to some galvanised troughs, set out in the open, called the Abulution area. It was there too we were introduced to the delights of 12 sealer toilets, out in the open, over a trench, with just a Canvas Screen around. At least it was very neighbourly. The Cooks were new also. They did their best, but had to cook outside under an awning with the barest equipment, the heat being provided by a roaring, larger edition of a Primus Stove so the food was not always well cooked, but I don't remember too many complaints, we were all young and had healthy appetites. Then for some reason it was decided we had to move out of the house and go under Canvas in Bell Tents erected on the
surrounding grasslands of the Estate. By this time we had been issued with palliasses, which we filled from a pile of straw in one of the stables and we had groundsheets but the tents were a bit crowded and when it rained, what with the mud from our feet and rain leaking in it wasn't exactly home from home.

D Day Memories
by Jack Nicholls
Page 3/3
nearby flat piece of Iand and sett up a. transshipment station for the supplies brought in by the DUKWs. Supplies were unloaded from the ships in large nets carrying about a ton at a time into the holds of the DUKWs, and the DUKWs came into the transshipment area and drew up alongside a Mobile Crane which had been placed there. Our vehicles drew up at the other side of the crane which swung the net from the DUKW to the vehicle and then we took the vehicles to the points inland where the various dumps of petrol ammunition and rations were being built up. Enemy mines were the main danger and every now and then one would go up. We were very fortunate In having very few casualties up to then, the worst one being the Platoon Sergeant who in spite of his loud voice during training became shell shocked with the noise and had to be returned to Blighty.
So D Day passed. We moved forward with the advancing troops in the days and weeks ahead being involved at Arnhem, spending a freezing cold Winter outdoors in Holland building up to the crossing of the Rhine, being rushed down to the Ardennes when the Germans tried to break through and finally finishing up in Berlin face to face with the Ruskies. Quite a journey.