蜜芽传媒

What follows is an account, written in his own words, of my fathers鈥� wartime experiences from enlistment through to the conclusion of the war.
FROM BRECON TO THE BALTIC
Chapter One

So Long Civvy Street

February the 17th 1944 had arrived at last. It was a cold, clear morning and there had been a heavy frost. I got up, put on my 蜜芽传媒 Guard uniform, gave my boots an extra good polish, and washed and shaved. I then sat down to a good breakfast of bacon and egg, which was probably my whole week鈥檚 ration and some of Mum鈥檚 as well.

My Dad and my two sisters went off to work and I sat smoking and chatting to Mum, trying to appear cool, calm and collected. Inside, however my thoughts were in a whirl, for today I was going to join the Army and I was actually going to war.

Most of our neighbours had told me it would be all over by the time I was called up but I had a feeling it wouldn鈥檛 be. Mother said, 鈥淲ell boy, it鈥檚 time you went, you don鈥檛 want to be late on your first day鈥�. I mumbled something about her wanting to get rid of me. She then kissed me goodbye and we embraced for a moment. I grabbed a cardboard box containing my few possessions, (I didn鈥檛 have a suitcase); and marched out of the house, not daring to look back.

I reached the brow of the hill and turned to have one last long look at my home. I could just make out Mother鈥檚 white hair beneath the bower over the gate. I waved and hurried on, feeling very young and alone.

Half an hour later I arrived at the station to be met by my two brothers, one of whom was already in the Army. They had decided to come to Brecon for the day to have a few beers with me. As I stepped down from the train a burly sergeant said, 鈥淎re you for the Barracks鈥�. I said 鈥淵es鈥�. 鈥淕et fell in over there then鈥� he said. Next thing he was shouting 鈥淟eft right, left鈥� and we marched out of the station, leaving my two brothers standing on the platform.

I was sorry we could not have our little drink together, but later on I felt better about it as I was able to pick which bed I wanted in the barrack room and get kitted out. One of the first things we had to do was to fill with straw a long sack-like thing called a palliasse, which was our mattress! We were issued with a rifle and fifty rounds of ammunition.

We were then marched off to the cook house for dinner which turned out to be much better than I thought it would.

The following day was taken up having injections, sending civilian clothes home and a task we didn鈥檛 much appreciate - making our wills!

The next few days were spent square bashing, learning to march, about turn, salute, rifle drill, present arms, order arms and slope arms.

One of the chaps in our platoon was from North Wales and could hardly speak any English. When the sergeant shouted 鈥榣eft turn鈥� he would turn right and when he had the order 鈥榓bout turn鈥� he would keep straight on. This went on for several days and he was finally discharged from the Army. To this day I do not know if he was stupid or very clever!
As the weeks passed the training got much tougher. From a five mile route march we went on to a twelve mile run and walk and then a twenty mile march with full kit. This was followed at the end of sixteen weeks with a thirty mile march. Soon we were so fit that we used to go around the assault course on Sluch Tump in our spare time to try to beat the record set by the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

I had by now been drafted into the South Wales Borderers and found that a great rivalry existed between the two battalions.

On one occasion we completed a twenty mile route march and were returning through Brecon when our officer said the Fusiliers had doubled the last couple of miles from Brecon to the camp in Derring Lines. To go one better he ordered us to double into the camp holding our rifles above our heads with one hand. We just about managed it, though we were on our knees at the finish. On another occasion we had to crawl through the fern on the hills of Cwmgoody while NCOs fired live ammunition over our heads. We had started to dry out by the time we reached Brecon at the end of the day, when our officer ordered us to jump into the canal and walk in the water until we reached the camp.

We were looking forward to our first leave in May when we were told all leave had been cancelled in preparation for the invasion.

After a month鈥檚 training over the battle courses in Norfolk, Ulverston and Aldershot we were given fourteen days embarkation leave. When I told my family that the next letter they would have from me would probably come from France, they didn鈥檛 believe me.

After a very enjoyable leave we were posted to an American army camp just outside Southampton. We could scarcely believe our eyes when we went for breakfast on the first morning; there was bacon, eggs, pineapple, cheese and a choice of cereals and tea or coffee. It was wonderful. However, it was too good to last and after a week or so we were transported to the docks where we got on a troopship. The ship joined a convoy and the following day we set sail for France. It was all very exciting until we were about half way across the Channel and saw a body floating face down in the water. It was clad only in pants and vest and we fully expected the ship to stop for the body to be taken aboard, but it just kept straight on. Everyone went quiet after that!

A few hours later we docked alongside the Mulburry Harbour at Arrowmanches in Normandy, where the D-Day landings had taken place a few weeks previously. We scrambled down nets from the troopship into flat bottomed landing craft. About an hour later we marched up the beach to have our first look at France. We then proceeded to a large transit camp at Bayeaux, about ten miles away. After we had been in camp for three or four days we were told that we were to reinforce the 4th Battalion, Welch Regiment who had suffered a lot of casualties in and around Granville and Evrecy. As our convoy of Lorries made its way towards Caen we were bombed for about half an hour, but luckily the bombs were off target.
Nearly all the town and villages had been battered and burnt and the air was thick with the smell of burning.

After a couple of days we arrived at a small village, Bierre, where the Battalion HQ of the 4th Welch was located. There we were split into groups of about twenty men and detailed to different companies. I went to 14 Platoon C Company which was dug in about a mile away in some woods.

I had only been in the Platoon about an hour when one of the chaps came running back from the toilet, which consisted of a branch between two trees over a trench! He grabbed his rifle and ran back towards the latrine to reappear a couple of minutes later with a sleepy eyed German prisoner. It transpired that while he had been sat on the branch answering nature鈥檚 call he had spotted the German asleep under some bushes about twenty yards away.

The following morning we were issued with haversack rations and told to make sure our water bottles were full because we were going on a route march.
It turned out to be the longest march we had ever done and from the time it had taken us it must have been well over thirty miles.

The sun was burning hot and the air was filled with dust and flies and even worse, the French people were busily plying us with cider and rough wine! The worst part however, was the stench of death. Every few yards there was either a dead German, a dead horse or cow and there were wrecked vehicles, tanks, lorries, carts and bicycles, even the odd pram loaded down with equipment and loot.
This part of France was to become known as the 鈥楩alaise Gap鈥�. It was the area where the German army in France was defeated by the British and American armies who by making a pincer movement trapped the enemy forces and prevented them from retreating towards the Seine. As they struggled along the last road open to them the British and American Air Forces attacked them with rocket and machine gun fire with devastating effect.

As we marched along I picked up a black leather gauntlet, of the type worn by SS officers. I thought I might find the other one a bit further on but on closer examination there was a hand in it so I threw it as far as I possibly could and didn鈥檛 pick up anything else!

Passing through one French village we saw the top half of a German soldier placed on top of a hedge and at first we thought it was a bust of someone like Napoleon. It soon started to get dark and we were by now staggering with exhaustion.

A jeep passed us by and an officer shouted, 鈥淜eep going lads, it is not far now to camp, the cooks are waiting for you with a hot meal鈥�.

A mile or so further on we rested in a ditch and the next thing we knew was when we woke up to find the sun shining down on us. We rose painfully to our feet, walked about a hundred yards around a corner and there was Company HQ and the cooks dishing out breakfast. The rest of the day was spent sleeping and splashing about in the river and watching the French women doing their laundry at the riverside by dipping it into the water and bashing it on flat stones. TBC/RSR

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.