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When War broke out I was at Nelson Barracks, Norwich with the 30th Field Regiment RA we had gone mobile no horses, a week later we were on a troop ship bound for France with the BEF force, I can remember being so sea sick I just want to die, if the ship had sunk I would hsve been quite happy.

We saw no action for a long time, we were helping with the Imagino Line, It was a very hard winter, one thing I remember is laying in an old school room where we were billeted, very cold, and a elderly lady came round with steaming hot coffee , have never tasted coffee so good since.

We went into action when Germany invaded Belgium, went through Belgium and back to Dunkirk fighting a few rear guard actions on the way. at one time engaging tanks at point blank range. Being in the artillary you never realy came face to face with the enemy, one night I did, or so I thought. I was on sentry duty and heard someone or somthing aproaching Getting no responds from my challenges I panicked and fired , to my embarrassment it was a cow, we lived well for a few days.

Reaching Dunkirk we destroyed the guns and drove the lorries over the cliffs, and believe it or not our Captain (Capt Cunliffe) a regular soldier who had spent years in India made us march to the beach with quite a lot of flak around us.He was carrying two things a shell case which was the first shell we fired to take aim on a bridge and it with the firstshot. Brown paper parcel will tell you about later.
I spent three days on the beach which was pretty awful, we spent are time laying on the beach fire at air craft when ever they appeared , never hit one.

It was a sight to see all the small and not so small craft coming in like shuttle service and picking up survivers, some not always making it, I was lucky, I went on the pier to a Royal Navy Destroyer and taken to Dover, one of he fist things i saw on arrival was Capt Cunliffe on the bow of another destroyer dressed in immaculate uniform sam brown and all, as if he had just come off the parade ground. (That was what was in the brown paper parcel).

Read part 1 of this story.

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