Part 2
It has taken me a long time to carry on with this story….why… I don’t know....except that it has a lot of bad memories for me.
Anyway we were off the beach and into open country. It’s a long time ago now and I have forgotten a lot of things but one thing I remember vividly was a farm. It was very small and we approached it cautiously, my section taking the road side of the farm. There was no-one there except an old lady with a rusty old gallon milk can, half full with cider. Never has anything tasted so nice on a hot dusty day. We thanked her and moved on and then stopped on either side of the road and spread out by the side of a field.
We were then told that the tanks had come ashore and that we were waiting for them and we may as well brew up as it was fairly quiet then. Just occasionally and odd shell would come over. Funnily most of them appeared to be armour piercing and “Jerry” appeared to have the road perfectly targeted as they ricocheted down the road. I decided there and then that when we moved off I was not walking down the road but down one side or the other.
Anyway, we had our brew but it was not like the old days in the desert, but a horrible concoction of tea, sugar and milk which made an awful drink. Then we were told to get ready to move off and somehow I felt things were different. There was none of the old lads or hardly any of them and it was almost like being amongst strangers. Even the Company Commander, who though I knew him, I had never been into battle with him and there was no doubt that there was one coming up very shortly. I was on a Bren again and even my second man, I didn’t know a lot about. It wasn’t me and Paddy or Ginger Brake and I felt uneasy about it.
Well we moved off through a small village with not a soul about and then stopped again. The officers went off to BHQ and when they came back all the Platoon Sergeants went to Company HQ which was in a ditch. We all knew what was going on. Next some large self propelled guns (155mm?) arrived behind us and then came three tanks (Sherman’s) and we were told we were going in behind.
We were told that our platoon was on the right flanks of the company and so we set off against what we were told was to be little opposition, just a few Spandau’s. What they did not tell us was that there was no-one on our right. So we moved forward through a ditch into a field.
As we moved forward there was silence except for the tanks, until we were roughly halfway through the field when Jerry opened up with Spandau’s. (not a few like we had been told but a lot of them and some of them from our right and even by now slightly behind us.) I caught sight of a bloke called Patterson, a cockney he was and I saw him go down riddled by the Spandau’s and I saw a few others go down as well. We were down firing at the hedge but the tanks started forward and our Platoon Sgt shouted for us to come on as it was safer to be behind the tanks. I was getting up when something hit me from behind with a tremendous “ Whoosh” and bowled me head over heels. One of the blokes had a look at me and when I asked him he said it was a mess. I said put a field dressing on but he said he couldn’t as it was too much of a mess. Just then the tanks started up again and started to move off and what was left of the company moved off behind them. I was alone except for a few bodies, I shouted but no-one heard me and then a couple of mortars came over and I tried to crawl to the edge of the field but my equipment was in the way and I couldn’t move my legs. I was in terrible pain but after a struggle I managed to get my equipment off and I started to pull myself by the grass towards the side where the lane was. I had gone about 20 yards when some planes came over on their way back from strafing Jerry and Jerry started to put Ack Ack up. The Ack Ack was still being fired when I heard some shrapnel from it coming down and a piece hit me on my left shoulder, breaking my collar bone. “God”, I thought, “What next!” So that was my crawling finished.
I realised that my equipment was, as I said, about 20 yards away and on it was my water bottle. I was warm and thirsty and the pain was getting worse and I could not move my legs at all. Things got a bit hazy from then and I don’t remember everything but I do remember thinking about Cowboys biting their knives to stop the pain. I didnt have a knife but I tried biting my comb so really I think I had gone a bit light headed!.
Still, I heard nothing or saw nobody and I began to think “this is it, I’ve had it!” Then I saw someone on at the side of the field near the lane and I started to shout. As they came nearer I saw that they were German but by now I didn’t care who they were as I knew I had to have help. I didn’t understand a word they said except “Tommy” but I got across to them that I needed water and so they got me my water bottle and also the bottle off Patterson who didn’t need it anymore, poor sod.
I think they tried to tell me that I would be picked up but some firing started up and they retreated the way they had come.
So I was alone again and wondering and thinking all kinds of one of which was that I was going to die here and there was nothing I could do about it. Suddenly I heard tanks again, but this time to the left in the field next to the lane. There was also some small arms fire and later I heard the tanks returning. Then on the inside of the field I saw a bloke coming, crawling half bent trying to keep under cover a bit. As he got nearer I saw that it was an Officer from A. Coy. I think I began to shout and he heard me and he ran towards me still crouched over and said “How bad are you, can you walk?” I said no and he asked if I was able to get my arms around him and I told him only one but somehow he still got me over to the side of the field and with the help of a couple of blokes, he got me through the hedge and a ditch and into the lane. A tank was coming back with them, protecting their rear and they put me on the back of it and although I could only use one hand, I would have hung onto anything just then.
Some more small arms fire broke out and the blokes on either side of the lane were down and firing back but the tank went slowly on and eventually into the field we had stated off from. The guns were still there and as they started firing again I was transferred to a jeep with two stretchers attached to it. The M.O. came over and also Sgt Major Calvert of A. Coy who knew me and he asked me what had happened.
As I said before that I was lightheaded and I remember saying that I had got “an 88mm up my arsehole” even though I knew I was talking silly , I couldn’t stop myself. The M.O. gave me a shot and I was on my way back
I was not long and was taken into the cellar of a church, stripped of my clothes and blood transfusions stared. I started to shiver and eventually to shake. I had about five or six blankets heaped on me but couldn’t stop shaking. I was told later that I was in shock and after god knows how many bottles of blood or plasma I was moved again, to a dressing station nearer the beach with one bottle still attached and a soldier came with me in the ambulance with me to hold the drip steady. When we arrived I was put in a bed in a large tent with some four or five other beds. I knew I was in a mess but I was to learn shortly how big a mess I was in. An M.O. came to see me and tried to get me to pass water but I couldn’t and then said that I would have to be catherterised and said that it wouldn’t hurt much. I consider him to be the biggest liar I have ever met!
I was moved into another tent which was the theatre and I was operated on.
The next few days I don’t know much about.
