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Thread: On this Day |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 11th September 1944
----------------------------------------There is nothing much to report on this day in 1944, but the following year: Wednesday, 11th September 1945 Bundy arrives back from leave to Melle to find most of the other members of the unit have already left. They know something of Plan B. All kitbags must be marked "MEDLOC B SOUTHBOUND" in black paint. For the last three years, Bundy’s kitbag has already been marked “MEDLOC A SOUTHBOUND” plus a draft number for the old 8th Army and he now has to find space for another address and LOC route. It seems we are off to Egypt to defend the Suez Canal (Against whom?). Now he goes back to No. 315 Brusselsche Steenweg to collect the rest of his kit and spend a night or two there before he has to say “tot siens” to the Van Anderlecht family. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 11, 2007 4:48:27 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
. . . and another year later
----------------------------------------Friday, 12th September, 1946 Bundy, on the way home for his final discharge leave, finds himself in a transit camp in Port Fouad. The queue for breakfast stretches all round the camp and is not moving. Word passes along the queue that there is no food left, the sergeant cook seems to be responsible and he is said to have committed suicide. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 12, 2007 12:15:09 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 13th September 1944
One day is much like another - another few miles to creep, another river to cross, or maybe a canal; another barn in which to eat or sleep, or both. Meanwhile Bundy and his comrades spend each morning in a short, sharp, journey to the next water jump. In the afternoon they have time to write home, but nothing to write about but their thoughts. Bundy gets out his bottle of "pink Quink" and his writing compendium and starts composing a letter. He has plenty of time to write and the officers have plenty of time to censor the mail, but there is nothing to write home about, except perhaps a little comment on the variety of French spoken in the suburbs of Brussels. Seventy, eighty and ninety are settant, ottant and nonant, whereas in France they are soissant-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingts-dix. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 14th September 1944
Somebody has heard on the padre’s car radio or read in a newspaper that the 2nd Army is fighting a battle on the Albert Canal, but this seems to be at Hechtel, which we have already passed. When Dr. Kilpack tells us what he knows of future plans, we expect to meet no real trouble until we have passed Gheel and Mol, and try to cross the Meuse-Escaut junction canal at Aare. Incidentally, the War Office has banned civilian car radios ever since war broke out, so the padre’s form of contact with home is very popular whenever he visits us. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday 15th September 1944
Today we arrive in Gheel and start to recce for a C.C.P. somewhere nearer the canal, while Capt. Kilpack forms the flying squad on the banks of that canal at Aare, employing one or two stretcher bearers as replacements for the men, including Bundy and Farmer, whom Capt. Coe has taken for his C.C.P. recce, which is unsuccessful. Bundy goes off to rejoin the flying squad. Farmer would go too, but Atkins had taken his place, and Bundy now joins Atkins on a local recce. Our house is one of three whose basements have access to the canal side railway and across it to the canal. The flying squad, a signals squad and a bridge master’s squad of engineers now occupy these three houses. This last is attempting to build a class 5 raft. This is for ferrying Bren Carriers, which the infantry on the other side need. These are the Royal Scots, whose R.A.P., manned by Capt. Hooper is in the basement of a cement works. The hopper tower of the same mill is an enemy O.P. (observation post). There is also a German sniper in the same tower, but he is inactive - presumably, to avoid becoming pinpointed by our meagre artillery, which is within range. This consists of one Bofors (40mm, rapid fire, anti-aircraft) gun. There are a number of collapsible canvas boats slung on ropes, which cross the canal at several points. Bundy has used one of these to visit Dr. Hooper, who was pleased to see him and hoped he could stay. This was inadvisable, as Bundy had not yet reported to Dr. Kilpack |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday 16th September 1944
----------------------------------------Bundy rose early this morning to the sound of hundreds of aircraft engines and the sight of hundreds of low flying bombers, many of them towing two gliders each. These formed the upper layer ("Market") of Operation Market Garden. Later this day the Bofors goes into action. Bundy sees three shots, flying in single file. The first hits the tower, making a dent. The second converts the dent into a hole and the third goes through the hole and explodes inside. Judging by the accuracy of the shots, the gun is not far back and is firing over open sights. [There is a photograph of the cement factory on page 152 of Patrick Delaforce’s book “Monty’s Northern Legions”. Among other damage, the hole in the tower is clearly visible.] This appears to have made the enemy post inoperable. Later in the day, however the bridge master appears on a stretcher, having become a casualty. There are more casualties to follow and Bundy is sent back to accompany one of them. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 16, 2007 11:24:47 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 17th September 1944
The next day, Bundy and Dorfman go back to the main Synagogue in Rue Royale, Brussels for a civilian Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) service. They only get as far as the street outside the Temple. Neighbours and friends have saved about two thirds of the Jewish population of Belgium, and all of those who can have come together for this, the only Holy Day service this day in the whole country centred on a consecrated venue. Most of the congregants speak French. Bundy engages in conversation and soon finds himself talking with Brenda Adler, a 15 year old local girl, who takes him to a book shop to buy a pocket Flemish dictionary, then home to meet her parents for Holyday lunch. Bundy remarks on the title of the dictionary, which seems to indicate that it is a Dutch dictionary and discovers that the two languages use the same words - only the pronunciation differs. Roman Catholic neighbours have been hiding the Adlers throughout the German occupation, and they have interesting but harrowing tales to tell. All too soon, he and Harry Dorfman are on the way back to Gheel where the unit is packing up for the next move. An advance party has already left, led by Cpl. Farrier, who has reserved parking places for the rest of the unit's vehicles in the queue to cross a Bridge into Eindhoven. As we cross the bridge into the Netherlands, there is much airborne activity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_65600...w=bb&mp=rm&news=1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stor...ewsid_3662000/3662264.stm |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 18th September 1944
Once again, we are part of an entire modern army, queuing to cross a frontier, except that this time we have to cross the bridge first. This is “Joe’s bridge”, at Beeringen, captured by the Irish Guards, under the command of Lt Col J.O.E. Vandeleur. We are not sure how long the crossing takes, but we ignore the doganes (customs officers) and go through Eindhoven like a dose of salts. The rest of the time is slow, dull and uninteresting - the events are not memorable even if the achievement is. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
September 19-22, 1944 (continued). . .
----------------------------------------Now for a change, instead of rivers and canals, the Royals have to battle their way across railway cuttings and embankments. In retrospect: According to military history, this phase of the battle for Best took these three days, but the memory is dim. I know we spent at least one night on a local, somewhat isolated boulevard in the grounds of what people then called a lunatic asylum, under some sort of canvas. The officers had acquired a radio set which could receive the B.B.C. and invited Barnett and Bundy to join them to listen to a B.B.C. production of "Die Fledermaus". Google Earth has a satellite view of "Best, Netherlands" as it is now, with the boulevard (or one like it) clearly visible in the complex of railway embankments and cuttings which the Germans were using as defence lines. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 19, 2007 9:50:29 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
One day in September, 1945
----------------------------------------About now, we are on a railway train, going south from Dieppe to Toulon - via Limoges and Toulouse, to avoid Paris. This has the old compartmented type of corridor carriage, like most trains in these days, including the one we took from Dieppe to Osnabruck. Unfortunately, this one has no loose back to either seat; there are eight of us to a compartment again, which is rather tight for a 36-hour journey, but at night, with a little organisation, we all sleep lying down. We are travelling with full packs and blankets, but stow the kit bags and packs in the corridor with one man sleeping next to them, two men in the luggage racks, one on each seat, and three on the floor, one with his feet between the shoulders of the other two, who have their feet under the seats. Next day In the morning, we stop for a light haversack breakfast somewhere in the Massif Centrale, presumably in a siding, and then hand over our spare blankets to the Maquis, who are in charge of this district, before we continue our journey to a transit camp in Toulon. . . Next day. . . . The following morning Bundy is suffering from mosquito bites, so reports sick. To their mutual surprise, the M.O. turns out to be an old friend, "Daddy", previously of 163 Field Ambulance in Hampstead, when Bundy was also a member and attended a local cadre course in French teaching. 163 had been the first medical unit in the relief of Belsen, and continued to work at the main camp while 194 were treating relieved forced labourers from the satellite camps and Bundy was sending letters to their relatives with messages from them. After breakfast, Bundy makes the most of the opportunity to see and photograph the scuttled French flotilla in the harbour, and visit a shop/bar where he buys a straight-grain briar pipe and a shot of triple-sec, a little of which he uses to prime his new pipe. Later in the day, or maybe the next day, he and a comrade go on a more extensive tour of the town, ending up with a walk part way up a long, winding, uphill street, at every bend of which a woman is sitting on her doorstep, knitting. As we pass, they are, for the most part, all smiles and nods, but if a redcap were to pass (so we hear), they would stop knitting. We have heard that there is, at the top of the hill, a house, or some said, a bar, which is supposed to be out of bounds to the troops. . . Next day . . . nevertheless the troops continue to go there. Maybe it is because of the quality of the beer, but "Daddy" informs me that he has to contend with many cases of S.T.D. In due course we board the S.S. Volendam, en route for Egypt - and who knows where else? After boat drill there is nothing to do, so Bundy gets himself a job in the ship's orderly room; he is now a deejay. [Edit 3 times, last edit by Former Member at Sep 24, 2007 1:58:35 PM] |
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