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Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 28th May 1945
The only transport available this day was Cpl. Farrier’s pillion, and he collected no dispatches yesterday, so there was no point in going to the office this day. I did what all the others had been doing; I packed my small pack full of cigarettes and took a train to Hamburg. The train arrived in the terminus at Altona, but not many people get out. I also sat fast and the train backed out of the station by a loop line to Hamburg. Apart from a little barter trade, there was nothing to do in the ruined town, so I returned the same way. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 29th May 1941
----------------------------------------- Jews in Paris were now compelled to wear identifying yellow stars. I, now a fifth year medical student, was suffering from mixed emotions again. There were four trimesters in the calendar year, but only three in the academic year, the fourth normally being the summer holiday. The summer holiday had been abolished for the duration, so every successive academic year was a whole trimester earlier than the previous one. The year would end in December 1941. The city was now a target for German bombers and many students were either evacuated, joining Civil Defence or both. I had done both, which left me little study time. I had to read fifth year while revising for the next month's re-sit for Finals Part I, based on fourth year studies. Tuesday, 29th May 1945 I returned to the office. Nobody remembered to bring me back. There was not even a pillion ride behind Cpl. Farrier. It was a long, lonely walk along the Gut Rohlstorf. There was nothing of interest on either side of the road, not a vehicle, civilian or military to give me a lift. There was no need to tell me not to fraternise. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at May 29, 2008 4:59:42 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 30th May 1945
When this month began, we seemed to be static, rather than a spear’s head. We could have gone no further without getting wet in the Baltic. The Canadians on our left could go on to liberate Denmark, while the Americans on our right could have gone further along the Baltic shore. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 31st May 1945
----------------------------------------The US forces, having advanced too far, were occupying land that the Yalta Conference allocated to the Russians and the Russians were not ready to take over, which is surprising because, only a month before, we had believed them strong enough to reach the Danish border. 15th Scottish Division was under orders to take over immediately, so the drivers had to service the trucks and assemble them for repacking. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 4, 2008 12:37:10 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 1st June 1944
----------------------------------------This day, we all paraded in our best uniforms, queued up outside the QM stores carrying our other boots, blouse and trousers and handed them all in to the QMS for safe keeping. From now on and until further notice we were equipped to grade two and confined to barracks. Hardly anybody turned up to pay parade, as there was nothing we could have done with the money. Friday, 1st June 1945 Scotty and I packed up our offices for the move, presumably eastwards, but we knew not where we were going until we were there. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 1, 2008 9:44:09 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 2nd June 1945
15 Scottish Div. was on the move to Mecklenburg. 194 Field Ambulance now moved to Div. HQ, which was in Schwerin. B Coy took over Weinberg Strasse, near the Schloss Garten. The O.C. commandeered the big end house, formerly Gestapo HQ. My office was also in this house, and the cookhouse was next door. There was other accommodation available for “B” and HQ Coys. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 3rd June 1945
----------------------------------------It was a nice, quiet Sunday. The sun was shining on a deceptively peaceful town. There was no work for the office. Cpl. Farrier had not collected any bed states and the office equipment had not turned up. The previous occupants of my billet had left behind a book about the town, “Wirtschaftsplan Schwerin”, which I now used for reconnaissance purposes. The book was mainly, as the title suggests, about the future of the town, but the photography was of the existing conurbation. Much of it found its way into my scrapbook. A walk in the Schloss Garten proved to be very pleasant. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 3, 2008 10:32:15 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 4th June 1945
I did a recce of the new company offices. The Company Command Post was on the first floor, where the O.C. and I had our offices, the O.C. in the main room and I in the antechamber. The door between was heavily padded and soundproofed - one could only guess why, but I would discover, years later, that the town had had a Jewish community. One basement room held a pile of wrecked typewriters; two were identical, except that one had a broken platen and the other a broken ribbon drive. All had twisted type hammers, which I had to straighten if I wanted to use them. I could and did make a near perfect machine with a qwertz keyboard one key of which typed the single conventional character, like a double lightning bolt, which was the SS logo. There was a “y” on the keyboard – where we would expect to find the “Z”! |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 5th June 1945
A pile of papers arrived on my desk. These were the bed states of 48 hospitals in Mecklenburg, all under the control of the Schwerin district. Some of these were highly specialised. One was a hospital ship in the Burg Zee, specialising in the isolation of SS members suffering from venereal disease. These figures were going to need a lot of collating, especially as I had to use my meagre German to interpret the headings. I was now in immediate need of a German-speaking secretary! |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 6th June 1944 – D-Day
----------------------------------------Coming off guard duty. I marvelled at the dazzling new zebra stripes on the planes flying over; Spitfires, Typhoons, Dakotas and all sorts of allied overland aircraft. Wednesday, 6th June 1945 I now had a German-speaking secretary, a pleasant, well-spoken, 40-year old ex-member of the NSDAP, with a typical "Adolf Hitler" moustache. When I made my scrapbook, I put this man’s photograph in it. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 7, 2008 11:17:57 AM] |
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