| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Locked Total posts in this thread: 716
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 15th July 1944
We continued moving to a field near St. Lo, where American guns surrounded us. The gunners had covered their trenches with discarded shell cases. Later in the day, there was a live entertainment in a nearby field. Many of the entertainers were celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic - like Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson. The "auditorium" being full we just hovered round the edge of the field and caught what we could of the show. As we had to leave again in a hurry there was no time to set up the field kitchen so we were given U.S. K-ration packs, which were slightly bigger and more luxurious than our own; for example, the breakfast drink was dehydrated fruit juice, not “dehydrated water”, the hot drink was instant coffee with a sachet of cream, not tea-sugar-milk tablets and they had “Grape Nuts” or “Force” instead of oats. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 17th July 1944
We were hopping hour by hour through nameless fields without the usual abandoned foxholes. If we wanted cover, we had to dig our own. In fact, the only thing we dug was usually the C.C.P. and we hardly used this, as casualties were few. Rations were improving too - we now had bread and it was white for the first time in years, no lumps, no grey specks as in the "National Loaf" with coarsely ground flour and added chalk to compensate for the paucity of milk. The roads now had deep, narrow, circular, foxholes along their sides, about the right size for a German soldier to stand up in, with just his steel helmet showing. Alongside each was a little marker post with straw tied to it so that their men could go to ground quickly in the event of a rocket Typhoon attack. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 18th July 1944
This day was another day of movements, but fewer and longer in view of the comparatively clear roads, which permitted the few casualties to move further and faster. To forestall any grumbling, the O.C. told us that if we read military history we would know about marches and counter-marches. We had to confine our reading, however, to the Penguin Classics, which were small enough and light enough (in weight) for us to carry. They were also quite cheap - still 6d per volume (equivalent to about £1 in this day’s decimal currency), although some Penguins were now somewhat dearer. I had just finished "I, Claudius" and had started on "The Penguin Herodotus". Another magazine, "Soldier", arrived with the rations. According to this, befuddled, tired, German P.O.W.s had been asking to see the belt of a 25 pounder. We shrugged the story off as morale boosting propaganda, but, years later, discovered it to be true. There were also warning stories about the Normandy women. Some of them had contracted V.D. (STD) from the S.S. men and had then, probably with the approval of their neighbours, given it to other Germans. Now they had their hair cut off in public, either as a punishment for them or as a warning to us. For the same reason, some houses were marked “Out of Bounds” in the British zone and “Off Limits” in the American zone. We were now beginning to fraternise with the civilians. In the landing zone, we hardly ever saw the locals and when we did, they tended to be aloof. The Wermacht, who had orders to be courteous towards them, had occupied this area, and they had responded in kind. Now we were in a zone previously held by the SS Panzer Lehr who had behaved with the arrogance of teenage gangsters. None of these local farm workers ever said "Get off this land, it is the property of the Third Reich" as had happened before. On the contrary, they were now very friendly, treating us like heroes, sometimes even inviting us into their homes and sharing their Calvados with us. Some of them seem to have been, or associated with, the maquisards and knew their songs, like "Viens, Mon petit Fridolin" which they tried to teach us. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 19th July, 1944
Our own rations had started arriving, so we could manage without the American one-man packs. We now had a variety of 14 man packs, distinguished by the letters A-G. F were the most eagerly sought, as they contain tins of steak and kidney pie. Unfortunately, they also seem to be the scarcest. The farther we got from the beachhead the friendlier and more numerous the Normans seemed to be. They waved at us and shouted greetings, and if we slowed down, some tried to follow us. The children were no longer hidden and whenever we stopped, they called "Cigarettes pour Papa", or, if we were following the Americans, "Any gum, chum?" If we stopped for the night near a village or hamlet, we sometimes met local residents who gave us the local news like "Les Allemandes reculent par tout" and tried to converse with us. We kept hearing the same underground song, sung enthusiastically. How could so many people all be members or confidents of the Maquis? We hardly ever heard that song near the beaches! Now there was much fraternisation, and I was in demand as an interpreter. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 20th July 1944
This day was payday, but many of us decided to leave the cash in our credit accounts. It was a muddy day, like our first day in action, just a month ago. Then, the rain seems to have been started by our 700 guns opening up, causing vapour trails that united to form rain clouds. This day, Gerry's nebelwurfers seem to have the same effect. The rain was pouring down and there was nowhere we could go to spend the money, no way of getting there if there was such a place, no spare time, and no spare transport, as the Americans were planning a rapid advance, and needed all the transport they could get. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 21st July 1944
----------------------------------------The rations were now coming in more regularly. “F” packs were still scarce, but we did get sausages, whose contents were subject to speculation. Some said the principle ingredient was a young lady called “Sweet Fanny Adams”, who was said to have been drowned in the Thames. They certainly did not taste of meat, but were quite nourishing, thanks to their soy content. With the rations we were now getting letters from home in answer to ours, which were headed "somewhere in France"; about all we could say about our locality. We could not mention our formations either and neither could the press, but the papers did mention "the Scottish corridor" and "a famous Scottish division," so now everyone at home thought we were the 51st Highland Division. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 21, 2008 8:40:32 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 22nd July 1944
----------------------------------------The weather was proving tolerable - sunny, with occasional showers, so we did not have a lot of dust or mud to contend with, but then, neither had the enemy. All the company members were composing replies to the mail we received yesterday, and the officers were getting a little fed up with the amount of time they spent censoring them, so we started using the special envelopes addressed to the field censor to enclose up to three of our letters at a time. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 22, 2008 9:36:22 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 23rd July 1944
Not a day that brings back any memories - in fact for the next couple of weeks there was very little to distinguish the days from each other, apart from the variation in the numbers of casualties, and the amount of rain. We were now heading southwards along a forest road route, to the north of the Foret de Cerise, I think. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 23rd July 1945
The Russians were ready to take over. Most of the company were returning to Rohlstorf and presumably the rest of the division was leaving for Lauenberg or Bad Segerberg. The remains of the Flying Squad would hold the fort for a day or two, with a skeleton cookhouse. Unfortunately, my mug was missing, so I liberated a stein as a substitute. Monday, 24th July 1944 The infantry were now mechanised, to keep up with the Americans who had given up foot-slogging. We often had to travel all day to keep up with them and this was difficult at times, as there was thick mud everywhere. There was no time to dig in, which was just as well because we could not rely on trenches which might cave in. We slept wherever and whenever we could . |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 25th July 1944
A new issue of “Soldier” came up with the rations. Cherbourg, it seems, had been open for a week (when was this article written?), and was now fully functional. New equipment was, and rations were, being landed every day, ready loaded on trucks for rapid movement, and the more trucks arrive, the less yomping the infantry had to do. We would soon come to realise that delayed reports like this one were deliberate normal routine |
||
|
|
|