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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 |
Sunday, 17th December, 1944
----------------------------------------With morale, heating and hygiene complete, there was little else to do, nothing much to see and nowhere to shop for comforts. Thanks to women volunteers back home, we did have a distribution of home made, khaki wool, winter warmers, my share of which was a Balaclava helmet, which should come in handy for reconnaissance, foraging and guards. The situation in the Ardennes was becoming rather confused. Conflicting reports were reaching us. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 17, 2008 11:44:55 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 18th December, 1944
I had never had an office of my own, and while there was no casualty there was hardly anything to do apart from filing delayed old casualty reports which were just coming in. One ration strength report had just arrived, saying I had been released from hospital and was back on the company strength. I wonder what would have happened if, instead of hitch-hiking back to the unit, I had gone to Paris! Meanwhile, that German attack in the Ardennes developed into a full scale counterattack. Rumour had it that Monty had taken charge of the whole front, including the Americans. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 19th December, 1944
----------------------------------------My office was now well organised, so I spent time helping Scotty with his. Scotty proudly remarked that he was the only member of the unit with an “Alpha” intelligence rating. I, even more proudly, remarked that there is a higher rating than “Alpha” and the unit had acquired a member who was “Alpha Plus" since he last saw the ratings. Wednesday, 20th December 1944 Until we arrived here, there were only two kinds of weather, dust and mud. Now there was a third kind - frost. Previously, we never saw the sergeant, or any other NCO, as every man knew what to do and if they were not sure, one would ask Scotty or me. Now, however, the sergeant was busy arranging a duty roster, including guards. Every evening Cpl. Farrier put a can of antifreeze on the windowsill and told the guard to wake him up if it froze. Presumably, he would then have arranged to drain all the radiators. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 21, 2008 11:11:33 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 21st December 1944
----------------------------------------Dorfman, Atkins and the assistant cook formed a forage party and went out in search of undomesticated poultry and materials for building a coop among other things. They were unsuccessful at finding table fowl but did find some interesting materials, including a rather worn broom, a deflated play ball and a collection of giant, presumably empty, biscuit tins. There was no doubt that we needed the brush, but the forage party was keeping mum about the rest. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 21, 2008 11:14:00 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 22nd December 1944
----------------------------------------This was a busy day. We all got together in pairs to jerk the dust out of our blankets, then fold them up and wrap them in our ground sheets to protect them from the settling dust. The company barber offloaded and checked his gear, then promised us all a haircut. While waiting, we took turns with the broom, brushing the accumulated dust off the raised surround on to the dance floor. Those of us who had been lucky in the draw for winter warmers went outside to help Angus build a field bakery out of bricks, stones, turf and the biscuit tins. He had some white flour, which he had used to make dumplings. Now, in the absence of dried fruit and other ingredients for Christmas cake, he hoped to bake white bread from it. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 23, 2008 10:30:20 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 23rd December 1944
----------------------------------------That raised surround was clearly intended as a refreshments area and must have had tables and chairs. We searched for them, and discovered the furniture store, so we all started clearing the dust and hair clippings off the dance floor and set out a dining area there. Angus had made a batch of dough, covered it with a clean towel and left it overnight in a warm spot near the stove, where I could guard it. This day he baked it and we had fresh white bread with our evening meal. We had had something like it before, but this was so fresh that it even smelt fresh. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 23, 2008 11:23:08 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Christmas Eve 1914
The Football Match - One oft-repeated part of the Christmas Truce legend is the story of a football match played out in No-Man's Land. There were several conflicting stories about such a match (and if all the stories were true there must have been more than one), with varying versions of the final score. The German officer, Leutnant Niemann, describes a match which took place in the No-Man's Land of the Frelinghein-Houplines sector, just outside Armentieres, and he appears to have taken part himself. After the match, he brought our men barrels of French beer and promised it would not make them drunk. It did not. http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/xmas.htm Just 30 years later - Christmas Eve 1944 No-Man’s “land” was the River Maas, so there was no football match there. Instead B Coy challenged A Coy to a match, using the ancient ball, which Atkins had managed to inflate. It refused to remain inflated and kept roaming out of play. At home, someone would have shouted “Keep it on the island.” Instead one wag yelled “Keep it on the Continent.” No holly, no mistletoe, no German officers bringing us barrels of French beer. No presents under the tree – no tree; well, none on our side of the river. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 25 December 1944
----------------------------------------No turkey, no Christmas pud, but we did all, R.A.M.C., R.A.S.C. and Catering Corps, manage to eat our Christmas dinner sitting down at a whitish table, wearing party hats, secretly made by the clerks and the foraging party from crepe paper found in the hall cupboards. The C.O. came to inspect our festive board, and wish us the compliments of the season, then looked up at our faded, dusty, festoonery and congratulated us on making a special effort. Nobody had the heart to put him right. Tuesday, 26th December 1944 Angus and his assistants had really excelled themselves the previous day, but now we were on short rations. This day's breakfast consisted of tea with bread and cheese. Jamie, the barber, put his scissors back in his hairdressing kit. Scotty and I put our bandage scissors back on our lanyards and removed most of the paper clips from the paper hats and fake crackers, returning them to the office. The crepe paper could now be of use to help rekindle the fire under the field bakery, so when next we had bread it should be fresh. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 26, 2008 12:45:24 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 27th December 1944
There was no sign of enemy activity, so we were no longer on standby. The NAAFI had still not caught up with us, so we were short of comforts, but there was plenty of petrol which was now arriving via PLUTO (Pipe Line under the Ocean) between Dover and Calais. Our R.A.S.C. detachment now arranged trips into town (Helmond, I think) so we could use the shops to make up some of the deficiencies. There were a number of things which were still not available, notably tobacco and soap, but at least we could visit a cinema and mix with the civilians. Some of us were even invited home to spend the evening with them. A notable eating habit in this country is the pooling of potatoes and other vegetables in the centre of the table, each diner taking as much as he or she wants and leaving no waste on the plate; an ecologically sound custom that the whole world has eventually adopted. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 28th December 1944
Now it was my turn for liberty. The truck carried haversack rations for us; these were mostly protein foods, as meat, fish and eggs were still rationed to civilians while waiting for regular supplies to arrive. How we used our snack was up to us, as we might receive hospitality and wish to give something in return. This proved to be the case with me, so I was glad I had taken my share in the form of unopened tins. I was invited home by a jolly middle aged couple with teen age children, who were experimenting with a microphone. After lunch, the eldest, a girl, took the microphone and me into the cupboard under the stairs – not to play sardines, well not deliberately, but to ”broadcast” to the rest of the family. As we emerged, her brother called out “Hij spreekt Helmondsch!” This was news to me as I thought I was speaking Dutch! It turned out that Helmondsch is a dialect of Brabantsch. |
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