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Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 1st February 1945
About this day, Cpl. Farrier would have been able to get through the floods to us, bringing despatches etc. At least he would have been able to tell us something of the road conditions and give us news of the other two companies. We were probably near the edge of the forest by this time, but until A Coy. joined us we could not relax. There was only one M.O. per company, so whenever we of the flying squad were ahead, the M.O. came with us leaving the S.B.O. (Stretcher Bearer Officer) behind with the rest of the company, to deal with walking wounded. The M.O. had to take whatever cat-naps he could, relying on the clerks and dressers to wake him if any casualty was too urgent, severe or difficult for them. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 2nd February 1945
By this time, the Flying Squad had been split into two teams, to give the off-duty team a chance of a more prolonged rest between casualties. Sometimes we might have been close enough to one or other Battalion R.A.P. (Regimental Aid Post) for the M.O.s to take turns relieving each other, otherwise neither would have had any sleep at all. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 3rd February 1945.
For the previous eleven days and nights we had been too busy to take any notice of our German stretcher bearer, but now we could use him to ease the questioning of German casualties. Nobody knew where he was and none of us remembered seeing him since leaving Kranenburg. The cooks could not remember issuing him with iron rations. Had he slipped back to his own lines? Had he gone into the cage with the other P.O.W.s? Had he been left behind to join Corps or base units? Nobody seemed to know - or care. Perhaps we would never know. Anyone could disappear in this blazing forest. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 4th February 1945.
For the last 12 days, we had squelched our way through flooded roads. Our rations failed to arrive for much of the time and we were relying on the real Canadians, who were using canvas boats, to ferry what supplies they could, mostly 24 hour packs. If there were any farms where we could cadge food, I do not remember them. We had left behind A Company which could not get through to relieve us, so my team and I had done night duty alternate nights until now. At last we had rear communications and I could get down to some map-reading. We were in a house on the left hand side of the road, where there was a pathway crossing it. On our side of the roadway this was a footpath through a large park, while on the other, it was a forest trail leading to "Clever B" - not an illegitimate genius, but a fire watchers tower. The Yalta Conference commences http://history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6701 |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 5th February 1945.
Now, for the second time since leaving Normandy, we had the support of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun, which is in “our” back garden. For the first time since the breakout, we saw a German fighter plane, and it was a jet - the first we had ever seen – a Messerschmitt 262. My binoculars now came in useful. There were two types of plane in the air, 262’s and Tempests, which I had previously called “Spittoons”, as they had Spitfire wings and Typhoon fuselage. Two distinct groups of us acted as spotters and the plane had to dodge so much that it was unable to do any damage. Soon the gunners ran out of six-second ammo and had to use twelve seconds proximity shells... http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_me_262_peter.html |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 6th February 1945.
We had about 500 tanks with a further 500 in reserve, the Germans had only 50 Panzers and 36 Assault Guns, but we could not deploy our tanks until clear of the forest. The defenders had large supplies of Panzer Faust, which prove deadly in the forest tracks and paths that the tanks have, perforce, to use to clear the area, avoiding those areas that were still flooded. http://images.google.com/images?q=PanzerFaust...mp;oi=images&ct=title They had given a warning that there was a battle ahead. We were very close to the softening-up area, Cleves, the old home of Henry VIII’s fourth wife and one of the HQs of the German V2 force. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 7th February 1945
Indeed, we were very close to that area. The previous night, the night before the battle, the RAF bombed Cleve and the local area, but due to the bad weather and the fact that the Luftwaffe jet fighters came out in force, not all of the targets were hit, and the road through we were to advance was not completely missed for our use. We should have advanced just behind the infantry, but the roads needed clearing and we were not able to advance until later in the day. Once we started, it was not long before we caught up with Capt. Hooper, and took charge of his casualties, enabling his R.A.P. to catch up with the Royal Scots. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 8th February 1945
Soon we were back to normal routine, leapfrogging A Coy when the infantry advanced rapidly, taking over from Capt. Hooper whenever the R.A.P. moved, letting A Coy leapfrog us whenever we were bogged down with casualties and resting whenever we could. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 9th February, 1945
It was about this day we realised that members of another, unnamed, medical unit were ahead of us. This unit was composed of men with no military uniform, but distinguished by white coats. We had an inkling of what they were, but it was Wilf Palmer who put it into words. "Brave fellows," he said, "these conscientious objectors." It seems they objected to wearing military uniform but were willing to wear this kind of uniform and perform this sort of work. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 10th February 1945. Word of the treatment of fliers landing in Germany is beginning to filter through. Mostly these are horror stories of their treatment at the hands of the civilians in bombed cities. On the other hand, there is one story of a flier who baled out, but could find nobody to accept his surrender. Nor could he find anywhere to sleep, so he decided to spend the night in a cinema. The cashier, noting his embarrassment at being unable to find any money, spotted the letters on his uniform and allowed him in, saying, “It’s not every day we have the honour of a visit by a Reich’s Arbeits Fuhrer.” |
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