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Thread: On this Day |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 17th June 1944
----------------------------------------The rain has stopped for a while, so we can take advantage of the dry spell to have another recce of the district. We are constructing a new road around St. Gabriel. This is going to be part of a future Bayeux by-pass, someone says, but the structure is unique. As far as we can see it is simply a number of parallel long, wide strips of chestnut paling laid flat on the bulldozed and flattened muddy ground. We have not yet encountered the specially adapted Churchill tanks that perform this type of work. Back in the barn, we pass round our first copy of "Tam O'Shanter", the 15th Scottish Division "news" sheet. There is no mention of individual units and no news of the build-up, in fact no real news at all. The only item I can recall is about a Don R who lost his way to St. Gabriel and was stopped by an M.P. who asked where he thought he was going, then said "Well, if you carry on the same way, you will meet him soon enough. The enemy is shelling the road from here on!” [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 21, 2007 8:52:37 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 18th June 1944 extract from official history
On 18 June twenty allied divisions were ashore facing eighteen mainly under strength German divisions. Montgomery believed that he could crack the enemy line and this time successfully encircles Caen, using the troops of 8 Corps who were just beginning to land on the beaches. The attack, this time with the right hook rather nearer to Caen, was to begin on 22 June. The storm of 18 to 22 June postponed the attack, in fact by three days, but the battle plan remained the same. Three Corps were to take part: on the British right the 49th West Riding Division of 30 Corps was to seize the vital ridges of Fontenay and Rauray on 25 June; in the centre 8 Corps was to thrust for crossings of the Odon and the Orne on 26 June; further to the left the Canadians of 1 Corps were to move up to Carpiquet airfield, and 51 Highland Division was to break out of the Airborne bridgehead to come round Caen from the other side. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 19th June 1944
----------------------------------------The weather is drying up and the mud is beginning to cake. Now we practice loading the truck and doing all those other things that we can only rehearse under field conditions. I am not sure that we do have our own truck, cookhouse or field equipment at this stage. We might be using Army or Group transport, loading with equipment on loan from 21 Army Group, as the big storms that nearly wrecked the Mulberry harbours are happening now. Also, our drivers, sign painters, Don R and cooks have not yet arrived. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 19, 2007 3:31:20 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 20th June 1944
Most of the mud has now dried out and we can work outside without trampling mud into the barn. The weather varied between the 6th and the 19th June, but was not sufficiently bad to prevent a steady allied build-up and the construction of the Mulberry harbours. However, the morning of the 20th June was brilliant with sunshine, too coldly brilliant, perhaps. The weather changed, and for three days the breakers roared ceaselessly on the beaches. "No such June storm had been known in the Channel for over forty years" wrote the British official historian. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 21st June 1944
More truck loading exercises. We have acquired a fair amount of non-WD equipment (a toilet seat for example), and when everything is stowed there is no room for us! We have to keep doing it again until there is room for us to straphang. Now that we have a truck, we have to be prepared to use it at any time; nobody knows where, when, or why. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 22nd June 1944
Many years later, Bundy reads (in Alexander McKee's book, "CAEN anvil of victory") that even I (Intelligence) group do not know the plans for our first battle; presumably, only O (Orders) group know that the other divisions and independent brigades that will be involved are not yet in Normandy. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 23rd June 1944
----------------------------------------A series of apparently random, useless, moves between the central and eastern sectors. These are what military historians call "marches and counter-marches", designed either to fool the enemy into making similar redistributions of force - or maybe to leave a few empty fields in the central sector to be filled by our artillery. Captain Dovey has decided that he does not want us to salute him all day. Under field conditions, one salute per day is enough. We are now up to strength, as the rest of the unit arrived last night. Sure enough, the storms have caused the delay, and the drivers tell us about the Mulberry harbours, and the damage they had sustained. Now we have our own 3 tonners, 15 cwt., water bowser and field kitchen; also our own motorcycle and Don R, we can arrange the transport for maximum comfort and efficiency, with the aid of our own drivers and cooks. Saturday, 23rd June 1945 15th Scottish Division Opera House now presents a grand performance of music from the best of classical operas, by the Schwerin Opera Company. Bundy, in the front stalls, notices that the sopranos and contraltos are singing to the gallery, while the tenors and basses are singing to the stalls. The programme will go into Bundy’s scrapbook. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 23, 2007 10:53:50 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 24th June 1944
The time scale has gone wrong somewhere; I knew it would. Whatever else happens we have our last glimpse of Ouistreham on this day and the unremembered bits are probably not worth recording. There are only two kinds of weather in Normandy this year - dust or mud - and we seem to have been using the dust to mislead the enemy. Later there will be big signs on all the exposed lateral routes "DUST BRINGS SHELLS" |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 25th June 1944
We don't know where we we’re going or where we are when we arrive. Bundy still does not know. He tried to find the place many years later and failed. We are in a wheat field with a small stream meandering on the south side and a road on the west side with woods beyond. Bundy and another soldier (Atkins, I think, the one who "borrowed" Bundy's kit during the landing) take this first opportunity to have a bath in the brook. Afterwards, Bundy and Driver Dorfman, together with other Jewish members of the Brigade, are invited to the 6th Royal Scots' encampment in the woods for an eve of battle service, conducted by their M.O., Capt. Myer Makin of Liverpool, one of whose relatives is married to Bundy's Aunt Betsy |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 26th June 1944
----------------------------------------Up at dawn. Off to St. Croix Grand Ton to have breakfast and pick up our other truck, driver, stretchers, field Medical Panniers, seven man ration packs, petrol burning field cooker and extra canvas and poles for building a C.C.P. (Casualty Clearing Post). Off again, through Bretteville l'Orgeilleuse with its ruined church tower, which the Germans have used as a sniper post, past the railway station and into a field, where we set up a C.C.P. Then the guns start to roar. There are seven hundred of them, including the guns of H.M.S. Rodney and Nelson, and the casualties, mostly from mines and snipers, start rolling in. Ask not how many, or what sort of injuries - the only one still remembered is the first one. He hobbles in between two comrades, with a useless right leg and his right eye hanging down on his cheek. Bundy's immediate reaction is to alert the rest of the company by shouting "shop!” which may be inappropriate, but it works. As the day wears on, Gerry's "moaning Minnies" come into action and as the explosions come closer, everyone dives into the nearest slit trench, which, in Bundy's case, is that of "Tommy" Atkins. Tommy is somewhat peeved and asks, "Would you jump into my grave as quickly?" Much of the time the sky is full of our aircraft, with their brilliant black and white "Zebra" stripes. When the one and only enemy plane comes over, trust them to catch Bundy with his pants down - well everyone has to use the latrine at some time! He cannot remember sleeping this night at Bretteville or St Mauvieux, if anywhere, so this closes the narrative for now. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 26, 2007 9:07:05 AM] |
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