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Thread: On this Day |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday afternoon, 26th June 1944
----------------------------------------At Norrey-en-Bessin we have a change of organisation. Instead of Capt. Dovey we now have Capt. Kilpack*, who has no use for a batman, so L/C Will Farmer loses his stripe and becomes part of a flying squad to deal with casualties while the rest of the company are on the move. This will give the company time to dig in and cover the C.C.P. with the extra canvas in the form of a penthouse. Mr. Coe, the S.B.O. takes charge of the main platoon when the flying squad is away. This consists of the 15 cwt truck, with Dr. Kilpack*, Driver Dorfman, Scotty Barnett (the company clerk), Will Farmer, Eddy Jackson, Tommy Fleming* and Bundy, with 2 stretchers, one field medical pannier, one small cooker, lots of blankets and a seven man one day wooden crated ration pack. The wood and nails of this have to be carefully preserved. Our experience at Bretteville tells us we will need it for making wooden crosses, etc. *real names, R.I.P. Now we carry on to St. Mauvieux-Norrey to merge with the rest of the company. No need to worry about making dust - it has started to rain again, and we have to use our anti-gas capes to keep the rain out of our slit trenches. The C.C.P. is O.K. - the new penthouse keeps most of the rain out of it, but that night Bundy ties his ground sheet around himself in case he wakes up to find the slit trench flooded. He also leaves his boots outside and covers them with his battle bowler. From then on, he finds it convenient to improvise a bedroll like this whenever on the move. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 29, 2007 2:42:59 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 27th June 1944
----------------------------------------We are off at dawn to St. Mauvieux cross-roads, the whole company in one little convoy. Every little crossroads along the way has a Calvary and some of the roads still have evidence of having been tree lined, but the trees are bare - partly because the infantry have been firing into those that still had leaves, despite the shelling and counter-shelling, to get rid of snipers. Our vehicles now have saw-toothed rods welded vertically to their bonnets. It seems the enemy have been stringing wires across the roads at neck level to decapitate our M.P.s and Don R’s. As at Bretteville and Norrey-en-Bessin, most of what we do this rainy day at the cross roads will (mercifully) be forgotten. There is, however, a vague memory of Capt. Kilpack trying out his double penthouse. This is strung between two three tonners carefully parked the right distance apart with a sunken work area by each truck - one for the C.C.P. and the other (I think) to keep the cookhouse dry. It is here too, that the burial squad decide not to dig too deeply as someone will need to dig up all the bodies again for reburial in consecrated ground. Ex Trooper Bundy is called on to assist the burial squad by helping design a Star of David for the temporary grave of Trooper Benjamin*, of Leeds. Years later, he will find the permanent grave, just around the corner, in a War Graves Commission cemetery on the Vire road. *real name [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jun 29, 2007 2:44:28 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Later, Tuesday, 27th June (see above)
----------------------------------------after breakfast and packing up, we start travelling in company convoy, a few yards down the country lane to the Vire road, turn right and left again past open fields full of dead cows. The stench is even worse than that of burnt cordite alone, but the countryside shows signs of beauty. We are now part of an endless convoy of mixed infantry, artillery, engineers and ordnance (which we now call "logistics"). This is one-way, fortunately, as the few returning vehicles have to give right of way at times. Even so, we frequently snarl up, especially at the half-ruined village of Cheux, where the axes of at least two divisions cross, under a hail of enemy fire. At the T-junction, an M.P. is directing traffic by standing in the middle of the cross roads, ignoring the shells falling around him. We learn later that he is one of a series of army cops at that junction, including at least three casualties. We learn, too, that tracked vehicles exacerbated the situation by using the junction, rather than crossing the fields, which might still have mines. The M.P. directs us to the left, out of the village and we set up in a field. The shelling continues while we erect the penthouse, which Bundy illuminates with Tilly storm lamps and hurricane lamps, as the hazy sun is now setting. We work on through the night . . . Wednesday 28th June - day three of operation Epsom . . . until the wee sma' hours when the German nebelwurfers and British guns fall silent, the casualties stop coming in and we can get some sleep. Well after dawn, we wake, wash, shave and have breakfast. Our Don R, Cpl. Farrier goes off for new orders while we repack the truck on the assumption that we are on the move again. Farrier returns, all smiles and we are on our way again, past a new, smiling redcap, actually wearing his bright red peaked cap instead of a battle bowler, and waves us back the way we came yesterday. We give him a friendly wave in return. We carry on, all the way back through St. Mauvieux-Norrey to and through Bretteville to a large field that now holds 8th Corps assembly area. A Coy is already there with their new D.I.Y. trailer, which they have assembled from a number of wrecked vehicles found in their rest area. It is painted in the normal camouflage colours with the division symbol, the unit number on R.A.M.C. colours and the company letter, plus the name "ODTAA", the title of a London play, based on John Masefield’s 1926 novel, and meaning "One Damned Thing after Another". They do not have time to show it to us in detail, as they are on their way to Cheux and Hill 112 to relieve us! Now we settle down to a leisurely day of repacking the trucks for maximum comfort on the move, followed in the evening by a film show in the main tent. ”And so to bed” (to quote Pepys) Thursday, 29th June 1944 Back to our rest area, near St. Croix Grand Ton. On the edge of the field is a motionless German tank - not a Tiger, but another very heavy tank, possibly a Panther. Bundy warns everyone else to stand clear while he tests it. Unfortunately, it is immobile, probably being out of fuel, but there is no BT (booby trap) apparent, and so we leave it to be collected later. Meanwhile we all parade - for pay! Yes, today is pay day, and we get 2 weeks’ pay to make up for missing our pay last week. . [Edit 7 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 1, 2007 8:54:26 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 30th June, 1944.
----------------------------------------Now we have newspapers - not today's edition, but fairly recent. Broadsheets are just one folio sheet, all war news. We often wondered just where they got enough news to fill the papers in peacetime. There are hardly any adverts, mostly government announcements like "Be like Dad, keep Mum" or "Eat less bread, eat potatoes instead", but there is one wryly-amusing ad for Whitbread's ale. This consists of a map of Normandy with the announcement "This is where your Whitbread is going". None of us has seen as much as one bottle of any brewer's product! Ah, well! The papers that certain of us most want to see are the Glasgow ones. It seems the most popular items are the antics of the strip cartoons, “The Broons” and “Oor Wully”, especially to Tommy Fleming of Glasgow and Angus, our Glaswegian cook. The rest of us are more interested in the broadsheets with the war news, or the tabloids with their comic strips. “Plain Jane” is now far from plain. She has become a blonde bombshell who keeps losing her clothes in more and more revealing fashions. The term “strip cartoon” now has a new meaning. We carefully preserve all the papers as our ration of 2-3 sheets of 4x4 brown paper is never quite enough, despite the advice of one wag, who put up a notice in the latrine, "Use both sides of the paper". Friday, 30th June 1945 Before we crossed the Rhine, all men over 40 became eligible for discharge, becoming Group #1. Others are now following under a points system based on age and months of service. Bundy will be due for discharge in about one year. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 1, 2007 11:34:34 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 1st July 1944
One thing we have not had in France so far, is fresh food, so Rowley Hall and Bundy pocket a tin of sardines each, saved from our rations, and go searching for a farmhouse, carefully avoiding the centres of fields and those hedgerows that are signed "Achtung Minen". At the only farmhouse we reach we meet M. & Mme. Pinard* who are happy to exchange our sardines for eggs - in fact they seem to be surprised that we should want to make the exchange. Nevertheless, boiled in a mug of water over a Tommy cooker fuelled with a hexamine tablet, they make a satisfying change from sardines. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 2nd July 1944
Woken, none too early, by the sound of a heavy ladle hitting a large tureen full of real Scots porridge, hot strong and salty. Angus Glenn, our chief cook, calls "Breakfast" and we all get our mess tins filled with porridge, our mugs with sweet tea and everything else in a soldier's field breakfast. Afterwards there is hot water to spare, so we can refresh our morale before foot slogging to a nearby Mobile Bath Unit. The mud has dried up once more, the roads are dusty and afterwards our bodies are damp from hurried drying with small towels, so Tommy Atkins and Bundy, the only ones who have had a bath since arriving in Normandy, feel no cleaner, and the others echo our sentiments, so we decide to use trucks for the next visit. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 3rd July 1944
Members of the unit have now made several excursions to the village, usually in pairs, without entering private property other than the farmyard. One house is prominently marked "Out of Bounds". We can only guess what goes on there. Bundy has been through the village to an R.A.F. base just beyond, and actually helped arm a rocket Typhoon. Rocket firing Typhoons have been very busy lately, reinforced by a new model of fighter, which has the ellipsoid wings of a Spitfire and the shark-like fuselage of the Typhoon. Bundy calls these "Spitoons" and the name catches on, at least among the members of the unit, until the real, official, name of the plane, “Tempest", is revealed. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 4th July 1944
In the absence of personal diaries it is difficult to be sure of exact dates, battle dates seeming longer and rest periods shorter in the memory, but round about now we believe that we have become reserve formations. The newly formed 12th Corps has landed, with 53rd Welsh division in the lead replacing 15th Scottish division. Thus assured, a number of us troop off to Bayeux in twos and threes, hoping to see the Bayeux Tapestry and bring back some fresh food. The nearest we get to achieving these objectives are a view of a painting of the tapestry and a hectogram of unripe Camembert. On the way back, our water bowser picks us up, and picks up as many others as can find handholds and foot holds on the vehicle, as we are all overdue back with the unit. We arrive back to find the trucks already being loaded. All our kit is on one three-tonner, as the 15cwt is out looking for stragglers. The field kitchen and penthouse are now being loaded on the other truck, so we lunch on the unripe part of the camembert and discard the ripe part, thinking it has "gone bad", as we have never seen Camembert before. Now we are off on the same familiar route. Once more, we are turning left at Cheux, but carrying on way past our previous position. We go through unfamiliar villages across the Odon near Tourville and via Gavrus to the wooded slopes of hill 112. There we commandeer a white painted house with front and back gardens, where there are already slit trenches left behind by other units, which is fortunate, as we do not have time to dig. Casualties are already there waiting to be made fit for evacuation, as more keep coming in, not only from our own division, but also from the two divisions defending our flanks and the division which we are relieving - the newly blooded 53rd (Welsh). Soon we would be dealing with casualties from our own company and burying our own dead, after which most of the company would withdraw, leaving only three of us to lick our wounds and carry on through the night. . . |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday/Wednesday, 4th -5th July 1944
----------------------------------------. . . but what occurs this afternoon, evening and night will remain just a confused blur long afterwards. Even now, there is a gap in Bundy's memory. He can recall neither seeing, hearing nor smelling the rocket that hits the back garden. He heard several others. He remembers thinking (or maybe saying) "If you can hear them they are going to miss you". Then suddenly he finds himself alone in a deathly hush; then begins to hear a Babel of confused voices, see the yellow mist and smell the nitrogen peroxide and discovers that Roly Hall has left the bunker and is helping with casualties. By this time all the living wounded are in, or on the way to, the house. This is where Bundy needs to be, so he picks his way through the debris and past the hill of discarded dressings, torn clothing and lumps of human tissue on the back porch, to the C.C.P. He stays there for the rest of the day and night, working a two-man duty roster with Scotty Barnet, while Dr. Kilpack gets what catnaps he can, between casualties. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jul 5, 2007 9:37:38 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 6th July 1944
All quiet on the western front - or at least this part of it. Today is a day of reorganisation, pay, re-equipment and a visit from the mobile NAAFI with sweets, cakes, fresh tea (made with unchlorinated water!), tobacco for Bundy's pipe and copies of the divisional magazine, "Tam O'Shanter". The only lines I recall in that are: When in Bayeux, Don’t play with fayeux |
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