| 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 |
Friday, October 21st, 1945
I have photographs of that carriage inside and out, with the men wearing the same uniforms they had during the Normandy landings. I, among others, still wear the Tam O'Shanter issued to me in Sussex as a member of 15th Scottish division. Soon we changed that uniform for khaki drill, but the Tammy remained. I would continue to wear that until the day of my discharge. I was in the rearguard party, not because I had any special skill in clearing old camps, but because I had returned from home leave to find all but the stragglers had already left Melle. Now I arrived in Moascar to find all the tents erected and all but the one at the edge of camp fully occupied. I dumped my kit there, went to collect my KD and change into it and returned to my bed space to find it robbed. The only things missing were my table knife and my mosquito net. This appears to be the modus operandi of someone called “Cliff T.Waller”, who had committed many thefts of this sort. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Mid-October, 1944
For the next couple of weeks we were like tourists, wandering about and returning to our base near Gemert; in between kicking up dust to give the impression of the presence of a large military force, although we were, in fact, one “man” short. It seemed Rubernek had taken leave of absence. There was nothing to report until the next battle, which was now presumably, in the planning stage. |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Late October, 1944
----------------------------------------Nothing newsworthy seems to have happened in mid October. It was like the renowned "silly season" when the London season was over and the hustings had not begun, so politicians started accusing other politicians of stealing the ideas they in turn have stolen from yet another party. It was the same on the battle field. If one army failed to steal a march on the other, they both would sit down and plan their own separate winter campaigns or wait for the other army to make a silly mistake. Well nobody had made any silly mistakes, so we sat around trying to amuse each other with funny stories or excerpts from "Soldier" or "Tam O'Shanter". Most of these we had heard before, until Angus came out with a reported conversation between a member of the division and a Dutch girl:- "Come dancing?" "Nei, ik kun niet tansen" Usually, when we were just sitting around doing nothing else, most of us were smoking. I had been the one exception. I had not been able to buy pipe tobacco for weeks. Now nobody was smoking, not even the civilians, who try in vain to barter things for cigarettes; nobody had any. There was still nothing to write home about, but I felt it was a pity to waste a day with nothing else to do and no likelihood of sudden disturbance. I wrote my name, rank and number at the letterhead and, as if by magic, Mr. Coe appeared. He had a job he needed to delegate and it was his turn to censor the outgoing mail, so guess who landed the other job! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 25, 2008 10:31:12 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 24th October (approx.), 1944
----------------------------------------Now that the battle of the Electric Railways had slowed down, the 101st (American) Airborne was in action again, and had taken over the static position. 15th (Scottish) Division had gone back to Gemert via various other locations. Among the only ones large enough to have recognisable names to remember was Grave, where we had a chance to visit a barber. Like most barbers, he was quite loquacious, and wondered why we had a chocolate filled pocket each, while the Dutch had no chocolate. Not knowing the Brabantsch for “iron rations”, we try to explain it was "voor nood eten". The conversation somehow turned to vitamins and he told us that the Dutch had had no vitamins for three years. This may be an overstatement, but it seems reasonable, as the only farm produce we had seen consists of potatoes, hay (for the Frisian cattle) and tulips, but seeing the spare, weedy figure of the barber, I could not resist saying "Ya, en skeeken". Fortunately, I had already had my haircut and was chewing on my empty pipe while waiting for Atkins. I had already been to the tobacconist, but after smelling the available "tobacco" had decided against buying any. Thursday, 24th October 1945 Almost unnoticed by us, the United Nations came into being. 163 F.A. and other old comrades were still fighting in the Far East [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 24, 2008 2:44:04 PM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 25th October 1944
----------------------------------------Bois-le-Duc was still in German hands. So were Turnhout (in Belgium) and Tilburg, which we had to capture in reverse order, before we could go forward to Bois-le-Duc. This day, in fact, was the day of the march of the prairie men, across the flooded polders of the Scheldt Estuary into South Beveland, using the canvas boats that we borrowed for the Escaut crossing, which was cancelled when, if not because, the bridge master was injured. Now, at last, we could creep forward towards Tilburg, the target of that September day, with the Glasgow Highlanders (HLI) in the lead, and some strange partners to back us up. As the noise of battle quietened down and the casualties went back, we bedded down for the night. . . [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 29, 2008 10:06:58 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 27th October 1944
. . . NEXT morning we were up early making ready for the big battle. Too late - the Royals were already at the edge of town and soon we evacuated the one and only remaining casualty - a shell-shocked (we now say "battle-fatigued") “German” colonel, who insisted on staying in town with all his troops. His men, and possibly he, too, were Dutchmen, forcibly conscripted into the German army. An M.P. directed us to our billet, the Voltwerke, an empty factory belonging to Philips of Eindhoven. By the time the cooks had set up a cookhouse and started to prepare our next meal, the ration truck arrived with the latest news. Our Brigade (#44) had gone right through the town and linked up with the Canadians, so the Germans in Turnhout were cut off and the town should fall to 46 Brigade at any time. 227 Brigade had already taken S'Hertogenbosch. The southern (Belgian) half of the Scheldt Estuary was clear enough for ships to use Antwerp harbour, so the R.A.S.C. had three weeks back rations of toiletry, beer, confectionery and cigarettes for us to claim. In addition, it seems to me, we were now able to land a Netherlands Brigade, complete with bicycles and guns. Soon, the factory manager was receiving more spare cigarettes than he could smoke, and he was handing out hand-powered torches to all the lads. Soon, too, he had more than he knew how to handle and despite his head shaking and muttering of "Tsk, tsk", the avalanche continued. In the afternoon, the company, having no other work to do, broke up into pairs and small groups for recce purposes to get to know the local population and establish good relations. The streets were strangely quiet owing to the lack of any form of transport. We heard that the "Rotmof" (the local name for Nazis) left in a hurry and took every bicycle, handcart and cart they could lay their hands on. I went into a shop to buy tobacco for my empty pipe. I was amused to see a two-year-old boy crawling along the counter. The shopkeeper said, "He always does this. One day a perfectly innocent young German walked in, and he pointed to the German and said 'Wotmof'" |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 28th October 1944
This day there was a postal collection, so the men were queuing up to have their letters passed and sent off, including me with my letter and returned diary to Gunner Davidson. News came in that 46 Brigade had taken Turnhout, so supplies would now presumably be able to use a shorter route from Antwerp, and there would be some relief for the bottleneck through Eindhoven. This also meant that 15th (Scottish) was, for the time being anyhow, a flanking division, rather than the spearhead, which was now the role of the airborne divisions. This set me thinking. If we had taken Turnhout from the south on 17th September, instead of from the north on 28th October, would we have arrived at Arnhem in time to relieve the airborne? The 101st Airborne dropped very close to the route we would have taken. Was one German sniper responsible for our failure there, or was the attempted crossing of the Meuse/Escaut Canal at Aare just a diversionary tactic? |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 29th October 1944
----------------------------------------This day, the weather was beginning to become a little chilly, and I wondered if I would receive a replacement for my greatcoat before it became too cold to be without it. On my discharge, I would take its successor, if any, with me as it was not Army issue, but a gift from the British people. Now how many people knew that? [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 29, 2008 10:26:09 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 30th October 1944
----------------------------------------The 30th of October saw S.Beveland completely cleared. Perhaps those supplies would come in a bit faster now, but we could forget about Arnhem for the rest of the year. The road we took through the 101 airborne positions was now known as Hell's Highway. Tuesday, 31st October 1944 Meanwhile, I continued my perambulations through town. They were now too informal for anyone to call them recces. One such walk brought me in contact with a batman serving three padres of different religions, two of whom, the Jewish and the R.C., we meet on the friendliest terms, such as they have with each other and their C of E brother. Wednesday, 1st November 1944 “Doodlebugs” (V1’s) keep coming over, their ramjet, pulsate, engines put-putting and sometimes stopping. We soon learnt to duck into cover when this happened, as an explosion followed. Apart from this, Tilburg was very peaceful, and I continued roaming, while the weather was still mild. Thursday, 2nd November 1944 When the V1’s first came over, they were aimed at London and were flying high over us. Those coming over yesterday and today were low flying and definitely aimed at us. Intelligence reports suggest that they were being phased out in favour of a more reliable V weapon, but the remaining stocks were being used to avoid their capture. Friday, 3rd November 1944 Now I revisited the house in Heuvel Straat where the three friendly padres and their batman were stationed. The street name is Dutch for “Hill Street” but the street is almost level. We supposed that the name denoted something which was hilly compared with the rest of the country. It seemed, too, that the town is in the middle of “Vliegenderbom Alee”, whose orientation is fixed to that of the “ski sites” from which the bugs are launched. It would be prudent to move to somewhere less vulnerable. Saturday, 4th November 1944 We were due for another move and this day we spent practicing reloading the trucks. Once more the Flying Squad was to travel in its own 15cwt truck. In case we were to go into action and have to do our own heating and cooking, we had a Beatrice stove and a #3 cooker. We also had a field medical pannier, a Thomas splint and two stretchers, so we were ready for any little emergency. Sunday, 5th November 1944 Walcheren Island and polder had not seen the last of the fireworks yet, so the Scheldt Estuary was not completely cleared, but the immediate approaches to Antwerp were. We had played our part, for the time being, and were not standing by for further action, so we went to Turnhout for a rest. The flying squad members were together again, thr O.R.s bein billeted with Jos. Waegermans and family, at No. 145 Steenweg op Mol. They treated us as members of the family. We even went out with them some evenings and they introduced us to their favourite beverage, "Pater", which is dark in colour, like stout or malt, but sweet, like mead. Nearly four years later, I went back, tracing the old routes and billets and once more spending an evening drinking with the family, giving them news of Will Farmer, now back home in Bingley, Yorks, and Eddy, now home in Fleetwood, Lancs, where he was a St. Johns Divisional Officer. Of course, they asked about Tommy Fleming, and I had to tell them. I must have looked as if I was about to cry into my beer, so they began to comfort me. However, it was now three years since that fatal plane crash, and much water had passed under the bridge. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 6, 2008 11:34:46 AM] |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 6th November
In the centre of Turnhout, there is a tower without any attached building. It could be a market place clock tower, or the last remains of a church or something similar. There is a vague memory of a clock, but no bells. The layout of the junction reminded me of St. Barnabas’s Church; Everton, which now stands in the middle of the road, but appears on old maps on the concave side of a bend in a crooked lane. The town itself was so quiet that it was possible to walk in the roadway without danger from passing traffic, as the retreating German forces had left in a hurry, taking with them any form of road vehicle they could find. There was nothing to show the function of the tower, which had been built to a simple square plan with no sign of having been part of a structure such as a church or a market hall. I cannot remember having seen any remains of a clock, a weather vane or any such functional device. I certainly did not see a bell or a pendulum and there was no sign of there ever having been either, nor was there any second door or blank wall where a market entrance might have been. All the walls seemed to be made of dressed ashlars of the same type, and about the same age. There was something odd about the positioning of the windows, which seemed to be mere slits, but there was a sort of spiral pattern in their arrangement. The reason for this was soon to become manifest. Despite the central location, few people were about, and the tower did not seem to be attracting the attention of anyone else. There was, however, one civilian, who seemed to have stepped out of the building and appeared to be an official. He was able to open the door and admit me. The inside was almost as plain as the outside. There was no room for any kind of furniture or enough floor space for any covering, but the walls above the spiral stone staircase and square corner landings, from roof level to ground floor had framed oil paintings. Whenever I stopped to admire a painting, the curator (which I assumed he was) spoke the name of the artist. There were no van Eykes or Rembrandts, but I recognized a few names like Vermeer or de Hooch. All others were in the familiar, warm, subdued colours of the Flemish masters, but by artists unfamiliar to me. The name “Kopai” kept cropping up. These paintings were in a remarkable variety of styles – portraits, landscapes, groups and genre, but all typically Flemish. Being a little puzzled by this vast and varied output, but impressed by Flemish art in general, I took the first opportunity to buy, in a local tobacconist, a set of postcard size reproductions. This includes many of the paintings I saw in the tower, but attributes them to several different artists. It seems “Kopai” is Brabantsch (the local dialect) for “copy”. |
||
|
|
|