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Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Thread Status: Locked Total posts in this thread: 716
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 10th January, 1945
It was also on nights like that one that we were glad to be bored and could count our blessings. Guard duty is better to have than casualty duty and the boring days that we now experienced were better than the hectic ones. The front line was a natural barrier and the weather unsuitable for cross-river swimming so our winter quarters were more like a rest camp than a battle station, and we were not so much in action as standing by for action. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 11th January, 1945
Looking back on those dark days, one thing stands out – the clarity of the skies at night. Even in blacked-out England the stars seemed to shine more brightly while there was no artificial light in competition with them. It was the same here, especially on cloudless and moonless nights. The only occasional form of illumination at night was way across the river, when the R.A.F. was bombing targets in Germany. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 12th January, 1945
We never saw the bombers coming over, but we did see the flashes reflected on clouds at times. We also saw coloured flares glowing in the sky just before some of the bombs; and in daylight, when the A.A.F. was bombing, pillars of smoke in the same areas. We assumed that these, too, were markers, but who needs markers in daylight? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 13th January 1945
It may be that what appeared to us to be markers were actually the vapour/smoke trails left behind by A4/V2 rockets, launched prematurely because it would have been hazardous to have left them on their launching pads during A.A.F. raids. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 14th January 1945
I can not remember what pastimes we had during those boring days. A pack of cards or a set of poker dice would have been useful, but I remember none, nor could I remember having previously seen any in the mobile NAAFI (when we had had one). Our home made chess set had long disappeared and there was no other game to amuse us. Monday, 15th January 1945 The ration trucks were bringing no interesting news. Their world was almost as circumscribed as ours. We had not seen any denomination’s padre since Tilburg and the officers’ wireless set, if they still had it, had been silent since Best as far as we were concerned. Apart from the letters from home, our only information was from the occasional, fortunately rare, dispatch. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 16th January, 1945
With all the clerical and other work completed, we had plenty of time to write home, but very little to write about. I had, however, made some crude star charts to include in my correspondence for someone to identify, so now I could gaze at Orion’s belt and know what it is. Betelgeuse, known to bomber navigators as “Beetle juice” was also familiar now. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 17th January, 1945
News was at last filtering through from the Ardennes. That offensive seemed to be over with no chance of resumption, as the enemy had gained no ground, but instead lost many men and much material. If we had been standing by to reinforce a counter-attack, we no longer needed to do so. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 18th January, 1945
One pastime we did have. This was the age old practice of sitting round the fire (in our case, stove), cracking jokes. Mostly, these were hoary old chestnuts, which we had heard on our last spell of embarkation leave, the previous year, but there was one new one that someone had received in the post: One night a couple of ATS (Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service) were out on the tiles when they realised it was getting near “lights out” and they had to return to barracks. On the way they heard distinctly masculine footsteps behind them, so they walked a little faster. So did the footsteps; every time their own shoes sounded faster, so did the boots. Eventually the boots caught up and they confronted a pair of MPs (not Members of Parliament but Military Police). As they stood panting one MP said, “Do you know you are out after hours?” With a sigh of relief, one of the girls replied, “Yes, but we thought you were out after ours.” |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 19th January, 1945
The ration trucks brought a new delicacy to brighten our catering – something called “POM” i.e. powdered dehydrated potatoes, to tickle our palates. They also brought news of renewed military activity locally, especially from the sign writers and Don R’s. Some units seem to be preparing to move. So where would we be going? Not Belgium - that problem had been settled and the Americans would no longer be in need of reinforcements; reculons pour mieux avancer? Could we expect to take part in a new attack across the Maas, elsewhere? Rumour has it that we are to become an air landing field ambulance - are we going back to Arnhem? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 20th January 1945
There was no need for us at Maasbree. Thankfully, there had been no casualty since we arrived there. After supper, we put out the stoves, packed the trucks and were off in the January evening darkness - to our old billets at Leisel, where we laid down our bedrolls and watched our replacements yomping forward, the way we had come back. These were the men of the 25th Airborne Division, who were taking over from the entire British Second Army, and guarding the whole Maas front by themselves. |
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