My Granddad's war story

[Joanne]

A couple of weeks ago I was given, by my mother a copy of my Granddads war story. My sister had asked him to write it several years ago and I didn't know if he'd ever done it or not before he died in 2007, he was 87 and him and my Nan lived in a little village between Chesterfield and Mansfield. I remember them having a butchers shop in another nearby village up to about 1988 (well, that's when my Nan retired.
I decided to type it up but then found myself looking his unit up and also the unit he was buddied with and if this gets approval from the mods, I wanted to share a bit with you, I know it won't fit into a single post. I typed it as it was written.

Going back a few years
September 1939
I was at the ripe old age of 21 that was when I was called up to serve my country. I was to report to the Blue Coates School on Psalter Lane, Sheffield along with 250 other lads recruited from this area. We formed a company of the Royal Engineers, namely 272 Field Coy R.E. 46th Div North Midlands. Three other companies, 270, 271 and 273 were also located nearby. Most of our 250 men were billeted in nearby houses and were accepted with pride almost like part of the families. Moral was high and we accepted getting knocked into shape by hard training. The winter facing us was severe; we often got called out to clear snow, especially in the Dore and Totley region. Anyway, most of the lads were able to have a few days leave at Christmas, nice to see our families again. Early in the New Year, we got our marching orders and after a few hours notice, our entire company were on the march to Pond Street station. The locals turned out to give us a good send off, some were in tears, it was pitiful because we had become part of their lives. I didn’t feel so good either. Anyway, after we boarded the train it became obvious where our destination was and after the overnight journey we arrived at Southampton.
We later sailed across channel to Cherbourg and from there we travelled in cattle trucks, staying at different training centres, it was quite an experience and the thoughts of future happiness never worried me. The French people didn’t seem very friendly to us but that didn’t matter. Meanwhile, something happened which was rather unexpected. The Germans had broken through the French lines in a number of places. We immediately got our marching orders and prepared to face up to something we had never before experienced. The town of Abbeyville was our destination but quite a number of our lads didn’t get there. The town was burning and being bombed by staker bombers.
We were very ill equipped and no match for the approaching tanks nearby. There was chaos till we reorganised and had no option but to retreat. It was horrific to see hundreds of French civilians coming under fire along with us. What came next I never want to think back on, I thanked my lucky stars, times many for getting through the next six weeks or so, but little did I realise that there was worse to come at later stages.
Eventually we reached the coast but getting back to England was no joke. Anyway, that’s enough, maybe my thoughts wonder away. Sometimes, maybe next time, something more cheerful will enter my big head
Until I feel like writing again, that’s it!

[Tim Invictus]

Very interesting [Name removed]o .... it sounds like your granddad came back with the little boats from the Dunkirk beaches?

[Joanne]

I'm not really sure, he never mentioned it but he might well have. I've got some more to upload there's several pages of it.

Back Again.
The coast we reached was the port of Dieppe and after such shabby retreat, we took shelter in a hospital which had been evacuated and was overlooking the dock area. We could see the German planes swooping down and bombing at will. It was sad that we could do very little about it; out on a recognisance of the docks we found the extent of damage was terrific. Warehouses full of food from England, cases of corned beef, spam, fish, chocolate etc, tons of food had to be left to the mercy of the looters. There was no chance of any ships coming into that harbour, so after filling our haversacks with food, off we went through the town on orderly retreat. The town was devastated; most buildings including the cathedral were damaged badly.
Our company of 300 men was now only about 50 owing to the fact that we had been separated and tagged out with other regiments. Eventually we came to the outskirts of Rouen. \things were quieter and more organised. Our officers had been in touch with the French and a train pulling four cattle trucks was waiting in the sidings ready to take us further down the coast. I had to smile when I saw the sign on the trucks which read 18 horses or 40 men. Anyway it seemed like luxury having transport. On the journey I saw signs pointing to Chen, we didn’t stop anywhere until we reached St Milo. It was really pictured but we didn’t have time to admire the scenery, it was a case of getting aboard the ship which was already packed. It was a sad experience and morale was very low to think what was being left behind and the loss of life etc made me wonder why such things should happen. I remember it was such a lovely day as we boarded the ship, I forgot its name but it was absolutely packed with servicemen. We had to remain on deck and wait until the time was right for departure. Then when it was almost dark, we sailed away, it was ages before we reached the open sea and with being on deck we could see parts of floating debris, some still alight from a ship which had been sank a few hours earlier. We got to know that a ship called the Lancaster had been sank by a direct hit into its funnel. The ship was packed like ours and only had a few survived. We sailed into the darkness, waiting for what might come next.
Wish I had kept a diary.

[Joanne]

That was goodbye to France. (T. God)
After sailing for hours, we must have been well out into the open sea, we docked at Southampton. We embarked and assembled in good order and grouped into sections according to regiments and destinations. I was full of praise for the ladies of the Salvation Army who so bravely gave out sandwiches and tea. A few hours later we boarded a train with comfortable seating, it was absolutely great. I didn’t know where our destination was. Eventually we arrived at Belle Vue, Manchester. There we got well accommodated, ready to be re-equipped. I was grateful to be back in England and be ready   for more and better training to face up whatever came next.
Our company was made up to strength by troops from other regiments who had evacuated from Dunkirk a few months previous. For the next few months we moved from one place to another, doing more intense training in bridge work and mine laying, covering most of the east coast of Scotland, setting up camps in practically all counties down to southern England. I am writing about what happened fifty years ago and I have no doubt that we were ready for some sort of invasion at that time.
Thoughts became reality when we got the orders for another move. This time the move took us back to Scotland. I think it was Glasgow where we boarded a large ship named ‘The Orbita’; it was absolutely packed with troops. Everybody was thinking ‘what next and where to’. A few days before we sailed into the Atlantic (?) along with several other troop ships we were joined by escort vessels, battleships and destroyers popped up on all sides. The weather was awful, I was sick and I really couldn’t care less if we lived or died, that was the general feeling throughout. A few days of this and we were informed that we had sailed through the Bay of Biscay and hopefully would be invading French North Africa. I remembered seeing fights on ships when passing through Gibraltar and from then on it was calm sailing in the med. I explanted plenty of air raids but with the expectation of a few reconnaissance planes, thing were quiet. What I really expected was that we were going to land in southern France and have another go at the ‘back door’ sort of thing but to our amazement we sailed round the coast until reaching Algers.
Ps I am writing this passing time away. It all happened 50 years ago. Maybe it don’t read good. I’ll try to be (? Unintelligible).

(There's a few more pages, I'' upload them later).