Thank you C. Evans for your interest.
Of course you are absolutely right! It was a daunting prospect for that teenager (Me) but the fighting apprenticeship’s we served in the battles that took place round Caen, had taken away the innocence of a Dorset Country lad (Me again) to be replaced by a young man that had become a Veteran in a very short time. There is nothing quite like the danger of losing ones life as a ‘prompt’ to learn about what to do in battle.

I shall always remember the true story of reinforcement thrown into the fight for the first time. He called out “ There is a German coming down the road, What shall I do”?
While I am on this track, some of you may find it odd that we were much younger in our time, we did not go out with Girls at such a young age as they do today.

I would venture to suggest that if a boy was seen walking down the Village street with a girl before he was nineteen or twenty, and even then, The ‘old Biddy’s’ would be hanging out the windows “Tut Tutting” and it would be the subject of much Village conversation. That is, for me, the saddest part for those ‘nineteen year olds’ that made the ultimate sacrifice. Many of them were too young to have held a girls hand, let alone enjoyed a relationship. That for me is terribly sad. “Old men make war, but young men fight them”

Now, having got completely off the track, let me return to what happened further on our trip behind the enemy lines. While we were attending to this officer and trying to make sense of what we were faced with, we heard other sounds from another part of the farmyard, and after investigating we found several wounded in dug outs around the perimeter of the farm, some of them severely wounded. Realizing we were not equipped to deal with this, We sent back a runner to our base area where our medical officers were. All of this, by the way, at about two in the morning. Pitch black!

You may remember we were faced with a German Paratroop Regiment. At that time we captured a German paratroop doctor who had helped with the wounded on both sides, it was this German doctor that accompanied the runner back to where the wounded were situated. Let me break off for a moment to describe this man. A big man, dressed in paratroop smock with a large white square back and front of his tunic, both emblazoned with a red cross, He had a black spade beard and was a striking looking fellow, this doctor had been with the company for a little while, treating both German and British wounded.

What happened to him? Again, I will never know, or find out, later we noticed that he was no longer with us, probably in the cage, but I do know that he was a dedicated medical man, and one that some British wounded had cause to be grateful for his tending their injuries. If he is alive and should read this? Well done Sir!
Sometimes I think of him and wonder, what happened to him? did he survive the war, and would he recognize himself from this story? I also kid myself that he may just recall that dark night in August.1944..

The next day, the water wagon, while trying to find our harbour area, took the wrong turning and had gone straight into the Enemies territory by mistake, realized his error, he reported that the enemy had pulled out during the night, it now became obvious why we were able to get into his lines without being killed on our night patrol. It is quite possible that the Enemy left the wounded behind for us to find and treat. Within hours the company had loaded up and chased after them, it did not take long to find him again!

The next episode.
The Diary of a wounding.
Boots full of blood.