Hello everyone, again, thank you for your kind words. It is very satisfying to know that you find this true story of an ordinary man’s war interesting. At this point I am a bit perplexed, for my second wounding (Severe) is about to occur, and my departure for England is imminent.

What I would like to know is this? Would the forum like me to continue this tale of what happened to me on my return? As a piece of social history of the period 1944/5, it is interesting. At the same time, and intermingled with what happened back in England, continuing the story what happened to my company, all the way from Overloon to Bremen, after my departure. That reminds me! I must get around to having my photo taken for the Forum site. I did promise Otto, and I have not done it yet.

Strangers.
Fats Domino to the sound of Shells!

Winter in Holland! The state of the great flat wet lands of Holland in the depth of winter prevented any large scale operations taking place, during this time, the war went into a waiting period throughout the three months of deep winter, the war did not stop, it continued with a great deal of hate being exchanged, but only small operations were possible. Shell and mortar fire with plenty of small arms fire, and with the ever present danger of mines, making sure that there would be plenty of casualties for the field dressing stations. This was one of the few times when we could live above ground, foxholes were now useless, they quickly filled with water.

Somewhere to harbour away from the worst effects of the bitter Dutch winter now became essential. As I said earlier, our officers had managed to find a former Dutch youth SS camp and managed to secure it for our company. A collection of wooden huts, a bit battered and damaged, but provided a roof over our heads, dry, and a base from which we could sally forth into our winter operations. (Mostly aggressive patrolling) We managed to get some sacking and some straw to make something to lay on at night, almost like a home from home, certainly a great improvement on sitting in a fox hole that slowly filled with water, not only filled with water, but froze solid as well.

About this time they fixed a screen in one of the buildings and put on a film, shall I ever forget it? We sat there watching this film about “Fats Waller” with the shells banging away around us, I can remember very clearly thinking, “I wish I were elsewhere”. By this time there were many fresh young new faces in the company, many old friends had long departed, one had to look hard to find a familiar face that you knew. I remember the odd feeling of being a stranger in ones own company, so many had left us, one way or another. Had I known it, time was beginning to run out for me. In the company of one or two of my old friends, we had laid out our sacks in a dry corner of the wooden building that was not too badly damaged, one of the floor boards creaked when I lay down, thinking “what the devils wrong with it” I lifted up this loose board and found a sack underneath filled with bottles, tried it, and found it was very good quality Sherry, we helped ourselves and put the bottles back for another night, from then on we always had our nightcap. This Dutch SS camp was used by my company throughout the winter and provided an excellent base for our winter patrolling and mine work operations.

The next episode;
Deception, deep inside the Enemy territory.
Sapper Brian.