Sword Beach to Bremen., A Veterans tale. Sapper

Brian I wish you a very Merry Christmas and wonderful new year 2005. Snappy looking avatar friend !

Ah the Schu mine, a terrible item. thank you for that first hand acct.

My friend Helmuth and his squad planted them in the marshes of the Ost Preussia forests and rigged them with wires to act more like booby traps amongst the trees. If anything it was to cause the Soviet advance to slow down so his 1st Infantrie divsion/regiments could regroup.

Erich ~

 

Merry Xmas Sapper from Finland as well!!

 

Senior Officers?
What did we know about the senior officers? To be frankly honest, not much. Eventually a bit of news would filter through, Where we stopped (If we were lucky) there would be a “news board” with little slips of paper telling us what was going on. But it was a rarity!

I am quite serious when I say. ”Sometimes we had no idea where we were” I know that sounds unbelievable, but it is true, and to an extent, we did not give a damn. For much of the time not only were we not sure of where we were, but we had very little idea of how the war was progressing…That is a plain fact!

We did see Monty more than the others, (gallantry awards) but apart from that. Nothing. If you recall, some time ago I wrote that there was a corporal that got all the “Dirty Jobs” The highly dangerous tasks, and you may recall that I was one of those he always chose to make up his little team.

Quite honestly I hated the sight of him beckoning me, or coming towards me. What concerned us is; what was going to happen immediately, where were we off to today, and how bloody dangerous was it? With the unsettling sound of mortars falling near our mind was far from what officer kicked the bucket.

Officers and men (Sappers) are just like any other walk of life, good, not so good, and very good. The officer in charge of my platoon in Holland came with the reputation of being the finest young officer in the Third Div and he was an excellent officer.

As officers go we were lucky, they were pretty good bunch, but the same thing applies, it may be that an officer needs a great deal of help from his men, he’s one of us? Why not? British army discipline is not the “end all” that it seems, we were all Sappers, and we all worked together as best we could.

Life in action is a matter of constant awareness of the knowledge that any moment the shell with your name on it is due, or the mortar shrapnel will tear your guts out any second. Everything in active areas is “immediate” Where too? What task? Is it highly dangerous? Will I come out alive? Why do I get the bloody dangerous jobs? Why not someone else? When the fire comes in, as soon as you get out your foxhole, you are in dire danger.
Senior Officers? Who they? Life for us was constant matter of life or death. What senior officers?
Sapper

 

Sapper, are you still healthy?

 

Me Ralf? Going like a bomb thanks mate! been busy with motor cars. New ones! Hope you are well?
I happened to be one of the youngest at the time of D Day so I am a very young and handsome 80 year old!

Sadly, It seems that I have outlived all my war time mates, Odd that, specially as I was severely wounded. Must a guardian angel looking after me. Best regards.
Sapper

 

Dear Brian, fellow Taurus, I had completely forgotten that it had been your birthday at the end of April, your LXXX B-day!!! A very belated congratulations, sir! May you live happily a couple decades more!

Your friend, Friedrich.

 

Thanks Freidrich for that, Trouble about growing old is the time flies! I seem to draw my pension every other day now!
Cheers and thanks.
Sapper

 

Brian (Sapper), am sure you have memories of today and your comrades in arms....not to ever be forgotten.....

thank you for serving and a belated Happy Birthday

Erich ~

 

Cheers Erich,
Seems to have gone quiet round here?
Sapper

 

Another belated happy birthday from sunny Sweden!

You know, we took a trip to London somewhere in March, and we ran into one of your old "collegues" from the French beaches who started chatting with us in the pub "Louise". At 82 he was having quite a few pints and would surely have scoffed at such a young one as yourself! "Kids these days" and so on and so forth.

I got the impression he had a rather good eye towards my fianceé, the rascal...

[ 17. June 2005, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: Heartland ]

 

Thanks Heartland.
Not much seems to be going on here?
Sapper

 

Hello Brian, Andy here, it seems as quiet here as it does on WBG

Andy

 

A very warm welcome to the Forums, H&J !

Please feel free to browse the older threads or post new ones - if you'd like to liven things up a little, I'm sure you'll find there's life in some of us here.....

 

Hello Martin, thanks for the welcome mate actually ive been a reader of these forums on and of for a couple of years now, ive just never got round to register

Cheers again

Andy

 

Hi Andy.
What has slowed me up is a very painful condition in my wrist. Dont half hurt when you type! I tried that "Via Voice" as an alternative to give my wrist a chance to improve.

Trouble being, I have never seen such a garbled mess in all my life when I looked up at the screen. There must be a programme that will type as you talk...prehaps in the USA?

I already have a Text to Speech software from the USA that is outstanding in clarity. And so far, has never made a single mistake in the traslation of the text into speech. Quite wonderful really!

It reads back with an American Voice, but the kind folk that sold it to me gave me a copy with what they assume to be an English voice,

Great company...But their idea of an English voice sounds like someone " simpering" and a bit effeminate. So! unless I can find a type as you talk that works..I am stymied.
Cheers mate.
sapper

 

Welcome to the forums, Andy! It's so nice to have you here!

As Martin say, please feel free to comment on anything you see around. Then responses will come. That's for sure.

By the way, may I ask if you're a war veteran, like Brian?

Regards.

 

Thanks for the welcome FH, me a vet no, the only thing im a vet of is 15 years of marriage, which is a drop in the ocean compared to say Brian and his good wife.

Andy

 

Ah! I see now, Andy. But the pic of your sign confussed me… (is that Brian, sitting?)

Anyways, welcome aboard!

 

Yes apologies for that, thats Brian and his good friend Dick Harris who im sure readers of this thread will know about.

Andy

 

Brian

I have spent the last few days going through your story of a young soldier's journey from Sword Beach to your wounding and recovery. I shall continue to search out your other postings here on the forum, and eventually read them all.

I want to thank you for sharing your story with us. Your tale was grounded and touching. The view of a simple soldier with the good fortune to have experienced much and survived. The humble ramblings of a man brave enough to admit his fear and strong enough to honestly share his experiences when so many others only repress them. I have wondered at the unimaginable horrors you have tried to describe, fought back tears at your poetry, laughed with you in your moments of humor, triumphed with you in your recovery, and thanked God for the dedication and sacrifice of yourself, your unit, and those like you in the effort to make the world a better place.

I want to thank you for your service to your country and to the Allied cause. There were many who fulfilled their obligation in the huge effort that was the Allied victory in WWII, you sir were one of the people at the cutting edge of the point of the spear. Your efforts and your mate's sacrifices can never be sufficiently appreciated. Thank you.

There have been many comments in the forum about the way the current youth are ignorant of what your generation went through to secure their freedoms. I hope that your generation can look at that as your greatest tribute. The very fact that these spoiled pampered young people can parade around in their self-absorbed frivillous lives is because of your efforts. When you were making your way accross France, Belgium and Holland the few children you saw there could never have imagined the prosperous lives their children and grandchildren live because of the efforts of those like yourself. I do hope that enough of them will remember though. Remember so that it doesn't have to happen again. There will always be tyrants and despots in the world. May all the future generations remember to keep them from getting into positions of power where they can drag the flowers of a generation's youth together to try and destroy each other.