Chapter 4 Victory, The End of the War!

Hamburg.
By the time we arrived near Hamburg and the river Elbe, we were very short of men, so we were than reinforced with older men. I thought “Oh s’truth, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel now!” Our sections had all become smaller as so many men had been wounded. They were very nice lads. We had to take Hamburg in our next battle. We had to go over the Elbe, a treacherous river, much wider and more powerful than the Rhine. We had to cross it to get to Hamburg and then secure our positions. Well, we just looked at it amazed. All you could see was one great big mass of rubble. There was nothing there worth fighting for. The following day we had “stand to” at 4 o’clock, and believe it or not, we had the orders “don’t fire the guns, the war is over. Oh, wasn’t this a blessing?? Finally we crossed the Elbe in rubber boats. Some men went over on the American pontoon bridge, others went over on boats. When we arrived in Hamburg, after a day or so, there were thousands of German soldiers, all amongst the ruins. We later found that there were 60,000 dead, a terrible shame, mostly civilians, burnt to death with phosphorous bombs. Wherever we went we could smell death. We had a lot of cleaning up to do, many German soldiers were coming out of cellars. The armistice had been signed. Loud speakers announced this and leaflets were thrown about. It was our job to organise tall the German soldiers into trucks to go to a POW camp and to be checked out before being sent home. We would not have had a chance, had the war not been over at that moment in time.

So now the war was over. The officer told me that we were to head for Harburg, where there was a water works still in operation. Harburg was outside Hamburg. My job was to look after the water works and make sure the German civilians complied with the regulations. They had to be off the streets by 7 o’clock. As you can imagine, we hadn’t had a rest, we were still wound up, we were still armed to the teeth. I was still the section leader and responsible for the water works to remain in operation. I had 9 men to follow me, so off we went on patrol. We were staying in a big German block of flats, one of a few still standing and we had occupied it. I had to take the men out on patrol. The German civilians would not behave, they were running around and I was still as mad as a March hare! I ordered these civilians off the street. They laughed at me, so I did no more, I let my Sten gun off, I think it had about 39 rounds in it. I let fly, I emptied my Sten gun, it was like a 25 pounder going off because everything went very quiet. Just as that happened, the glass in all the windows shattered. I still had a chip on my shoulder as big as a mountain! I was determined to show them who was boss. So the night went on and everything was quiet.

The next morning, a jeep rolled up and a large Sergeant Major jumped out the jeep and called me to him. He asked if I had been responsible for what had happened the night before. I told him the events leading to me shooting my gun, and he asked if I had filled out the relevant form and made a report. I told him not, that I didn’t even know how to make a report. He called me stupid and put me on orders. He told me to be ready at 0900 hours, washed and shaved. I asked him why this should be, he informed me that I would soon find out!

The next morning I was taken to Battalion Head Quarters. Inside the building was a long table, about 10 yards long, and sitting all around it were officers with red bands around their caps. It seemed to me as if a lot of people were in a lot of trouble, and I was 1 of them. I was the first. After all I’d been through, they made me dance up and down on the spot for about 5 minutes before I was told to stand to attention, to take my hat off and put it on the table. After what I’d been through, I couldn’t believe it! They read out the charge, that if I would have wounded any of these people, I’d have been up for attempted manslaughter, if I’d have killed anybody I’d have been up for murder.

“The bloody war is over and don’t you forget it!” I was told. Well, you can imagine how I felt after all we’d been through. All these officers who were around this table had probably never fired a shot in anger; they’d been sitting behind a bloody desk all through the war. If I’d have had a gun, I’d have mown the lot down the way I felt then. I was so mad. I was told I was a very lucky man, that I’d got away with it so far, the decided not to give me any punishment, other than to go back to my unit and celebrate the end of the war. The war had been over by a week and so far we hadn’t even celebrated the ending of it. This army group had made arrangements for a celebration; we had a casket of Steinager delivered to the block of flats where we were staying. We had never tasted Steinager before in our lives, and believe me we just drank and drank ourselves stupid, all of us.

The following day, we woke up to find the German civilians were treating us as if they were our own parents. They were wonderful, and we had to sit down then and think, “What was this war all about? These are lovely people. What could have happened in the world? A world gone mad!”
We were there a week or two. We kept order, patrolled the streets as normal, then moved on to Osnabruck.

Osnabruck was a big place. We stayed for a week or 2, from there we went on to Gibblesburg, a small place. We were smartly dressed in army uniform now, as in the pre-war days. We hadn’t been used to this kind of soldiering, we were used to war days, in denims, scruffy, wearing tin hats, but now we dressed like soldiers always on parade, just like our training days. We had a big parade there which included the regimental goat. He was a terrific animal, with great big horns all polished and cleaned, a long combed coat with the welsh dragon draped over his back. He had an army badge, army number, and an army name. The goat even had a cigarette ration as well, but he ate them! This particular day, I think it was St David’s day, I’m not sure, we had to march to Gibblesburg with the band and with the goat and the goat master marching ahead of the regiment. On this particular day, we all had to have a leek pinned in our hats. We looked right ‘nanas! Soldiers with leeks in their hats! The Germans were so short of food, the said, “Look at the Tommies, they’ve got vegetables in their hats!”

I then went on my first leave from Gibblesburg to England. It was 19 days long. On the way back to Dover, we had a cigarette rations, enough to last 19 days, and a chocolate ration which we took with us. When we arrived in Dover, we were given another 200 cigarettes free, but we didn’t know the danger of smoking in those days.

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