Bulldog Spirit Chapter 3 Hitler to Miss America

HITLER INTERVENES

Unfortunately at that point I had no knowledge of a man going by the name of Hitler, but by the end of that year both Hilda and I and many thousands of others had heard of him. It wasn’t long before I received notice that my country needed me. I was to report for a medical, I had got two arms and two legs so I was A1. Therefore I was enlisted into the Royal Engineers and was to become Sapper Broadley number 1905555. What else was my darling Hilda to do but to give up her home and return to her Mother at Coalville. Various relations stored her furniture and possessions for the duration of the war. I was rapidly trained to become a soldier, in the first instance in and around Derby, the training grounds were Alvestone Park and the Baseball Football Ground. I was billeted on private families. Basic training complete I was allocated to the 191 Railway Operating Company. They were moved up into Scotland for military and specialist training at Inverness Railway Depot. The Company as a whole were stationed at Collodan House. There is a pleasant little interlude here. Several of the soldiers had managed to find accommodation for their wives in a small village nearby (Balloch I believe). I managed to do the same. It must have been in the Winter- time, weather conditions were very bad. At this point remember, Hilda had never been very far from home, she was only 21, but you could not keep her away because she loved me. There was an unfortunate instance, just the day before Hilda was to arrive, there was a head on collision between two trains in 15ft drifts of snow at Georgemus Junction, North of Scotland. I had to be included in the rescue operation but I did arrange for another soldier to meet Hilda at Inverness station and escort her to friends I had made in the town and then on to join another two wives in the village of Balloch. Sleeping out passes were granted on various occasions when I returned but this did not last for very long. By now I was an expert on the Lewis Gun, the Bren Gun, the use of hand grenades, gun cotton and detonators and I had a fairly good idea how to use unarmed combat. I know that it was November when my company was moved to Southampton to be shipped abroad. Poor little Hilda’s interlude was over, back to Coalville and Mum.

When in Southampton my Company along with many more were herded aboard a liner called the Monarch of Bermuda, their destination unknown. Up to this point my feet had never left Terra Firma and it was to prove I was no sailor.

In the next chapter you will hear of all my war-time experiences and in 5 years they contain many, crossing the equator 8 times, visiting Africa, India, Persia, back to India, Singapore, India again, Egypt, Malta, commando invasion of Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany. A cat has nine lives, so they say, I think I could double that, but I do not profess to be a hero, just a British Subject serving the country of which I was then proud.

MONARCH OF BERMUDA

Back on board the Monarch of Bermuda I was astounded at the size and beauty and construction of the ship. I had seen nothing like this before, but of course every square inch of space was used. On this occasion fortune smiled on me because I managed to obtain a cabin with two bunks, I shared with a chap who joined the 191 company at the same time. We had become rather good friends, although my friend Douglas Russell was a better educated person, he had already travelled from South America to volunteer for the British Army. His family was English, living in Montevideo, his Father was a bank manager. Douglas spoke 7 languages fluently and was a really well trained engineer. This friendship was to last for most of the war.

At this point let me try to explain, if this is at all possible, my feelings on the first occasion that I found myself in the field of battle. A bombardment from the air of our convoy as we headed out to sea, the shells, the flak, the noise from artillary, the scream of fighter planes (ours and the enemy), and bombs being dropped, but by sheer willpower and co-ordination of our escort, the enemy was driven away. Shrapnel did some damage and injured a number of the troops but we all went on our way. At the height of the encounter, our discipline and training gave us no thoughts of losing, but in each and everyone the nervous tension was so terrible after the event. This proved to be the case throughout the war, so many dangers, but if it was your job, then they had to be removed. You did it, not to be a hero but because it had to be done. After the event on many occasions, I realised how fortunate I had been and remembered to thank God on each and every occasion (I am sure I was not alone in doing this).

My greatest fear when involved in attacks by air or submarine in the sea (especially the Pacific) was the thought of sharks, should we be sunk. I could never come to terms with that one, strange isn’t it?

Whatever the danger, the job had to be done before we could return home to the ones we loved.

To prove this point I will tell you of an instance when I acted completely stupid but I considered my actions appropriate because of my job at the time. This was to repair a diesel electric locomotive that was desperately required. A special tool was needed that the Royal Engineers did not provide. Over on the other track was a goods train waiting for the right of way, it was manned by Royal Engineers but guarded by Americans who were heavily armed, as we were in a war area of Italy. That train carried spares and tools for the American Air Force. Right opposite to my broken down locomotive was a wagon loaded with boxes on the side of which read “Tools”.

I’m not a thief but I did desperately need a special tool and I felt sure that any one of these boxes would carry one. My training as a Commando came in very useful, I acquired one of these boxes and it held the tool I required. In a period of a couple of hours my diesel electric locomotive was back in service. Those tools did the British Army a good service, but when we were due to leave Italy they would not be accepted in our 10.98 store with my other tools, so what could I do? I sold them to an Italian for around 2,000 Lire.

Eventually we left Italy at Naples arriving at Marseilles in the South of France. As is usual when entering another country, the currency changes and we had to queue to hand in our Lire and Pay Book for conversion into Francs. When it came to my turn I was asked to stand to one side, eventually my Colonel came over to me and asked ‘What’s the trouble?” I told him I had more to change than what was shown in my Pay Book. The Colonel walked briskly up to the counter and asked sharply why my sergeant was waiting. The reply was “Discrepancy in his Pay Book, Sir!” the colonel barked, “Did he not tell you that he won at least three times that amount at Housy Housy on the boat coming over!”
“Very sorry Sergeant, here is your money, you should have said!”
I was in the same company when that Colonel was a Second Lieutenant.

The ship had, as most of them did, an anti magnetic band around the water-line which proved to be very useful on a number of occasions before we reached Capetown. Remember it was November and waves were at least 25ft high, mines were exploded on site with ‘303’ bullets. Our ship was in a convoy with other troop ships, cargo and ammunition vessels. Our protection was given by the Royal Navy, destroyers and corvettes. All convoys practised the art of tacking, this is to create a poor target for submarines. It works like this, the lead ship sounds it’s hooter once, every ship turns to port 20 degrees (or something like that), after a measured time two blasts of the hooter, and all the ships turn back 20 degrees. The next time it’s to starboard 20 degrees and so on. A method adopted that I know saved my life but not on this ship (it may have done of course), but on one ship I saw it actually save my life. It proved to be a very long journey, I could never eat aboard ship, I tried so hard to beat sea-sickness. There were boat drills, exercises etc but it was difficult to be employed all the time. Unfortunately for me I was detailed as an engineer to report to the engine rooms for fatigues. You can imagine that that would not help my sea-sickness. There were impromptu concerts and boxing tournaments, all sorts of things to pass the time. Our convoy arrived safely at Port Elizabeth in South Africa. We were allowed ashore, it was Christmas Eve, there were hosts of families waiting and offering accommodation for Christmas Day. Douglas and I were very fortunate to be taken home by a family and we were shown the Valley of a Thousand Hills which is very picturesque.

EMPRESS OF JAPAN

It wasn’t long before we were back on board, but not the same ship, it was the Empress of Japan. This ship was also a three funnel liner but we were not so fortunate with accommodation, this time we were in a cargo hold, each man with a hammock and there was row after row after row. The sea was much calmer, one would say almost like a mill pond, but the slow dip and swing of the hammocks did not help my stomach. Our destination, although we did not know it then, was to be Bombay, India, but the enemy were to harass us most of the way. Ideal waters for submarines. We continually had boat drills and fire drills but when the submarines were known to be within the convoy, it was action stations. We, the troops on board, could take no part, we had to stay down in our hold, fire doors firmly bolted from the outside. Each of the ships rolling depth charges from the stern and as they reached a pre — determined depth they would explode. To be locked below the water line under these conditions is rather unpleasant to say the least. I will quote the one occasion when the convoy tacking, knowingly saved our ship and our lives. The night was bright and I happened to be at the stern rail. The convoy leader gave my signal (one hoot) we turned to port and as we did so I saw this white streak flashing towards us, it missed our stern by little more than feet, it did not hit one ship. From that point of course it was action stations and we were as usual bolted in. we were later informed that a large patch of oil had been seen which suggested at least that the submarine had been hit.

BOMBAY

I do believe that it was approximately two weeks after leaving Southampton that we arrived in Bombay. I don’t remember much about the disembarkation other than it was so very different to good old England. It was hot, there were flies, oriental smells and I wasn’t really over impressed. We, as a unit, were taken to Kallarbas transit camp, a British Military compound where our physical fitness, mental alertness and up to date knowledge of progress were restored. I don’t remember how long we had to wait for news from home but a letter left my hands every week. I was really homesick for my Hilda. We travelled around various parts of India, exercises and operations, sampling Indian food and spending the Rupee. By this time, promotion was coming to me, not because I liked or enjoyed military behaviour and discipline, the past had held enough of that with Aunt Lou and Mrs Smith. I did that which had to be done and to the best of my ability, and that ability proved rather prominent should the subject be mechanical or electrical. On one occasion while at Kallarbas camp, I had the duty of guard commander, a military exercise but on this occasion they also had prison cells and they contained prisoners. One of them was a murderer, an Indian who had shot his commanding officer. During the early hours of the morning this prisoner was rattling the bars of his cell shouting ‘Johnny, I want toilet!.’ I took him but I had the safety catch off my automatic Tommy Gun and gave a great sigh of relief when the man was back behind bars.

PERSIA (IRAN)

Eventually transport, along with other arrangements had been organised for us to move on, our destination to be Basra in Persia (Iran). We passed through the gulf of Oman and through the Persian Gulf, my word the heat was terrific! Our objective was to run the railway from Basra to Tehran passing through Arwas, Iraq, Guam and it was some 600 miles of railway.

Around 40 British Class 8 Stanya taper boiler freight locomotives had been shipped out. We were feeding the Russians with all the means of war available. My job, along with others was to maintain them in first class running order, a job we did with pride, although the conditions we worked under were extremely difficult, I refer to the climatic conditions. Extremes of temperature between Summer and Winter, difficult enough for a British subject to survive without the added strain of working on steam locomotives. We were, I might add paid the highest colonial allowance in the British Army. Winston Churchill did say that a year doing this work in that country would take five years off a man’s life. I hope you have some faint idea of the conditions under which we worked for 14 months. We worked a shift cycle, I was responsible for one shift. When repairs need to be carried out some of them can be done with an engine ‘in steam’ others had to wait for a dead engine, in for a boiler wash out etc. In other words it is essential to know your job. A Lance Corporal had been allocated to my shift, a nice chap and a good soldier but only a labourer in engineering. Before his call-up he was a first division footballer. At the beginning of one night shift I was walking down one of the many repair bays to inspect repairs reported needing urgent attention when I saw someone on another locomotive that I knew was ready for service. My reactions fortunately were instant, I shouted, ‘Leave it, jump off!’ Thank the Lord, he did as he was told, for had I been 20 seconds later he would have been blown to kingdom come. I took the spanner he was using and with my heart in my mouth managed with extreme caution to repair the damage he had so far done. I needed more than luck, the Good Lord must have been with me on that night. That Lance Corporal was given a severe reprimand by me, for both our lives had been at great risk. He had learned his lesson so I took it no further for I’m only human.

We were to transport arms and ammunition of every type to our allies Russia. The hand-over was to take place at Tehran, the Russians doing the transportation through the Caucus Mountains. We actually converted these locomotives to oil burners which was successful providing they were not brought into steam to quickly. For 14 months we carried out this operation using Iranians and Iraqis as drivers etc. Uprisings on several occasions at Guam had to be quashed but eventually the Americans relieved us and we were shipped back to India, Bombay.

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