I am well and truly retired 85 years, and now pass the time chatting on the internet, and decided to have a look on this WW2 People's War to see if there are any old codgers like me from Iraq 1943 through to Italy 1945 on this site.
Are there any members of the AA Searchlights that were stationed in the Hastings /Eastborn area in 1940 Normans Bay on the Pevensey Flats?and then went to Deepcut for training on Bofor AA guns,then to Grennock and sailed on the Empress of Canada.1941?
Maurice.E.Wilsher. Cpl.
D coy: 5th.Bat: The Buffs
area North of Bologna.
SWEAT.
We had pushed on and took over a large farmhouse and out buildings hoping that it had
not been pin pointed as a likely spot to drop a few shells on. Remember Gerry had been there before us so knew precisely where the farmhouse was.
The company was divided so there were so many at the front?, the others resting? in the rear about half to three quarters of a mile, some of these were detailed with an NCO to act as a guard to the fatigue party who would be unarmed as they would be carrying food and ammunition , the food was carried in containers inside special boxes to keep the food hot, tea as well, on this occasion I was in charge of the guard detachment and had to place my men (friends) along this narrow road , and when they were in position to phone back to Company on a field telephone laid by signals ,the phone being in a small empty cottage, it was then my job to amble round and see how the lads were , Jock was ok snuggled up against a barn full of hay, having a smoke鈥hould the hay have caught fire..If I鈥檇 said any thing Jock would have blamed it on those tedeschi (German Soldier) and the tedeschi would be pleased as they would considered they had made a hit, . I eventually joined Young Bennet he was 18 we were all much older, me 21 the others ranging up to 28 or more, as I got near to him, he indicated that there was a problem鈥
The area was farm land , the moon light was there but not brilliant it was a bit chilly due to the ground mist it was reasonably quiet in our sector, there was always bangs and bursts of machine gun fire in the distance 鈥.hopefully,,,, Gerry had guns on fixed lines and knew where strategic points were and put a burst on these places every so often, so one was on edge, Young Bennet beckoned me to follow him we crouched down and he pointed.
Bloody hell in between the swirling mist there must have been a company of men who I knew weren鈥檛 ours as we were the crowd most forward, we Bennet and I were easing quietly back when I said I鈥檒l have another look, crawled back and there they were as the mist lifted grape vines on the poles loads of them.
We have all I think as children played 鈥淗ide and Seek鈥 , so remember the nervous excitement as the Seeker is getting close, and closer and you attempt to become invisible,with your heart thumping, and you wait for the words gotcha, but they don鈥檛 come so you are left sweating and hoping you have got away with it this time, it is that feeling as best I can describe I felt all the time whilst in those places where I鈥檇 rather not be.
Sweat that was hot cooled very rapidly, I do not know how to describe fright, helplessness, numbness is the only way I can describe it.
Thinking about it now I wonder what would have been the result if I鈥檇 made that phone call. I think there would have been a lot of adjectives if my name was mentioned.
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