I remember going into a tavern, and there was a bunch of German soldiers sitting at the bar. We almost started shooting, but then we realized they were already dead. Someone went up to them and shoved the soldier at the end of the bar, and they all fell over like bowling pins! There wasn’t a mark on them. They were killed from the concussion of the shells exploding all around them.”
In the beginning it appeared that everyone in Egypt was called Ali, starting with the elderly man who cleaned the company office and ate so much garlic that he emptied rooms as he approached. There was also the Ali who supervised others at the bakery in Moascar and was responsible for loading yeast onto his truck. A third Ali supervised the removal of the yeast at Fayid, one of the destinations.
‘Sing for your Supper’ the sign said outside of the church as Billy was making his way back to Kempston barracks one evening at Christmas time in 1946. Hearing the sound of the congregation inside the invitation was very tempting to the hungry young lad whose only concern was whether he could live up to his end of the bargain, considering that he couldn’t sing a note in tune.
By Milton Long
A tank BN is made up of three medium and one light tank companies, a Headquarters Company and a Service Company. Service Company was responsible for the maintenance, and supply of all vehicles in the BN. In combat this would mean providing gas and ammo to the combat vehicles including anything attached to the BN. In Service Company we were divided into two groups, those with the job of supply and those with the job of maintenance.
Mines were not the only thing lying around. The area was full of dead Americans, mostly very young and just off the boat. When the Bulge started everyone was shoved into action. Kids just coming over were sent into the line, I found out later that the ASTP program was closed and they were sent over. Right by our tent was a young kid lying in the snow and up the road, in a woods no one dared go in, were quite a few dead.
One bright morning a couple of leery-eyed young airmen knocked on the door of my room to complain they’d found bedbugs in their bunks and considered it a profane intrusion. I concurred and checked the rest of the rooms. Indeed there were bed bugs in some and whether they were imported from a G.I.s occasional trips south of the border for rest and relaxation diversions, or home grown, we couldn’t determine.
No one can imagine how much damage air raids cause, until they actually see the result. When you see a place that has been leveled for blocks and blocks, you begin to realize what it must have been like. At that point, when we reached Kure, I could see why the Japanese surrendered. We were only twenty miles from where the atomic bomb hit.
Billy was goofing off talking to his corporal friend in the company office and in walks a tall handsome officer, a picture of sartorial elegance with his splendid uniform and leather accessories. A stunning private ATS girl, whose natural attributes would be apparent covered in a potato sack, followed him. You might say that they looked like Barbie and Ken, because that's what they did look like and they deserve those names for the rest of the story.
The ships loudspeaker, that reminded Billy of the offensive Irish Sergeant Major from Catterick Camp, announced that they were looking for a barber. Interested parties with hair cutting experience should report to the manager of the hairdressing shop - the chance of making money was not lost on the young opportunist.
Falaise Gap. We were set on a sloping field about two hundred miles from the road. When the Gap was closed we saw truck loads of prisoners being hauled out. I remember the funeral services for Sgt. Roy. We went over to Headquarters battery. The service was like one that would take place at home except it was held outdoors in a small clearing in the forest. It struck me as being ironic that we could hold a service like this after all the dead we had seen before this who were disposed of like so much garbage.