209232 Sgt. Herbert W. Denton British Army 1St Btn. Rifle Brigade from:London The memories of Herbert W Denton, Sergeant 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats), Compiled 2010, with additions from a recorded interview.
Called up
The war had started in 1939 and in 1940 I was called up. On receiving call-up papers I went to Tidworth Barracks in Wiltshire for Army Training, consisting of drill, rifle shooting and lectures. This was the Rifle Brigade 1st Battalion and where I remained for the whole of the war.
The Driving Test
Well, there was a strange driving test. A vehicle was driven in between two trees with one foot to spare that side and one foot to spare the other side. The driver being tested had to back out, round and then reverse into the same space “without hesitation”. The Chief Tester of Sunbeam Talbot was one of our fellows - he failed. I was the next one to go and I went off and round “as clean as a whistle” and I don’t think it was good driving it was just a fluke. I passed so I became a driver.
I did all right out of it because one of the officers in 8 Platoon had to go to Ashford in Kent. He asked for me to be the driver and I wasn’t even in his Platoon. I didn’t like him anyway so why should I be selected. Anyway, we went to Ashford and there was another car with another officer as well. The officers went into a hotel for lunch. We looked around Ashford for where we could have lunch and found nothing. So I said to the other chap “We’ll go in the hotel too”.
He said “We can’t go in there with the officers”.
I said “We’ve got to eat and Officers or no Officers I’m going in”.
Of course, he followed me. The officers looked across but I ordered the meal and, of course, I paid for it. If we hadn’t eaten then we would have had nothing all day.
I drove all sorts of funny things after that, including a 20 ton Lancia truck which was captured in the Western Dessert.
Off To Africa
When training was finished we drove up to Glasgow and boarded the “Strathaird” troopship. We sailed past Ireland, Greenland, down close to America, then back across the Atlantic to Freetown, Sierra Leone where the boat was refuelled. There we stopped a mile off shore and did not land there. Our escort of 1 Battleship, 2 Destroyers and 6 Corvettes left us at Freetown. After only one day we then sailed on the Capetown where we stayed for four days.
As far as the army was concerned when we went ashore everything was paid for. We were wined and dined by the South Africans in every place where we ate or drank. When we asked for the bill we were told “Oh, this is with the compliments of Mr. or Mrs Van Heuten or So-and-so over there, they have paid the bill”. It became quite embarrassing. I phoned Johannesburg to talk to my uncle, heard he was in Cape Town and coming home that day on the “Blue Train”. While on the phone I saw the train go out of the station. When my C.O. heard about that he said if he had known I could have gone up to see my uncle and joined the ship at Durban. That was the next port of call before we sailed to Port Tufic on the Suez Canal.
Into The Desert
From Port Tufic a train took us via Cairo to a spot somewhere out in the Egyptian Desert. We went to a camp there for a few days then we got our trucks and our desert journeys began.
A Dusabled Truck
We went via Tobruk to El Agheila where our first battle took place. We got as far as Marsa Brega but then we were bashed back to Alamein - not quite to Cairo, more Alexandria.
I went into Tobruk when my truck had virtually broken down. It was a six cylinder truck and it was only working on two cylinders. I must have been the last vehicle out of Tobruk. Germans were using very lights, green and red - it was the green ones I was watching because that’s the movement forward. I said to the Corporal who was with me “As long as we get beyond the El Adem road we’re safe”.
He said “Where’s the El Adem road”.
I said “about a mile further down from here”. So, we’re watching these very lights and we passed the El Adem road with the lights very close. We only just “made it”. So, I staggered on at eight miles an hour, flat out, and got right the way down to Bardia. From there we got a tow all the way back to Alamein.
We didn’t go along the coast road but through the desert. We had to get over “Hell-Fire Pass” as Halfaya Pass was known, dragged over that and then plain flat desert all the way back to Alamein, in all about a hundred miles. I’d had very little sleep for a couple of days and I nodded off and woke up just in time to slam on the brakes before hitting the truck in front.
A German Surprise
I had stopped late at night; it’s no good going on after dark because you can’t see what you are doing. Some tanks must have come in and Laagered during the night and I was on the edge of it but they were all facing the opposite direction to me. I was so tired I must have slept through all the noise of the tanks arriving. When I woke up I was surprised when I looked at the tank tracks and saw they had quite little wheels. Only the German tanks had little wheels on their tracks! In the distance they had discovered a South African Laager and when the battle started next morning as I was on the outside edge they never saw me. I nipped out and away. I got into the vehicle without my trousers, without my socks and drove like mad. I heard a bang and I thought they were firing at me but they weren’t, they were firing at the South Africans. After a time I stopped and put my trousers and my boots on again and we went on. We didn’t see much of the German Air Force once the RAF got cracking out there. They seemed to give up and go back to concentrate on Europe. As for the Italian Air Force I saw one Spitfire see off six Italian bombers at one go! We didn’t see much of them after that!
R.A.F. and German Tactics
The RAF were in, bomb, bang, and away! The Germans, you could watch them and you knew who was going to be the target. So, you just got out the way. If they had done the same that the RAF were doing we wouldn’t have stood a chance. At Alamein the RAF came over us to the Germans and whoosh, bang and within a matter of two or three minutes it was all over. The German Air Force came in and you can stand there watching them, to see where they were going, and if they turned there and came back you knew who was going to be the target. So, you merely just wandered away out of the way. Of course, the bombs dropped and when they left we just went back to where we were. You learned rapidly in the war!
El Alamein and Italians
When Gen. Montgomery took over we were sent down south for a rest but arrived in time to stop the Italians from outflanking the Alamein line. We remained in the south for a week or two and then we were brought up to the main front line. We were sitting right at the south of the front looking at a hill. One night I went forward to get some information from the forward troops. I misfired - there were one or two sitting in very deep slit trenches and I thought, “this is funny”. Our forward troops were not in slit trenches! I then heard somebody talking in Italian - I was only behind the Italian Lines. One popped his head out and looked at me – I put my first finger up vertically against my lips and he bobbed back out of sight. After that I just walked out. I didn’t run - I thought take it easy and hope for the best. Nobody challenged me. Of course, I got back to my lot, our lines and I was promptly challenged.
A gruff voice said “Who goes there?”
I said “friend”.
“Advance friend”
So, Friend advanced!
It was a bloke I knew. He looked at me and said “Where the bloody ‘ell have you been?”
I said “Unfortunately, in the Italian Lines”
He said “How the hell did you get out again?”
I said “Well, nobody challenged me so I gently walked out again until I got here!”
El Alamein and Germans
We were attacked at Alamein by Germans, 110 Tiger Tanks. They came at us in single file! We knocked out the leader and as the second one pulled out to pass him we knocked that one out too. We knocked out 96 of them and the other 14 retired! That was the last battle before Alamein and the breakout, and from then onwards I don’t think we lost anywhere.
Just before Alamein, the Sergeant Major’s arm was going black so I told him to go to the MO. “I’m alright” he said.
So I said “you’re a Bloody Fool if you don’t go”.
He said “Don’t call me a Bloody Fool I’m a Warrant Officer class 2”
I said “I don’t care if you’re a Warrant Officer Class 1 I’ll give you five minutes to go or I’m fetching the MO”.
I got down to one minute before he decided he had better go. I never saw him again but I had a letter from him. He apologised for all the harsh words he’d used and he said “You did right and if I had left it another day I’d have lost my arm”. When I applied for an NCO to take over from him I was told “There isn’t anybody available - you do it”. I was an ordinary Rifleman then so I promoted myself to Lance Corporal and it went through. Somebody had to be in control, so I ran the “A” Echelon as a Lance Corporal.
The Battle of El Alamein The battle for Alamein started with Gen. Montgomery in charge. That was some battle - I was right in front of the guns and I’ve never heard such a racket in my life. There was one gun every twenty-five yards and they all opened up at the same time. After a short time the tanks went forward with us following. You did things that if you had thought about it you wouldn’t have ruddy well done it! At Alamein we had a tank get a direct hit about 20 yards away from us and it was going up in flames. I just went forward and helped them get out of this burning tank. That was all I did and afterwards I thought “What the hell were you doing sticking your neck out like that”! But, you just do it, you don’t think about it. It was a British made tank but it didn’t occur to me that I might get hurt. Lots of funny things got done. We had one Victoria Cross, Colonel Turner. I don’t know what it was all about, he was in the 2nd. Battalion not the 1st. I did know him but not what he did.
One fellow was walking around and he saw something on the floor, he kicked it and it blew up and he lost his foot. Two or three days afterwards I was sent to pick up some recruits. They came along and there was a fountain pen on the floor. One of them was about to pick it up and I said “Don’t touch it!” They looked at me startled so I picked up some stones and threw them at it. When I hit it, it blew up. I said “That’s why I said don’t touch it”. There were a lot of booby traps like that at the start. They soon gave that up because it didn’t take long to learn. I had heard about these fountain pens but I thought” If it is a fountain pen and I seem a bloody fool then there is nothing lost”. I explained to them if you see something on the ground do what I did, and if it doesn’t blow up, then you can pick it up.
Casualties
I knew the battle was on but I was always doing something else. We had lost all the officers and the Orderly Room Staff after one battle and because I was the only one with clerical experience I ended up running the Orderly Room. The first thing I was asked was who were casualties in the Rifle Brigade. I had no Idea of who was in the other platoons, numbers 5, 7, and 8; I only knew of mine No. 6. But I had to find out, so having found a phone that worked I phoned the Records Office in England. I said I wanted to know who was in the Rifle Brigade and they gave me all the names of who were in the whole of the Rifle Brigade. I wandered around to find out who we had left and the rest of them I posted as “missing, presumed captured”. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and that was that! From then on as I was the only clerk in the office I became the Orderly Room Sergeant – I had very quick promotion. When we went forward we kept on going. Captured Benghazi on our way back across the desert.
The Lancia Truck
The funniest one was the captured Lancia twenty ton truck. You get into the cab, one two three, you pull a lever then get out of the cab, go round the front and you wind, wind, wind then you get back in the cab and pull a lever and if it doesn’t start you do it all over again! And that’s why the Italians were always getting caught in the Laager. Being an NCO I didn’t drive. “Who’s driving the Italian Wagon?”. Silence. “Well, Corporal Denton can drive he can drive the Wagon”. From then on I had that for a long time - went up and down the desert in it. It would go over anything.
One time I took it up the side of an escarpment. It was being used as a ration wagon. I had got everything unloaded and then there was “a flap on” and everybody vanished! So I picked up the remaining stuff and put it on board and moved off, to be chased by a little German scout car. I came upon an escarpment, changed gear from top down to lower boost without scraping the sides and went up the escarpment! The little fellow couldn’t get up there so we got away that time. I’d never been able to do that since - there were two gear levers and it went in as clean as a whistle. And I’ve never done it since.
Opposition to Deal With
We kept going out of Egypt into Libya where a small battle took place near Tobruk. After that we kept going till we got to Sousse where we were stopped. During the night the Gurkhas and Maoris went in and came back with 1 prisoner - they had killed all the rest.
Rommel
On one occasion I was out at the forward lines and went into an ambulance station we had just recaptured. At the other end of the camp I saw a German Staff Car occupied by an officer. It was Rommel – he stood up and saluted as he was driven off at high speed. I had no chance to catch up in my truck, and my rifle was stowed in the truck, so I missed a chance to get him.
Marksmanship
I was armed with a pencil and paper most of the time but I always had my rifle with me. As a “marksman” I could hit a bull’s-eye at 200 yards with all five bullets [in the magazine]. But, I never had to use my rifle during the battles. It seemed much harder gathering up all the required information than lying down firing at anybody. The rifle was always loaded, in case. I knew that if I had to use it, whatever the target was I’d hit it. We had a rifle competition in a quiet period when we were stationed at Tobruk and I won 10 Piastres, that was the prize. The target was one of these pop up things and I had five shots and hit it five times. One or two of the others hit it but not five times. I found it perfectly simple
Always Driving
Once I became an NCO you didn’t drive but we were running so short of drivers I was always driving. Just before we attacked Tripoli, we travelled at night, and the convoy stopped. I heard the convoy move off and we didn’t. I nipped out the truck, found my driver had gone to sleep, so I hoiked him out of the cab, got him in the back and I got in and started driving. Pitch black - couldn’t see a thing -just hoped I was going to catch the others up! It took me fifteen minutes before I caught them. All I could see was just a little light on the back of the vehicle in front, which was very very fortunate.
Tripoli; The Italians
That was just before the capture of Tripoli. When we captured Tripoli a boat came loaded with Italian soldiers, as they came off the boat we said “Right, just come this way”. I had a couple on my truck for a week and they were quite happy there. One of them who spoke English fairly well said the Italians didn’t want to fight the British. It was only the fact that Mussolini was with Hitler that meant the Italians were drawn into the war against us. We discovered as far as the Italians were concerned in the desert they were “easy meat”. It was quite obvious that they hadn’t any intention of doing any real fighting. The only time they did any of that was when the Germans were with them, when they hadn‘t much option.
Tripoli; The Germans
When we had just captured Tripoli I was walking around, turned a corner and came face to face with a complete Platoon of German Soldiers. They were armed to the teeth. The officer came up to me and saluted, so I gave him one back and he said they were surrendering. So I said “Carry on. Prisoners are being accepted round the corner”. I didn’t want anything to do with them. They marched off, presumably into captivity and I never saw them again. I had had enough of a shock coming face to face with a fully armed Platoon of soldiers. I could easily have ended up dead.
The capture of Tripoli was a “walk-in” which finished the Desert War, we were able to push on steadily until we reached Tunisia. Having got to Tunis we then met up with the American First Army.
A Royal Visit
Before we left Africa we were all on parade while the King made a visit, but he just drove past us at about 50 mph.
Salerno Landing
We sat in the desert for some days before boarding boats and making the landing in Italy. At Salerno there was no opposition on the beach whatsoever. We just landed and the Italian Ladies that met us were quite happy to see us. We kept on going until we got to Monte Casino. There was nothing for us to do there, we would leave it to those who were already there, so we came back to Naples. We stayed at Naples for two or three weeks where it was functioning as a normal town. While we were there the Colonel asked me if I liked opera and I replied that I did. I was a lance corporal. The Brigadier said “I am Charles”. How does a lance corporal call a Brigadier Charles? Right, be ready at 6, there is a good opera in town and the Opera House is functioning normally. I got in the Staff Car at the appointed time and off we went. There I was sitting with the Colonel. I don’t know why he picked on me but I enjoyed the evening and we went back after to the billets about 20 miles South of Naples. Anyway we had a very pleasant evening. Two days later we were on a boat on the way home.
England and “D” Day
Leave was granted and then we were billeted in tents on Wanstead Common.
“D” Day came and we were first to land in France. The Canadians on our left and the Americans on our right had terrible battles. For us it was just like Salerno with nothing to stop us at all as we went in with the first wave. The Sappers had cleared the beach in almost minutes and we just followed up, going two or three miles inland before the Colonel decided we were “getting a bit ahead of ourselves” so we went back a bit.
We then headed out of France into Belgium where we stopped at Liege for a few days refuelling, etc. There, the Air landing at Arnhem took place and the old Desert Rats went up to help out.
Dutch Hospitality
We came back down and were billeted with a Dutch couple, elderly, but insisted on us having a fruit flan. This was the biggest flan I have ever seen. The dish was round and at least two feet across. This flan was delicious and we, 6 of us, used up half of it so took the other half back to the old lady who said “No, it is all for you”. I had some cocoa sent in a parcel by a cousin in South Africa so I asked the old lady for some boiling water. She made the cocoa and used milk. I made sure the old couple had some as well. When we left I had a pint bottle of Rum. I used to bottle my rum ration. I gave this bottle to the old couple plus my cigarette rations when we left and they burst into tears.
Into Germany
The next day we crossed the Rhine over the most rickety bridge I have ever seen. The Brigadier looked at it and said to me “That looks as though someone is going to finish up in the Rhine”. He went first carefully and I followed also very carefully. It was a bit dodgy. As soon as the fighting part of the brigade was over we went flat out for Hamburg.
The German forces had left Hamburg an open city so there was no fighting. While sitting in the truck a woman came up to us and said “That car that has just gone out, that was Ribbentrop” so we set off after him. We chased him up one side of the Schleswig-Holstein peninsular and down the other and caught him back in Hamburg and handed him over to the Signallers while we went on our way east.
We got as far as Gluckstadt when the armistice was declared so we stopped there.
A “Friendly” Dog
At Gluckstadt there was a dog tethered on a chain as thick as my wrist. This dog stood about as high as a young Shetland Pony and it was terribly vicious. When I threw it a biscuit it first sniffed it but then picked it up and found it rather liked it. The next morning I went out and it half heartedly growled so I went a bit closer to it and threw a biscuit which it promptly picked up. Day three as I approached it the tail was wagging, no growl, I went right up to it and it took a biscuit nicely and I was stroking it just as the farmer came out. He “nearly did his nut”; he thought I would be “savaged”! I said “What him; Bruno’s an old Softy”. What was a vicious dog hadn’t taken me long to tame. This dog was used to pull a milk cart. I went out for a walk one day, fully armed I might add in case of accidents, turned a corner and what do I meet - dog pulling a milk cart. Dog saw me, dog follows me and I finish up doing a milk round. Everybody thought that was most humorous, a fully armed British Soldier doing a milk round. I hadn’t got any option, the dog wouldn’t leave me. It was one of the biggest dogs I’ve ever seen.
Brussels
When the battles were all over and we were in Germany the “powers that be” decided that all the Orderly Room Sergeants would run their unit from Brussels – my unit was at Gluckstadt in Germany. I thought to myself this is bloody silly, running a unit 200 miles away. Not that I minded, I had the time of my life in Brussels. You could go to theatres, cinemas, they were all open. Shops were open, restaurants were open. I didn’t ever eat in the Mess; I used to go out to a restaurant.
Getting off the train another chap who got off and said to me “Do you know where GHQ is?” I said “No, but I am going there”. He introduced himself and I did likewise and we became good friends. His name was Colin.
The Work in Brussels
The work was not much different from what I had been doing and pre-war I had been a clerk working in an office so it meant nothing to me. It was perfectly simple. Poor Old Colin who was given the job of running the Worcester’s, he didn’t know whether he was on his arse or his elbows. I went in and showed him what to do. In fact I did it. For two or three days I ran the Worcester’s until Colin had got hold of the “Brass Tacks” of it. Then I left him to it. As far as I was concerned it was simple, I was used to it.
One afternoon in the street, I was talking to Colin when he suddenly sprung to attention and saluted. I turned round to see who it was and was greeted with a handshake. It was the Brigadier who had taken me to the theatre in Naples. I did not get a chance to salute him as he grabbed my hand and shook it saying “I thought I recognised you”. He was in Brussels to get orders and I noticed he was now a General. He chatted for some time before saying “I have to see the governor” meaning the Field Marshall so, shaking my hand again, off he went.
Difficult Asministration
My regiment had a new commanding officer who insisted all ranks would do drill so the Orderly Room staff could not get their work done till late. I in Brussels was getting information for publication late afternoon instead of 9 o’clock in the morning. I went and saw the Brigadier who wrote a letter and said “Go back to your unit and sort them out”. I left Brussels at 4pm that day (Thursday) and arrived midday Saturday. The train had no windows, it was 7 January and bitterly cold and my temper on arriving at the regiment was at boiling point. The first person I saw was the R.S.M and I was not very polite to him. The Orderly Room staff were trying to catch up with work and I said “This doing parade is going to stop. The returns for publication are needed at 9 am not 5pm”. I then went to see the C.O. and handed him the letter from the Brigadier. He read the letter and said “I am in command of this battalion”, so I said “I will inform the Brigadier of your decision” and left. The cook made me a bundle of sandwiches for my journey back to Brussels where I arrived at 9am Monday. I went directly to the Brigadier to report. He greeted me with “A good job, your Colonel has agreed to all you recommended and everything should go smoothly from now”. It did for a while. Before long there was another problem with the Colonel and I knew what to do now! I went to see the Brigadier who took me to the General. The General then said “John”, to the Brigadier, “go and sort this Colonel out!” The Brigadier and I went to the Colonel’s Office. Without looking up the Colonel shouted “Get out!” We ventured further in and were greeted with “Get out!” again. The Brigadier roared “Colonel!”, and that got his attention, “you are no longer in command. Pack now and report to the Officers’ Allocation Unit.” The Colonel protested and apologised but was sent off “with his tail between his legs”. The Brigadier now had to find a replacement CO and was going to look to other Units for someone. I suggested that our Major was very good and would be very suitable. I went and found him and he was promoted on the spot! He was surprised and mentioned to me later that it was not something he would have ever expected.
Pelota
Brussels was very nice. I went to see a game of Pelota.
That’s the game with curved racquets that you swing – and you could bet on that! I bet on Mr. Jose, and he won. So, I came away with twenty francs better than when I started. I didn’t do any more betting but I watched a game and realised that whoever you bet on, they played six sets, and they would win one of them! Didn’t matter whether it was the first, second or the last. I had worked all that out so the next time I went down I bought my ticket for the first one – and he lost. So I bought two tickets for the second one – and he lost again. So, the third time I bought three tickets and he won. So, I got all my money back plus a bit extra! I had worked all that out like that and we would go and see this Pelota two or three times a week.
Demob Time
Belgium was working as if nothing had ever happened – well, Brussels was. This Pelota business, I won so much money that by the time it was time to come home I couldn’t change it! I changed as much as I could into English money and the rest of it – I went out on a shopping spree. I bought six pairs of silk stockings that I brought home, all for Kath. I bought all sorts of things and spent the rest. There was a kid standing around so I gave him some and he stood there with his mouth open! Never seen so much money in his life – it was no good to me, coming home! It was his lucky day. It wasn’t all that much but I had changed all I could and bought God knows what with the rest.
Helping Hand
The following day I packed all my kit and went out to catch a train. I felt bloody awful. There was a Sergeant Major standing there and he said “are you all right?”
I said “not really, but I’m going home”.
“Well”, he said “there’s no train till 4 o’clock”. This was about 12 I think.
“Go and lay down on one of the benches” he said “I’ll wake you when the train comes”.
I did go to sleep and about ten to four he woke me up saying “train will be in, in 10 minutes”. Of course, I felt a lot better by then, not right - but better. The train came in; he picked up my kitbag and carried it for me!
I was very happy to see England again knowing I would not have to cross the Channel again in uniform. The very next day I got my civvie suit and that was the end of my Army career.
|