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245899 Pte. James Ratcliffe British Army 9th Btn. Durham Light Infantry I joined the 9th DLI just after the Primasole bridge battle in Sicily, I was previously in the Loyal Regt, most of us in our draft seemed to go into C Coy. Three of us had got together on the troopship, Corporal Ted Cowell, Pte Bob Lord and myself.
Bob was a real tough nut, he had served most of his service in detention barracks, in fact mention a military prison and he had been in it, we took him on board at Liverpool in handcuffs, but once he realised he was stuck with it he was no trouble and he seemed to appreciate that Ted and myself had befriended him, so when we joined C Coy we kept together, Ted was section commander I was his Bren gunner and Bob was my No 2.
About this time I remember talking to a couple of Welsh lads (the same two who were on the stretcher party in Sicily) they had gone into the Mortar Platoon, I asked what it was like and they said if I could get in do so, far better than a rifle company no route marches, discipline was easier it was more of a self discipline, the threat was that you would be returned to a rifle company if you did wrong. One morning at first parade the OC B Coy said he wanted volunteers to go on the following courses, carriers, anti-tank and mortars, when he said mortars I had my hand up like a flash, myself and two other lads were selected and we went to S Coy camp every day to learn about the working of the mortar. I really enjoyed the course, it was something different and we must have passed because it came on orders that we were posted to the Mortar Platoon. There is a saying in the army that you never volunteer for anything, but I remember my father who was in the 1st World War saying that if something feels right.. do it!
The trouble was I had now left my mates behind and the lads in the platoon were already paired up, that was when I doubted if I had done the right thing. In the hut there was an empty bed next to mine and someone told me it belonged to a lad called Tony Colgan who is a carrier driver and he was away on a driver mechanics course but he would be back soon. When he did come back we hit it off right from the start, and you know the situation if I had 2 bob and he had 3 we had 5 bob to go out with and vice versa. We have been firm friends for the last 54 years.
The platoon was now up to strength so we were quite busy training, we knew that we were to get new mortars that would take a more powerful charge, our Officer had got hold of a few of the new charges but no new mortars, we went to the range at Colchester for a firing, bear in mind that the maximum range of the mortar at that time was 1500 yds with 6 secondary charges, (when we got the new mortars it would be 2800 yds with 4 secondary charges), we did not know these latter facts at the time and our officer took off the old charges and
replaced them with 6 of the new ones, my job was No2 on the gun, I was the one who put the
bomb down the spout, now normally the bang is not so bad and you get use to it, but this time the resulting crash was appalling, I was in agony with the pain in my left ear and every one was wondering were the bomb had gone when we heard a dull boom in the distance, obviously well outside the range, well the gun was dismantled and packed away double quick time and we were back at camp before any trouble came our way. Soon after this were moved up to South Wold in East Anglia, just before we left Wimbish I had an interview with the Company Commander to request leave to get married (not shotgun) he said OK arrange it and he would grant it. We got married 1st April 1944 during the week I was on leave the 9th DLI moved to Nightingale Wood between Romsey and Shirley, this was to be our last camp before D Day, we went on a few shoots in the New Forest and set fire to it a couple of times due to firing smoke bombs.
The last big scheme before D Day was out at Studland in Dorset and it was to test how fast vehicles could get away from the beaches. The starter motor on our carrier was giving trouble and if it stalled one of us had to get out and crank the engine, of course it stalled and it was my turn on the handle, now a starting handle on a carrier is about 6 ft long and has to shoved in from the front of the carrier, by this time we were holding up a column of tanks, Montgomery was in his staff car close by and in that sharp voice of his asked what the problem was, me not knowing who had asked the question shouted "the starters buggered sir" he then turned to Tony in the carrier behind us and told him to give us a shove, he promptly give us a shove, it was that hard I thought he was coming over the top, we started though, Tony knew he was in the clear even if he had wreaked us....direct orders from the Army Commander!
At this time it was getting obvious the 2nd front was on, all the roads were lined with tanks, guns and there were troops everywhere, one night coming back from Shirley we were walking through camp passing the Pioneer Platoon area were we spotted outside a tent a pile of white crosses, we looked at each other with foreboding and said that looks ominous, someone somewhere did not expect an unopposed landing. We spent our last few days waterproofing the carriers in readiness, but an incident occurred that at the time was quite serious but we laughed about it later was when Ted Boyland one of the Welsh lads had got down at the back of Tony's carrier for a quick kip, it was late May and the weather was quite warm, well you know the Army at the end of the day everything has to be lined up neatly, so Tony jumps up into his carrier and proceeds to reverse it into line, fortunately for Ted he went very slowly, there was an almighty agonising yell and Tony slapped on the brakes, one of the tracks had run across Teds thigh, it was lucky for Ted that the carrier was parked on grass as the track had pushed his leg into the ground, even so it was badly bruised and fortunately not broken, but Teds main concern was that he had a date that night and he would not be able to keep it.
When we were briefed for the invasion we were all impressed when told of the 'thousands of planes' and 'hundreds of ships' that would be 'battering the German defences' of course after this we were all confined to camp. When the day came to move out we went down to the docks at Southampton, it seemed that half the British army were converging on
Southampton it was that congested. We loaded our carriers onto a LCT and then we heard the party had been postponed for 24 hrs, well to say it was a boring is an understatement, in my case it was made worse because I could see Bournemouth just down the coast and I had spent many a happy childhood holiday with my Aunt and Uncle who lived there. The time came for us to form up and move off and we were near the Needles off the Isle of White, I was just about to have a smoke and I was reaching into my pack that was resting on a ledge on the side of the ship when there was an explosion and a gout of water came over the side soaking us and landing in my open pack ruining all my fags. The Captain came down off the bridge and said " I think its all right lads we haven't been holed and it wasn't a mine because it would have blown us out of the water".....being a non-swimmer that made my day, we then tried to get some sleep which does not come easy in a carrier at sea. I never did find out what caused the explosion.
When dawn broke and we could see the coast of Normandy with columns of smoke rising and planes bombing and strafing the German positions a few of us thought it the ideal time to ask for a transfer to the Home Guard, we sailed past the cruisers HMS Belfast and HMS Orion whilst they were firing broadsides and the blast from their guns were flattening the waves in front of them, as we got closer to the shore we could see wreaked vehicles in the water, on our beach 69 Brigade had made the assault and 151 went in on the second wave.
We hit the beach and it still looked a fair way to dry land, the Skipper yelled to the men controlling the ramps to hold on as would try and get us in a bit closer, which he did, bless him. The Battalion had to make for an assembly area a little way inland and the No3 in the Mortar detachment joined us at this point, I was then No1 who's job it was to lay (sight) the Mortar. We introduced ourselves to him, his name was Charlie Bone our driver was another Welsh lad called Ron Davies who said to him I am Ron Davies but every one calls me "Batchy" you will find out why later.
At the briefing back in England we had been told that C Coy on bikes, a section of Bren gun carriers, a section of Anti-tank guns (6pndrs) and a section of 3" Mortars would leave the assembly area and go as fast as we could and occupy this small ridge before the 21st Panzer got it, we thought this was hilarious, they would have rode all over us, anyway we set off and we had been going along this road for a few minutes when half a dozen Typhoons started bombing and strafing the road a few hundred yards ahead of us, the last plane was just coming in for his two penny worth when he saw our column, he turned and came straight down at us his cannons blazing and he dropped a couple of bombs which lucky for us landed in soft earth in the fields. Back in England we had sewn our aircraft recognition panels into big sheets so when we laid these out the pilot spotted them on his second run in and veered off, with quite a few shouts to the effect of doubting his parentage ringing in his ears, though he was not really to blame, only forward troops should display recognition signals, but the clowns back on the beaches were doing it.
I spoke to bloke in Normandy in 1994 his name was Norman Waterhouse and he was in C Coy on bikes then, he told me a tale, it seems the Navy were dropping their shells in the wrong place so his CO told him get on his bike and find the observation officer, anyway he kept riding until he entered this town which was still occupied by the Germans who were busy loading wagons, trucks etc, funnily enough though he was not recognised by them but some French people realised he was a British soldier and hid him until the town was occupied the following day......Norman Waterhouse was the first British soldier to enter Bayeux!
Only patrol activity was recorded till the heavy fighting at Lingevres on June 14th, just before this we captured a German QM Stores and in it was about 40 cases of good quality Champagne, during this time we were digging
Mortar pits every day and the weather was glorious so we needed a large 'liquid' intake but our Platoon Sgt Billy Boyd stopped us from guzzling the Champagne and rationed us to two bottles each, left alone we would have as drunk as monkeys in no time. From the first week ashore my memory tends to be a bit confused as the days tended to run into each other I know our first real brush with the enemy was on June 13th, We (the mortars) were supporting B Coy in a probing attack, I believe to test the Germans strength, anyway we were firing away and the lads went in, the next thing we knew we were having to swing the guns over to right as the jerries were counter attacking, he was famous for the speed in which he could put in a counter attack and B Coy had to withdraw..... the following day it took a Brigade to do what B Coy were supposed to have done!
We moved into position just before Lingevres and jumped out of the carriers, fire seemed to be coming from the direction of a hedge just our left, I was carrying a Sten at the time and our Sgt, Joe Farrage, told me to rake the hedge with it, I gave it a couple of bursts and the firing stopped. We did not bother to dig the guns in as we knew we would not be there long. The German front line ran along the leading edge of a wood before the village of Lingevres. The scene looked like a something from WW1, a mass of bursting shells, trees being thrown into the air, there were tanks on fire all over the place and planes dive bombing, a real hell on earth, it was hard to imagine that anything could survive such an onslaught, but, when the rifle Companies started to advance through the corn fields the Spandaus started to chop them to ribbons, men were going forward just like you see in the pictures of the first world war Somme battle, rifles held at the high port, men were coming through our position and begging us to give them water, we gave them all we had, you cannot see a man go thirsty and anyway we always had at least a jerry can of water between the five men.
The 2nd Bn Glosters relieved us and when we were coming back we passed a few men, about a platoon in number, when I spotted my two old mates Tommy Cooke and Alf Barlow, Alf had taken over the Bren gun when I had left, I shouted to them and asked were the rest of the Company was and they told me that they were the only ones left.
When we were relieved at Lingevres the 9th were pulled back on rest and refit but the Mortars were not so lucky, we had to go and support the 1st Hampshire's of the 231 Brigade who were going to attack the following morning, we got into position at night and things did not 'feel' right, when dawn broke we could see that we were on a forward facing slope and in front of the 1st Dorset's, we were not even dug in......everything was dead against good mortar practice, we even had to fire at an angle to support the Hampshire's, I bet the Germans could not believe their eyes, I know they soon found our position when we opened up, it was a case of fire a few bombs and then get under cover at the side of the carrier as fast as we could, he soon dropped one on No1 detachment and knocked out the lot, thankfully no one was killed but there were some nasty wounds, we fired again and this time his return killed the Battalion signaller who was attached to our platoon. Captain Phillips our Officer must have thought that's enough and gave the order to cease firing and pull back, you have never seen mortars moved so fast, on our gun I just whipped off the sights and the others just lifted it in one piece onto the back of the carrier, we did not have to fire again in that action because the Hampshire's had gone in and took their objective. |
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