Almost as soon as the lads came back we heard the sounds of aircraft. They were on us before we saw them; earth exploded all around us as they released their bombs, the wailing sirens of the Stuka’s filling the air in a terrifying cacophony that made it difficult to even think.
But somehow I did think. “Take cover!” I screamed, pointing to the dug-out and seconds later the five of us fell into it, in a jumble of arms and legs. What a brilliant decision, because right behind the Stuka’s came Messershmitt’s. The machine guns from which tore up the earth, where a second ago we had stood.
We watched struck dumb and horrified as the bullets ricocheted around the gun position, demolishing everything in their path.
“Blimey! I don’t like this anymore.” said Harry, as he pushed his tin hat back, getting a better view of the proceedings from behind the tarpaulin.
We could hear more bombs exploding as the planes pressed home their attack.
“Shall we give ‘em some back Bomb?” Fishy shouted from the back of the dugout.
“Are you after a medal or something?” I replied “The only thing you’ll give them if you leave here is your arse, our best hope is to sit this one out.”
Just as quickly as it had started the attack was over, we left the dug out after about five minutes of silence. Slowly other blokes started to appear from around the other gun positions.
The amount of damage caused by the attack was difficult to believe. Four men had been killed and twelve were injured (two seriously). Four guns including ours had been damaged beyond use and five trucks once again, including ours, were rendered useless when a direct hit on one that was loaded with HE had blown up the others.
We attended to the wounded, buried the dead, reorganised the guns and stripped anything useful from the damaged equipment. When all of this had been attended to, Captain Roberts called us all together. I think we were all feeling guilty that we hadn’t returned fire but Captain Roberts explained to us that we had done the right thing in taking cover.
“We have an important job to do here and we can’t do it without you. So I need you alive and operating your guns, you’re no good to me dead.”
“Stay alert and with any luck we can get our revenge when they start coming down this road, and believe me they will start coming and soon so be ready.”
With that he walked back to the command tent.
The lads split up into their crews again and we walked back, we’d been given another gun that had previously been the property of one of the injured crews. We moved out our old one and put the replacement into position and then we got the stove lit and put on a big Dixie of stew and some potatoes that we had come across earlier. As we sat together eating our meal I could sense there had been a change in all of us. The five high spirited young men we had been, just a few hours ago had disappeared, I suspected probably forever. I looked from face to face, all were smiling and I knew why we had survived our first action, we had come through unscathed, others hadn’t been so lucky, but that was how it was, you couldn’t change it.
It was just before 06.00 the next morning when we got word that they were coming. We all stood waiting by our guns looking down the road.
We were nervous, excited even, but if any of us were really scared then we were hiding it well.
“Ok chaps here they come, watch your range, B gun take tank on the left, C gun take the wagon with the troops, D gun select your own target!” The Lieutenant shouted pointing at them with his pistol drawn. The enemy were 600 yards away so he was not going to shoot anyone, well not a German anyway.
“Gun ready!” shouted Fishy.
“Watch your marker, then and fire on range” I shouted back to the crew and watched as our tank drew level with Ronny’s range. ‘Boof’ went the gun, followed by a ‘Boof’ from the C gun and another from the D.
Our gun was by now reloaded and ready, Ronny had made his adjustments.
“Fire at will!” I shouted. At this stage there was nothing I needed to do, so I watched the tank. Our first shot had fallen about 10 yards to the right, of the tank second in line, just in front, but almost as I heard the third ‘Boof’ from our gun I saw a direct hit on the left side track. I watched as the tank started to turn on its own axis, I hadn’t meant to say anything but the excitement overtook me. “Go on!” I shouted, “give ‘em another.” And they did, but this time the turret exploded and the tank started smoking. Meanwhile, the shots from the other crews must have been finding their mark because now several other trucks and tanks were on fire. Others were either stuck, or bumping into each other, as they tried to get out of the way.
Lieutenant Davies came back across to us, still waving his pistol about; I was really beginning to wonder about the safety catch now.
“Come on lads! H.E. shells and let’s fire into the middle of them. Remember Bombardier Willis and his crew! No, quarter lads, don’t let them turn back” he shouted, caught up in the excitement.
All around our guns continued to fire ‘Boof’, ‘Boof’. What a wonderful sound. A few wayward shots came back towards us from the tanks but they were too unsettled and were well out with their range finding, they really didn’t concern us. There was no infantry with us and we were not really in a position to move forward and take advantage of our success. All we could do was maintain our position and keep firing. We watched as some of the tanks and trucks managed to find a way out of the mêlée and head back the way they had come, it was frustrating however there was nothing we could do but to watch them withdraw.
As the last of the Germans disappeared from view we started to relax a little, looking around I could see that we were all pleased with ourselves, and why not?
The training had worked, we had fired in anger and we had hit the targets. We had forced Jerry back. Ok, so some of them now lay dead in the wreckage but we had buried a few good blokes ourselves, so we weren’t going to loose any sleep about that.
The smell of cordite hung in the morning air. As the sound of the guns died away and with our hearing getting back to normal, the sound of birdsong could be heard in the woods behind us. I looked at my watch it was 07.40, the action must have lasted for just over an hour and yet it had seemed like only a few minutes, if I needed proof, I only had to look at the pile of empty shell cases over by the gun. They added up to a lot more than a few minutes firing.
Lieutenant Davies came over towards us; thankfully he had put the pistol back into its holster and was looking a lot calmer than he had in the heat of the action.
“Well done chaps you did very well, I’m proud of you.” He paused, took a cigarette out of his cigarette case and lit it. The smell of the smoke wafted over towards us, most of us followed the Lieutenants’ example and lit up our own.
“Are we ok to put a brew on sir?” said Harry. “By all means Henshaw, I think we deserve one, do an extra mug eh? Better stay alert though, I don’t think Jerry will let us get away with what we’ve just done for very long.”
He was right too. The water was still on the boil when someone nearby shouted Stuka’s, and once again we all dived for the dug outs. This time our crew were accompanied by the Lieutenant. The bombs dropped all around us, earth cascading down on top of the roof of our shelter, the percussion waves from the explosions blowing the tarpaulin in towards us.
“Cosy little place you’ve got here.” said Lieutenant Davies, in an effort to make light of our situation.
“Yeh, I wouldn’t leave my little wooden hut for you.” said Fishy.
The planes had got here, so soon that we figured out that they must have been called in by the tanks before they had started their withdrawal. That meant that they would try coming on again, hoping we had been put out of action. This time though, no one had been either killed or injured and only one gun had been damaged so we had got off very lightly.
We were on the guns and ready, when the first of Jerry’s tanks came down the roads towards us.
This time though, they found our range and although we were once again the overall winners, they did score some hits, resulting in the loss of two more blokes and several more injured.
This pattern carried on throughout the day into early evening, then as the Stuka’s left at dusk; it started to go quiet again. By now we had moved out our dead and wounded back towards the coast. The battery was down to seven serviceable guns and about forty blokes. This reduced number was not all down to injury, some of the blokes had been moved out due to the damaged guns and equipment. It was felt they would be more useful elsewhere.
I stood three of the blokes down to get a break, while myself and Fishy stayed by the gun. We watched down the road for any sign of the tanks returning but it looked as if Jerry had decided to take a break too. Eventually Jack came over carrying two mugs of tea which he handed to us, we sat down on the carriage and the fags came out. I looked at Jack and Fishy; their faces were black with soot and sweat. I figured I must look pretty similar, there was no doubt we were just about done in.
“We can’t last much longer Bomb. There are only seven of us now. If them Stuka’s come back there’ll be nothing left of us by morning” said Fishy, once again stating the obvious.
“They won’t come back now” said Ronny, as he and Harry came over to join us “they won’t fly in the dark.”
“Just for once I hope you’re right Ronny” said Fishy throwing away the slops from his mug and going over to get another cup.
Ronny was right as it turned out, we spent a quiet night, sleeping in shifts of two men, for three hours at a time so we had all had some rest by the time we stood by the gun at 06.00 waiting to see what Jerry had in store for us today.
The morning passed quietly with most of the activity around the command tent, this included several trips up and down the road by Mickey Most on the BSA.
Around noon Captain Roberts left the command tent and stood for a long time looking down the road, he must have decided it was safe, and leaving a Lieutenant and a Sergeant to watch the road, he called us all together.
“Ok chaps, this is the situation. Jerry has us more or less cut off now and ‘the powers that be’, think we’ve done about all we can, so we’ve been ordered to pull back to the coast. Unfortunately there are some of Jerry’s advanced units already behind us, so an orderly withdrawal is out of the question, I’m afraid it’s going to have to be every man for himself and of course for most of us that means on foot as well.”
He continued, “Now look, the Navy are laying on transport from the port of Dunkirk, so it’s your job to try and get there. It’s about forty miles North West of our present position so it won’t be easy. Take only what kit you’ll think you need, but my advice is to travel light, your lives may depend on it. Oh, and one last thing. It’s rumoured that Jerry is shooting prisoners, so important not to get captured eh?”
“That’s all lads” said one of the Lieutenants.
“You heard the man” I said and headed off towards our gun, my crew following.
Lieutenant Davies came over to us “Hurry up and get your crew out of here Hilbert, don’t worry about the gun, myself and Sergeant Brennan will be fixing the demolition charges once everyone has left.”
Jack Hampton had put some food into a bag and other than our rifles and some extra ammunition we left the position with more or less just the clothes we stood up in.