August 1940
Major W.S. Wise commanded the Unit, Capt. Bennett was the
Second-in-Command and the Subalterns were Moore, I.D.S. Browne, Tomkinson
and one other. Greenall joined shortly afterwards.
The General Background
It was a regular Coy., with a large proportion of Reservists, supplemented with
the new intake from Elgin R.E. Training Depot, largely Scottish. Our time was
spent in reforming and training new intakes, re-equipping and carrying out such
jobs as building tank detraining sidings, preparing potential Air Landing Grounds
against paratroops and gliders. Browne, Moore and one other Lieutenant then
left the Coy., and Major Wise commenced training his Subalterns, which involved
an intake of over twenty officers before the Unit mobilised at Caterham in Jan.
1942.
In Oct. 1940, the Unit moved to Middlewich and until Dec 23rd 1940 the time
was spent in Unit and Brigade training, which included such tasks as F.B.E.
bridges over various canals in the neighbourhood, the demolition in theory of the
innumerable bridges in the area and the resulting post-mortems on the jobs.
This was enlivened by the preparation of a squad for the local War Weapons Week
which resulted in the Sgt. Major and the Officer-in-Charge being harangued by
the motherly ladies of the Middlewich as bullies, nazi-tyrants etc., etc. The
Second-in-Command, Capt. Bennett now left and was succeeded by Capt. Arthur,
whose first task was a brigade scheme in which we had to put a F.B.E. bridge
over a river which involved an approach and exit through a flood bank and
across a field, which was very wet (with a farmer standing by complete with a
claim form), the building of the bridge and ensuring that it was capable of
forming out at a moment’s notice to let the engine-driven barges pass. This was
only just achieved in time to allow an elderly bargee "lady" to navigate through in
the early morning and by the time she'd passed, we knew what language was! At
that time, we saw such faces as the Battalion Commander covering our bridging
operation, the Brigade Commander Umpire and spectators, all showing their
various disapprovals and/or approvals as they took in the many snags there are
in building bridges even in such a small one.
December 1940 Manchester. On Dec. 22/23, we were moved to Manchester at a
moment's notice to help the civil authorities cope with the bombing and carried
out such tasks as clearing fire gaps, demolition of unsafe buildings mainly in
Portland St., where most of them were constructed of Portland Stone face, backed
up with brickwork. This ensured full use of all our equipment and we obtained
excellent practical training with compressors, explosives etc., and most of all it
brought out the team spirit in the Platoons and Company and gave us all, one
more an idea of the other side of war. Co-operation with the Civil Authorities was
excellent and I think No. 3 Platoon held for many years the coils of wire indented
on the civil authorities as cable exploder, of the necessary resistance etc., which
was not in actual fact the right material, it must have cost £'s to buy at that time.
A report of our work was handed to the C.R.E., Lt. Col. R.E. Wood, R.E. and I
believe it eventually found its way into one of the Institute Royal Engineers'
Quarterly Magazines, the Company did not receive any payment for this article!!
Mar./Apr. 1941
The Unit moved to Northern
Ireland and was stationed at
Lord Ely's Lodge on the Banks
of Lough Erne - beautiful
countryside, reasonable
quarters, Nissen Huts, studded
along the drive up to the Lodge
and along the Lakeside. The
move showed us how much we
still needed to learn. We set to
on the narrow Irish Roads,
excellent training in de-ditching and the making of approach roads over soft
ground, roads and bridges to the Free State Border were recced and bridges not
known or marked off as the strongest concrete were found - all had to be
prepared for demolition, in theory, and a full record made in case of need. Liaison
with the North Irish Constabulary and the Northern Ireland Home Guard was
instituted and instructors were lent to them. This was very popular as the Home
Guard always had a good meeting at the local afterwards. Memorable moments
whilst training the North Irish Constabulary was in preparing a house with
booby-traps; one of the traps was a first aid box which had been put into
position, whilst the Corporal in Charge was fixing the final trap it exploded and
cut his finger, blood flowed and the Sapper with him rushed to the first aid box,
unfortunately he chose the wrong box and that exploded too and so a hurried
halt was called to his movements so that no further traps would be exploded and
ruin several days hard work.
Many other similar jobs were carried out with improvised methods for halting
tanks, foogases - delayed explosions in main roads, petrol traps etc., and
demonstrations were given to the Battalions in the Brigade, and afterwards the
Battalion Personnel were always given an opportunity of going through specially
prepared booby-trapped buildings - woods etc., so that they would have some
idea of potential dangers in the future. This inevitably led them to have far too
great a respect for us and in the end, we were like pariahs, no one visited us and
the few people who did visit invariably got us to open the doors of their vehicles
before going! Metal and woodworking shops were set up and the Unit fitted up all
their workshops, LAD and other Lorries with the necessary bins, racks, boxes, so
that all the equipment could be safely packed away and leave the maximum room
for the troops as well. The timber came from fallen trees on Lord Ely's Estate
which were given to us by the Estate Agent and I regret to say that one or two
standing trees as well had to be removed in order to complete the job. As we had
a lake to play on, watermanship received a good deal of attention and we made
full use of the folding boat and assault equipment, motor launches and the odd
sailing boat that we acquired from around and about.
After the usual unit schemes, the Brigade Schemes became more and more
frequent. These entailed rapid moves across Northern Ireland, construction of
F.B.E. and Pontoon Bridges across the many wide rivers and the preparation of
approach roads and exits and temporary roads across fields. The termination of
one exercise involved the construction of a 280 ft. Pontoon Bridge across the
river Blackwater and after working for many hours and finishing five minutes
before the appointed hour a figure, very nattily attired, appeared through the
morning mist, Brig. Coxwell Rogers, who walked over the bridge asked us if it was
ready and on being informed it was, looked at his watch and said "H'm! only
just", and then marched away. This was poor praise for the excellent work that
had been put in over the previous two or three days including a night's work
before the final completion of the bridge! Liaison was established with the Fleet
Air Arm and R.A.F. who both operated from the neighbourhood. The Fleet Air Arm
had Catalina Flying Boats and we had one or two trips in them, but in the end
decided that firm ground was the best place. We built a certain number of gun
emplacements around the aerodrome for their protection but these were mainly
done by one of the other Field Co.'s. We practiced the usual brigade waterpoints
and all aspects of Engineer Training during the months in Ireland. No sooner
were we really settled in Ely Lodge than the usual order came to move and we
went down the Lake to the Upper Lough and took over a new camp partially
completed on Belle Island and this of course we had to complete together with a
considerable number of other camps for the battalions in our brigade who were in
camp within an area of 30 miles. In this way we got to know our units extremely
well and this was of inestimable value later although at times I do not think the
battalions who supplied the working parties thought so.
It was always said that that the smartest sappers that ever appeared in the Unit
were those that came back from the Battalion Police Sergeants after serving their
fourteen days' detention, one had but to raise one's voice to these sappers and
they instantly sprang to attention or marched smartly towards you in a way that
was almost unbecoming in a real sapper! although I feel that on the occasions
when the ceremonial was required, the sappers were always able to turn out an
excellent show. A Divisional R.E. Bridging Camp was also held and such relics as
the large box girder, wooden trestle bridges and others were bought out and built
by all the Units in fierce competition and there was no doubt that this period
was an excellent training one and the Unit was able to assimilate a tremendous
amount of varied knowledge.
The steady flow of Officers continued through the Unit - Capt. Wingate replaced
Capt. Arthur and eventually Capt. Tomkinson replaced Capt. Wingate. The
Subalterns towards the end of the year resolved into Godsell, Brighton and
Lucan. Our C.S.M. was C.S.M. Hedges and the Platoon Unit were Hq. Sgt.
Lindsay, 1 Pl. Sgt. Martin, 2 Pl. Sgt. Lavers, 3 Pl. Sgt. Ryan, M.T. Sgt. Phillips and
some excellent Lance Sgts. such as Currill, Bishop, Keenan; amongst the
Corporals were Muspratt, Clarke, Giblet, Phillips, Clarke, Layht and Robson etc.
All were regulars or reservists and had that excellent basic training which stood
out as soon as they were given the opportunity. I was a T.A. soldier myself and
had the highest regard for them and was glad that we in 38 had such a strong
nucleus about which to build such an excellent unit. The O.C. Batman was an
old H.T. driver named Bertram and he with the O.M. Cook, Driver Weston were a
characteristic pair of the old school, Weston incidentally made excellent chocolate
souffles. The usual parties were held to entertain the Bde. HQ., Bns., and
supporting units in the Bde., and we became on excellent terms.
During the Christmas Season the Unit held the traditional military Christmas
and also entertained the owner of the Hall (the Ulster seat of the Duke of
Westminster) and grounds on which we were camped and were in turn
entertained by them with the traditional Irish hospitality. During the whole of our
period in Ireland we played a considerable number of games - football, rugby,
cricket and swimming and had competition with the R.E. units and in the
Brigade. Shooting and fishing were ours for the asking and we removed a 45 lb.
pike from the Lake.
Christmas festivities were rudely awakened by the receipt of mobilization
instructions and this entailed leaving Northern Ireland within twenty one days
and moving to England. The M.T. moved via Stranraer, Larne, Carlisle, Preston,
Stoke-on-Trent and two staging camps between there and our dispersal point
outside London from which we went to our mobilization area which was
Caterham. The main body went by train and had a comparatively comfortable
journey and the majority immediately sent off on embarkation leave. The M.T.
party encountered extremely heavy snowfall and frost throughout the whole of
their journey and great difficulties were encountered in getting the vehicles to
start, running them when they started owing to the extremely low temperatures
and keeping them on the road once we got them going; doubtless this was
excellent training but by the time we reached Caterham minus several vehicles
with cracked cylinder blocks, broken axles and bodies etc., and we were thankful
the journey was over, it must have been bad as we received more rum in England
those ten days than ever again.
next- Madagascar
