Sword Beach to Bremen., A Veterans tale. Sapper

Hi and thanks for your post.
Yes we had support at times from the 79 div. being ours was an Infantry div, we often had armoured support from the armour.

79th Div. If I recall had the divisional sign of a Bulls Head in a triangle, on a yellow back ground. Oddly enough the other armoured div that support us at time also had a bull insignia. The 11th armoured had a black bull in a rectangle on a white background...
How do I know all this after 64 years? I have the "Normandy Plate" with all the battle units badges that took part in the battles!
Cheers and best wishes.
Sapper

 

Dear sapper,

I am absolutely perplexed reading your stories. I cannot even begin to express my admiration for you and your brothers in arms.
I haven't gotten the time yet to go through all your posts, but what i've read up to now is very impressive. I just had to post a comment already.

I hail from Antwerp and used to live close to the 'Escaut' river, or as we call it in Flemish, the 'Schelde'. I will think of you everytime I cross the 'Albertkanaal' over the river.

I am very sad to hear your comrade has passed away. Rest assured that the next generation (i'm 25) will never let your heroic deeds be forgotten

 

Thank you Piron.
I am pleased that you find it interesting. I have never been back to France, Belgium, or Holland. It is difficult, If I visit one grave of my lost friends. Then I have to visit all of them on the long road from Sword Beach to Bremen. For we lost a great many.
Sadly I was also severely wounded and unable to do the walking that would be necessary. The losses were such that afdter the war we could not hold a reunion,There were not enough left.
I send you my best wishes.
Sapper

 

Sapper,

With great interrest I've read you're story. Living here in Belgium we're always remembered about the cruel wars who've passed here.To read the stories off men who fought for the savings off the coming generations is something special.

Thank you sincerely for doing what you did 64 years ago.

I'm not a man of great words, like you can read, but you're always welcome when you pass and need a cup of tea.

greetings Arne

 

Hello Arne.
Belgium? Oh I shall never forget the kindness shown to me on that one night we went into Brussels. That elderly couple in the Forest area of the City gave me all they had, and insisted they had been waiting for all the long years, till they could invite a Young liberator soldier into their home, and to show him the City.

At the time I was quite upset, because I thought I was taking all they had, and it stuck in my throat a bit.

They were kindness itself, and I have never forgotten them, though they must have passed on many years ago.

Before I left that morning, I looked out the bedroom window to get a fixed image picture in my mind of what it looked like, so that if I survived, I could return and take them out to repay their great kindness. I still have the image in my mind clear and sharp as a photo. An upstairs flat with a window that looked out on a small street, with a very colourful town hall, or building, to my left, at the end of my view, And on the opposite side of the road. The building had some red colouring on it, near the front top! Not bad for 64 years ago!

Sadly I was wounded again, this time between Overloon and Venrraij. The injuries were severe with a fractured spine and serious leg injuries.
That prevented me from returning to thank them properly. BUT ! I have never forgotten them. And I never will.
One thing I recall, was that they told me that Grandmother had flown round Brussels at the age of Ninety before the war.

The next night I was back in action....

Best regards to you and all the friends here.
Sapper

 

HI, i'm sure you here this all the time but it is great to hear these stories first hand and it is great that you are willing to share them, both my grandfathers were in ww2 i don't know much about them except that one was part of the 6th Airborne Division to land at normandy (being the only one in our family interested in ww2 she gave me his shoulder flashes, metal and cloth wings and his pagasus patch). And my other grandfather was a submariner I don't know anything else except that he was the boats boxer. Anyway I love reading your posts it brings everything I have read seem more real in my mind, and helps me to understand it a bit more. thankyou

 

Hi.
If your Grandfather was in the 6th Airborne div, he was not far away from where we were. We were the Company, along with 17th Field Company RE, that kept Pegasus bridge open, and built bridges to allow the passage of tanks into the 6th Airborne area.

In the first place, Pegasus bridge was not allowed to carry tanks. It was thought by our Colonel (The CRE Tiger Urquhart. DSO) (CRE? Colonel of the Royal Engineers) that it would collapse. if that happened then the 6th would be cut off from armoured support. And could easily be over run.
It is not well known, but the Sappers arrived at the bridge shortly before the Commandos arrived to relieve the airborne with Piper Millan.

One of our Sgts was very impressed when he saw them arrive.
Later, after Captain Edwards RE got under the bridge and inspected it for load? the tanks were allowed to cross freely. And continued to do so.
Best Wishes.
Sapper

 

So Pagasus bridge couldn't hold tanks, or so it was thought? does that mean no one ever tried, and if the bridge would have collapsed dosen't that mean they were already cut off from armour support because neither the allies or the germans could get tanks across, or am i just misreading?

 

It means that we had to build bridges under fire to ensure the tanks could get across. The bridges were floating, and had to rise and fall with the tide. The tide did affect that area. At the time the incoming shells were so bad that we moved the bridging further down. The bridge was also attacked as the enemy wanted it back. If I recall correctly 17 planes were shot down in attacks on the bridge.

It was Captain Edwards RE that later found that the Bridge was supported sufficiently to take the weight of tanks. There is the story there somewhere how he took the first tanks over the bridge.

 

I see so you planned for the worst did it the hard waym and found out later that there is an easier route? I do not know a lot about Pegasus bridge, and I didn't know about the tanks thats interesting, and were they allied or german planes shot down, and were there many losses over the bridge trouble?

 

All enemy planes knocked out while attacking.

 

I have read your involvment in the normandy landings up until you were shipped out, but did you serve anywhere else such as france before it was overrun back in 1940 or did you join the army just before d-day?

 

Not old enough, I served in the Home Guard in Southampton during the Blitz. Then at Poole before joining the army. I was14 when the war started and just nineteen when I went to Normandy.

 

Ram? From what I believe only one saw service, an OP variant. Probably could be a Sherman or a Grizzly (Canadian variant of the Sherman).

 

Hi Joe. Thanks mate. Yes I am always interested in folk, their families, and their lives, happily, I have been in a position where I was able to tell some folk what their relatives went through. and even in some cases, able to tell what their father was like, as they were too young in 1944 to have know him ..Specially when he died in action.

So yes mate, I shall act as a "conduit" between the folk of today, and the time of earth shaking, and mighty events back in Circa 1944.

For not only were those days of war with acts of great courage.,many that were never recognised! But it was also a time of great upheaval. The world had undergone a cataclysmic change and the prewar way of life....... gone for ever. Thank heavens!

So that generation not only fought for what was right... it also was responsible for changing all the bad things that had existed before, in this land.

Cheers Sapper

 

Joe:

thanks for the input; but as I said, I do not know for sure if the photo I have of my dad was taken in Britain during exercises, or in Normandy. I think it is more probable that it was during exercises when Rams were perhaps more 'available'...but he did command a Sherman in Normandy, that I've been told.

Charles

 

This thread seems to have died the death.
Cheers
Sapper

 

It still lives on I think, I always come here to read the posts you made Sapper, I respect you and your past tales.

May you have the respects of the entire website behind your name.

 

I second this sapper

 

Dearest sapper,

Rest assured this thread has not died. Since i'm a new member of these forums, I had a whole lot of catching up to do on your stories. I have come back to your story almost daily to read through the ordeal you had to bear. At long last I managed to read through untill the time of your terrible wounding that had you encased in plaster. Every second I spent reading your posts was time very well spent. Thank you so much for sharing.

I'm Belgian and used to live in Brussels so it was amazing to read your recollections of passing through the city.
that little statue is called 'manneken pis' which in dutch means : 'the little fellow that has a wee' and he still stands proudly doing his thing to this day

I know a young chap about my age called Van Dosselaere, when I get home to Belgium I will make sure to enquire with him the names of his (great)grandparents. Maybe by some incredibly stroke of luck this might just be the family who so kindly welcomed you.

I know chances of it are very slim considering you are still suffering from your wounds endured so long ago, but if you ever do get back to Belgium, be sure that my door is wide open for you.