Tag: memoirs

Tony Delahoy: Things Remembered

ADVANCE THROUGH BELGIUM – SEPTEMBER 1944

THE 49th Division continued it’s advance, overcoming strong resistance in the area of the town of Poppel. Dates, days and times usually meant very little at the time, but the date of Sunday 18th September cannot be forgotten as the sky was filled with planes and gliders.

Each of these was filled with paratroopers on their way to capture the bridges across the major obstacles of the River Waal at Nijmegan, the River Neder Rein at Arnhem and the town of Arnhem itself. This was to ecome known as Operation Market Garden (made famous in the film A Bridge Too Far – Ed.).

The main allied land forces were to launch a huge simultaneous attack to link up with the paratroppers by going through the twons of Valkenswaard, Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem and then on to the industrial area of the Ruhr in Germany. Things did not go to plan and the attack was practically halted after some miles by the enemy holding the very few approach roads and bridge crossings of the numerous small rivers and canals. Allied attack movement then became West and East as well as North; all being hampered by the very wet weather and approaching winter.

When Brussels was liberated some troops were given a short peiod of leave; usually two days and staying in an Army hostel. One day I had to pick up one of our men returning from Brussels at a nearby railway station and take him back to his unit; the next day he was killed. this particular death still haunts me. His name was Arthur Brown; he is buried at Bergen op Zoom in Holland and I have visited there a few times, post war.

The Germans were still resisting strongly in many areas. In one village we came under a good deal of shelling by their heavy artillery; the dreaded 88mm gun.

the 88 could fire shells at speeds far greater than the speed of sound so that the firing and explosion of the shell almost occurred together, giving no time to take cover.

One one occassion an 88mm shell landed about 23 feet from me, crouching behind my motorcycle; fortunately the blast did not come in my direction,

Soon after this I was given two days leave in Brussels. The city didn’t appeared damaged and I was able to get into the Palais des Beaux Arts and liten to the Scottish National Orchestra. It was so good to hear music again!

More THINGS REMEMBERED next weekend

Tony Delahoy: Things Remembered

NORMANDY LANDING

The tide was fairly high as the landing craft headed towards the beach. There were a few tall houses behind the beach and a sea wall with a gap leading inland.

We had all been issued with lifebelts; these were semi-circular in design and tied around the waste. After beaching from our landing craft we discarded the lifebelts in heaps piled up by the sea wall. I shudder to think how useless these ‘lifebelts’ would have been in the sea.

The area of our disembarkation was designated as Gold Beach. The precise area, I believe, was designated as Gold Beach King Red, an area between La Riviere and Asnells and in front of the village or Ver-sur-Mer; the track I believe we took is now called the Rue de 50th Division.

There were some damaged seafront houses, but fortunately they had no enemy in them, although I still felt a bit exposed on my BSA M20 motorcycle (Ed Note: Tony was Battery HQ despatch rider).

From the beach we continued to move some hundreds of yards in convoy until reaching the Ouistreham – Arromanches road. We then crossed over that road and, skirting the town of Ver-sur-Mer, we continued along a track where two dead German soldiers still lay in a ditch by the roadside; this was quite a sobering sight.

Naturally we became a little more cautious as we advanced further inland, and at the top of a field about 300 yards further on we halted in a small wooded area.

On dismounting my motorcycle I unslung my Sten gun from my shoulder and stood it down between my legs. At this point I heard the slight click of the breech block moving back under the impact of standing it down, which had been sufficient to push a bullet into the barrel.

Fortunately the impact had not been quite hard enough to cause the gun to fire, but in inspection the firing pin had actually made a small dent in the base of the bullet’s percussion cap. The gun had been set for rapid fire, which would have meant the whole magazine of 28 9mm bullets being fired – another lucky escape!

I can recall another incident where a Sten gun became caught in some camouflage netting resulting in the death of a comrade. There were many incidents and deaths with the Sten gun until a simple modification was made enabling the breech block to be safely secured.

More THINGS REMEMBERED tomorrow

Tony Delahoy: Things Remembered

NORMANDY LANDING

The Regiment left the east coast on the night of 4/5th June for the West India Docks in London.

On arrival I knew that my home was just a few miles away on the other side of the River Thames. I realised that by scrambling over the dock wall I might be able to return home to see Helen before embarking for France, so I climbed over the wall and landed in the garden of a small house.

The woman who was living there said: ‘Come through, and when you come back I’ll let you back in to the garden’.

I ran all the way through the pedestrian tunnel under the Thames and managed to reach home, only to find an empty house – my wife and her mother had gone to the cinema! Fortunately they returned just before I had to make the return journey, where I once again scrambled over the dock wall. Fortunately I had not been misssed – very lucky!

We embarked on 7th June aboard the SS Fort McPherson and sailed down the Thames Estuary to a salute of hooters and sirens.

On the way over to France there was a submarine alert during the evening but no attack took place. However during the night the ship was attacked by planes.

At first there were some near misses but these were followed by a tremendous shudder as the ship was hit by a large remotely guided bomb. The bomb had penetrated the ship but failed to explode. I like to think the resistance movement had sabotaged the bomb.

The wings of the missile-like bomb were sheared off, revealing masses of wiring cabes that appeared to be attached to it.

The ship stopped and destroyers stood nearby while the bomb was defused. I watched as this missile was hoisted up and lowered over board; it appeared to be a massive size of about 14 feet.

Our ship’s steering gear had been damaged by the impact and the ship delayed, but was soon able to continue on to France by going round in circles.

Standing off shore the ship was attacked again, with many more near misses. Eventually landing craft pulled alongside us and we scrambled down the nets into the landing craft and we were beached at Ver-sur-Mer.

To my amazement the pilot of the landing craft taking me ashore turned out to be a man called Jackie Legge, who had been one of my next door neighbours at home – what a fantastic coincidence!

More THINGS REMEMBERED next week