Interview with Cpl Norman Webb

5391635. Lance Corporal. Norman Harold Webb.

2 Platoon, ‘A’ Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion.

Norman Webb was born on the 22 February 1922 and came from Handsworth, Birmingham.

He enlisted into the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on the 14th February 1941, when he was still only 18, and was sent to the 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalion.

He went on parachute course 61B/62, at R.A.F. Ringway, 26th April to 4th May 1943. Parachute Instructors comments: “Worked well. Average performer”.

Went to North Africa, as a re-enforcement, and took part in the actions in Sicily and Italy, July and September 1943.

He then took part in the operation at Arnhem, where he was the No 1 on a Bren gun, and was quite badly wounded on the Bridge on Sunday evening, 17th September 1944. He spent the rest of the battle in the R.A.P. (See also account by Pte. G.E. Mitchell.)

He was captured, along with the rest of the wounded on Wednesday, 20th September 1944.

He was a POW in the Hospital, at Stalag 12A, Limburg, from 24th September to November 1944. He was then sent to Stalag 8C at Sagan, and put to work in the Sugar Factory until the 25th January 1945, when they were all put on the forced march.

On return to England, he was sent to the Reserves and discharged 07/02/46.

Norman Webb died in 1995.

 

Interview conducted on the 31st August 1989.

Q: When did you first join the Army?

A: February the 14th, 1941.

 

Q: Why? Were you conscripted?

A: No. Volunteered.

 

Q: How old were you?

A: Eighteen.

 

Q: 18, so just straight from school, did you have a job?

A: I’d left school at 14, so 4 years part time working and I didn’t get into it, so I volunteered before the firm stopped us going, which they did later on, so I only just scraped through.

 

Q: So what unit were in originally?

A: Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, in the 70th Battalion, young soldiers, went to Deanly, Gloucester, and from Deanly, we went to Cornwall, and all around that area, and then off to Northern Ireland. Then came back to England and joined the 52nd Battalion, Ox and Bucks, glider troops, which was a rough lot. Did a lot of marching, and lots of sleeping. After two years in the Ox and Bucks I joined the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, joined them in North Africa.

 

Q: Joined them in North Africa?

A: Yeah a place called . . . .

 

Q: When did you get your parachute training, was it before?

A: We got that around April, in Chesterfield and Hardwick Hall, and all round there. We only did five jumps, as the weather was too bad and we couldn’t do anymore jumps, but they said ‘the boats waiting for you to go to Africa’.

 

Q: What year was this, 42 or 43?

A: April 1943.

 

Q: Did you actually fight in Africa at all, or was it [all over by then]?

A: No, we couldn’t do all our full parachute training. We did five jumps, two balloon, three from aircraft, and then the weather got too bad and the ship was waiting to take us to Africa, so we all said okay and they cleared us as passed, because we were good enough. Anyway as one chap said to me, ‘Well, you ain’t a proper qualified parachutists’. I said, ‘Well, my first jump into action proved that I was, good enough, wasn’t it?’

 

Anyway we went to North Africa and the fighting had ended. Then we went to Sicily, dropped on Sicily, 10 o’clock at night, moonlit night, and four days there, back to North Africa. Then from North Africa to Italy, se landing, no parachuting. Couldn’t catch the Jerries, they’d scooted off and we had a tough job trying to catch them up. We had a few weeks there, then back to England, just before Christmas. Stopped in a camp near Grantham for a couple of days, then they let us go on leave.

 

Then D-Day came. We were still in camp, and then we were briefed on about a dozen different operations, but they kept getting cancelled. And then, at the finish, we were on a scheme one night, a Saturday night. We’d already been briefed for Arnhem a week before [Operation COMET], and all of a sudden the old bugle went, ‘A’ Company, fall in, fall in ‘B’ Company, etc, we came on to the road, into trucks and back to camp. Next morning – Arnhem.

 

Q: Well, why did you join the para’s in the first place? What made you volunteer?

A: Well, the excitement, I suppose. I mean, I went to the glider troops, and they were good, but the [para’s] were the elite of the British Army, and I was fit in those days.

 

Q: So, what time did you wake up on the 17th?

A: What time did I wake up? I can’t remember, probably about half past six, seven o’clock, I suppose. We were all ready, just ready for the off, and onto lorries

 

Q: What was going through your mind that morning?

A: Don’t know. I wasn’t really bothered all that much. No, I wasn’t all that excited, nothing. Not until we got going did I think it would be my last day on earth, and then again, I might be lucky, which I have been all along, and I was. Just got the wounds. For some of the chaps it was their last day on earth, and in the next few days a lot more went.

 

Q: So, what was the trip into Arnhem like, was it smooth, was there any flak?

A: There was a bit, not much, not too bad, quite reasonable. I was a bit surprised, more so than people make out, you know. There was a lot of our aircraft flying around, fighters and you could see the silhouettes in the water below, because it was flooded, the land was.

 

Q: So, well, could you go through what you went through earlier, just for the benefit of the tape, what happened to you, basically?

A: Well, we landed, but I had a bit of a mis-hap, coming out of the aircraft, I got my leg caught in the static line, the extension. I injured my leg on landing and damaged the gun at the same time. So they put me with another chap, I don’t know whether he was a Private or a Lance Corporal, Mitchell [1], and we went on into Arnhem, battling our way, one or two skirmishes along the way. Coming to the Bridge, we both got wounded on the Bridge.

 

Q: Can you tell me when you jumped, what happened really, when you jumped? You let your kit-bag down, with the Bren in it, and the rope snapped?

A: Yeah, as I jumped the leg caught [in the static-line] and nearly pulled me leg off, and I let the Bren gun down too quick and the rope snapped and damaged the gun, so that was out of action.

 

Q: But, you took anything you needed from your kit-bag?

A: Yes, took everything I needed from my kit-bag. Everything, cigarettes, ammunition, and everything else, including the spare barrel, so that there was nothing left, except the gun – which was buggered up. So they put me with another Bren-gunner, so I was still with a Bren gun.

 

Q: SO, the first time that you were fired on, when were you first fired on?

A: There was a lot of firing going on at the drop zone, but I wasn’t involved in any of that. It was about a mile from the dropping zone when I first fired the gun, but I don’t know if it killed anybody or not, we just fired amongst them as we were going along. They fired at us and we fired back.

 

Q: So, on the way to the Bridge, well, tell [me] about the tank coming towards you?

A: That was at the dropping zone, that was, right on the edge of the dropping [zone]. The tank came straight towards us, and it fired at us and killed the one man straight away, and then he backed away and ‘scooted’. Didn’t see it again. Mind you, it should have stopped and done a bit more fighting, in my opinion. But, they didn’t know what guns we were bringing p to bear on it, did they? We could have had the PIAT, and the 6 pounder and the 3 inch mortars – they were pretty good.

MY NOTE: This incident probably refers to an attack by an armoured car at the Lower Oosterbeek railway station area.

 

Q: Well, what happened as soon as you got to the Bridge then?

A: Well, as soon as we got to the Bridge, we’d got the north end of the bridge, and Lieutenant Grayburn says, ‘2 Platoon onto the Bridge’, and we went straight on and we got hammered on there. I was wounded.

 

Q: What happened when you [got up on the Bridge], for the first part, was it quiet to start with or did they fire as soon as you were up there?

A: Well, we got 100 yards onto the Bridge before they sent the very light above our heads and started firing at us.

 

Q: And so, what?

A: Then I started firing back at them.

 

Q: So, who were firing at you, was it just from the pill-box?

A: From the pill-box and the armoured car which came towards us and went up into the town and vanished. Came straight towards us and to the end of the Bridge and away. Through the whole lot of us and we didn’t fire at him and he never fired at us.

MY NOTE: There were probably two armoured cars, one definitely opened fire on the Para’s.

 

Q: So, you were the first person to [open] fire from your Platoon?

A: I was the first one to fire from my Platoon. Just a quick burst, that was the first [rounds] fired.

 

Q: How long were you up on the Bridge for?

A: Twenty minutes, I suppose. I was wounded and I had to come off, and then slowly they all came back and followed me off, one by one.

 

Q: So, when the Germans started firing at you, I suppose you just sort of dived down?

A: There was nowhere to, there was no cover. We just lay down, in position behind our weapons, just firing back, we had no cover whatsoever. Just suicide. Shouldn’t have gone on the bridge, unless we had covering [fire], if we had something in front of us, to protect us, but we hadn’t. As I said, there were 8 men killed straight away from the Platoon, I don’t know if that was right, but that’s what was said.

 

Q: What wounded you, was it a machine-gun or [something else]?

A: What wounded me? It was shrapnel. Oerlikon, 20mm Oerlikon. That’s anti-aircraft firing at ground level, exploding shells.

 

Q: So that was from the pill-box, was that firing.

A: That was from the pill-box, yeah.

 

Q: So what happened when you were wounded?

A: Well, Mitchell, took over the Bren gun and I went up to get my wounds dressed, and he, two minutes later he was with me. He was wounded as well.

 

Q: Where did you go to get your wounds dressed?

A: We went to the big building at the end of the Bridge, north end of the Bridge. I think it was a hotel, they weren’t very big buildings. The worst thing I always remember, when we were going into these buildings, was smashing all of the glass out with our rifle butts. Just smashing it out, so that we could fire through. And a lot of shooting went on, and we took a hell of a lot of German prisoners, even though we were being shot to death, we were still bringing [their] chaps in. They were still surrendering and coming in to us, down in the cellar, and when it was all over and the buildings had caught fire and it was all over, all them prisoners were just marched away by the Germans. We were marched away, as prisoners, and all their prisoners were marched away as well. I didn’t see how so many of them were taken prisoner, a lot of them shouldn’t have been taken prisoner, because they’d got the upper hand. They’d found a ?? north, you know.

 

Q: So, when you went off the Bridge, where were you? Did you go back to your Platoon or were you wounded then?

A: I was wounded. Put right out of action there, yeah.

 

Q: So, you didn’t know where you were?

A: We stayed in the big building with the chaps all round it, the front part just carried on firing, but still in the thick of the battle, but I was not in an actual shooting position myself. Quite a few of them were lying around me, slowly dying and just put outside the back door. The back entrance, just put outside, you know, just one German next to me. We didn’t know until about the third day that he had bad wounds in the stomach. He’d been dressed up (?) and he called the medical orderly, showed him his stomach and a lump of shrapnel there and it wasn’t long before he died. Another chap there told me, he had a tracer bullet in his stomach and one of the blokes told me he saw him with the smoke and flame coming out of his stomach. He lasted about three days, went mad and died.

 

Q: So after the . . . . how were you taken prisoner by the Germans then?

A: The fourth day, they kept saying the 30th Corps was going to come and relieve us. They kept saying they were coming, they were coming, but no sign of them. They couldn’t get through and about 8 or 9 o’clock that night, dark, buildings set on fire, Colonel Frost then talking to the Medical Officer, Captain Logan, and decided then and there to put the white flag out and anyone who could escape to escape, but not many did. It was just all over for the 2nd Battalion practically, except next morning they just finished off – overran what was left, there was no chance. A few did escape, altogether, maybe some of them, on the way, had reached friendly lines. I had the feeling that they got back, I don’t know, but 17 of the battalion got back to England, after weeks.

 

Q: Who was the first German you saw after you’d surrendered?

A: Who was he? Well, I don’t know, but they came in and shook the blokes hands and said they’re very gallant fighters, and they were quite proud of us, and said you done well.

 

Q: So, what happened then, were you taken out and marched off?

A: we were just taken out and marched towards the edge of town, into a big Church [Eusebius]. Next morning, marched about ten miles into a big building and all the wounded were attended to. I was put to sleep, and well, I’d say there’s a lot of shrapnel still in there, anyway. See, the last time I had to have an x-ray, when I had my bowel trouble, my chest and stomach were x-rayed, and the Doctor says, “Have you had an accident?”, and I said, “No, why, can you see bits?”, “Yes” he said, “There’s two or three large pieces in you”. So, there are still shrapnel pieces in me. There were no x-rays in Germany, so there wasn’t much taken out, I just had a tube fitted in my back, draining it, but most of the shrapnel got left in.

 

Q: Did you see Lieutenant Grayburn from the time you were on the Bridge?

A: Only when he joined me, when he was hit. We were both wounded at the same time, together. I met him in the building, along with Mitchell, there was the three of us. He got his wound seen to, as he wasn’t too badly wounded, the first one. He went out again to lead his Platoon, and he came back again later on, wounded again. The third time he was hit, it was all over, dead.

 

Q: Right, so did you have anything to eat or drink?

A: No, not at all. Oh, do you mean like when we . . . . after the battle? After the battle, it was two days before we had anything.

 

Q: What did you eat during [the battle]?

We had [something] to drink on the second day, but no food, we had hardly any food at all. Even when we got to the Stalag, we were starved.

 

Q: What sort of food did you have during the battle?

A: Well, it was nothing really, we didn’t have anything. We all had haversack lunches, that’s about all. We did have some other bits and pieces, that we took ourselves, chocolate and stuff. There was no other food issued. We did get a couple of cups of tea, but then the water was stopped - even the toilets weren’t flushing, so it was all cut off.

 

Q: You mentioned that during the march, when the Germans were marching you away, you were marching in line faster than the Germans could keep up?

A: Yes, we were galloping, really setting a good pace, playing them, we were, singing all the different songs, which they didn’t like and they told us to shut up as we sand, “There’ll always be an England” and the “Mersailles”, and all that kind of stuff, and we had our emergency ration tins, which we were banging on behind the guards backs. They were stopping civilians, and taking their bikes off them, trying to keep up with us. They couldn’t slow us down, we were so fit, even though three parts of us were wounded, them galloping along [and bellowing], didn’t stop me one inch, not one bit.

 

Q: So, after they dressed your wound, what happened? Did you have some time to sit around?

A: Well, they took us to this big building, then got straight into an ambulance about 10 miles away, put into a big hut, and slept on the floor all night. There was one or two beds in there, but the wounded, we were the last ones in, so we slept on the floor. Then we were put into box cars, a couple of days later, and taken into Germany, well, taken further into Germany. It was in Limburg we finished up. Put up there for a few days, for me it was few weeks, attending to my wounds in the Hospital there. The remainder of the prisoners of war were big marquees outside and there was a few more wounded in there, because there was an air raid and the Germans told the blokes to get in and they tried to give me the old ‘v’ sign and one Jerry fired a shot gun at them and one or two got wounded, so there were a few more for the Hospital, and still playing the Jerries up. Then we were taken from there. I was still in Hospital and Ron Holt [2], that one I told you about, he came to me and said they was all moving out, “what about coming with us?” So I discharged myself from the Hospital and I went with them.

 

I was put into a sugar factory or mill, doing a bit of work. We went to this M.C? [Marshalling Centre?], and they marched us from there, they took us to Breslau, near Dresden. And I think that’s when I didn’t see Ron Holt anymore after that, but he said he always remembered me coming to the Camp in my old tunic, all tattered and ripped about where they had cut it away and all blood stained – he’d always remember that image of me.

 

Q: Right, and so you were/when did the Americans finally [liberate you]?

A: In, about April, just before the end of the war. Hanover was declared an ‘open city’ and the Germans just scooted out and left us there, and we fed ourselves from the provisions. Then after a few hours, the Americans came, and then we were free, then, properly free. So then we went to the aerodrome for a few days, then flew back to England. God, you know, I was full of lice and they just took all our clothes off us and burned them. Then all new stuff. My beret there, that’s the new one I was issued with. My old one, I still kept that, but I lost it on my travels. You know, my very old one, it was a bit tatty looking, that one, the one I was issued in 1943/44. I think it was after the battle, after we got back to England, so still got the old ‘cherry’ beret, as we used to call it.

 

Q: Was your Platoon leading the march into Arnhem on the first day?

A: My Company? Yes, well, was in the lead all the way.

 

Q: Was your Platoon in the lead?

A: At times, but I wouldn’t say all the time it was in the lead, but as I say ‘A’ Company were in the lead, with about 60 men [100 – 110 men] I suppose.

 

Q: Could I come back to when you were trying to cross the Bridge, because that’s really quite an important part of the battle. Other details about that. Can you remember what it was like sitting on the Bridge, under fire. Anyway you could describe that?

A: Well, it was just ‘hairy’ everywhere, shells and everything else, it was just murder. I was getting quite a bit nervous towards the finish.

 

Q: Could you see the Germans you were firing at? Or were you just firing towards them and hoping?

A: Well, there was one or two you could see. One bloke upstairs, they [we] could see them and they could see me, they had a better view up there and they could see the armoured vehicle and the Bridge, and they could ?? Where I was, I was put in the back part and I didn’t see too much of it, but I could hear what was going on, and they could see big tanks coming towards the bridge and the 6 pounders just pounding them, and sending them back off the bridge. They held them off the bridge for just four days. At the end of the four days, the y just came out and surrendered the buildings. No chance. Firing the phosphorous shells into the buildings.

 

Q: Do you remember who was the first man onto the Bridge that night?

A: The first person. Uh, I should, I mean, could have bee Gryaburn himself, because he was in front of me and, I don’t actually remember who was in front of me, but I know I wasn’t the first one on there, but I was amongst the first. We was the first Platoon onto it. Lieutenant Grayburn could have been the number one on there, I don’t know. I remember he was in front of me when he shouted, “2 Platoon onto the Bridge”. He may have shoved us on there or he may have led onto there, I don’t know.

 

Q: So, when he said that, he went up onto the bridge itself?

A: Well, we went up a, wasn’t steps, it was slope.

Q: Slope?

A: Yes, up a slope and we went, took the left hand side and a verey light went up at us and the firing started and an armoured car came towards us, straight off the bridge and away, and we went, me and Mitchell, went to the middle of the bridge and that’s when I opened up.

 

Q: So, you started on the left-hand side?

A: On the left-hand side and me and Mitchell finished in the middle, with 2 Platoon on the left and another Platoon on the right.

 

Q: How far up the bridge did you get before the Germans started firing at you?

A: About 80 – 100 yards, before we got to the open. We was on the, what do they call it, the . . . . ramp. The middle part. Before we got to the middle of the bridge, I mean, two, the bridge had a couple of roads wasn’t it, if I remember right, and then over the River and up the other end. It was quite a long bridge, wasn’t it, if I remember, a couple of spans across the road. We got to about the first span, as you might say – we didn’t get to far further.

 

Q: What happened when the Germans opened fire? Where did the first fire come from? Was it everywhere?

A: From the, come from the, could have come from the armoured car, but that come off and scooted away, and then the pill-box did all firing then. From the pill-box.

 

Q: Was there any firing from the other side of the River, or was it mainly the pill-box?

A: Well, I couldn’t tell you. I mean, when you’re partly low down and its dark, you can’t see what’s going on.

 

Q: How long was it before you were wounded, was it toward the end?

A: I think it was about ten minutes before I was wounded.

 

Q: I suppose you went through quite a lot of magazines did you, with . . . ?

A: Not too many, no because there was nothing to shoot at, mainly. We didn’t want to waste it, did we? Couldn’t see much at all.

 

Q: What were you shooting at?

A: Couldn’t see. We could see the pill-box, that’s all and I fired to the left of the pill-box, in case there were any Jerries on the side there, but couldn’t see them. It was too dark. There wasn’t a great deal of firing from our end because we couldn’t see anything, but they could see. They had the protection of the pill-box and that.. They could keep their heads well up, I mean, they were in safe positions, they was. We was just trying to keep our heads down as much as we could, which 8 of them at least just got killed on there.

 

Q: So, when the Germans first opened fire, did you keep going for a bit, or did you dive down straightaway?

A: When the Jerries opened fire , then we stopped, and nobody went further on, because we’d have been just absolutely slaughtered. We were about 30 – 40 yards off the pill-box.

 

Q: Could you describe Grayburn?

A: How would you describe him? He was a brave man. And before the battle we all said he’d get the V.C, the way he used to be in training, he was in the lead all the while and everything.

 

Q: Was he a strict officer?

A: Wasn’t too bad at all, wasn’t too bad. He wasn’t to strict, and he was strict enough. Liked his discipline, but he was one of the men. A man. They was all, all those officers in the Company were good.

 

Q: Right, thank you very much. When you were finally released from the Prison Camp, did you meet any civilians, German civilians around?

A: Oh yes, plenty of them.

 

Q: What was their attitude at that stage, were they aggressive, had they given up?

A: Oh no, they was docile then, weren’t they. Yes, I wondered. Yes, they were different people altogether. Like the Japanese, very young, different altogether at the end of the battles. [An attitude of] “that finished now, is it?”

 

Q: What sort of training you got after you’d actually qualified to become a para? When you were back in England . . . ?

A: When we were qualified to parachute, we were straight out to North Africa, then finished in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, back to England and just did normal training, like. Normal parachute training before Arnhem.

 

Q: Did you get anymore parachute training?

A: We did a couple of more jumps. Not much really. No need to really.

 

Q: By that training, was it just taking your turn during jumping, shooting and things like that?

A: Shooting, yes.

 

Q: Were you trained specifically to use the Bren or rifle, and other weapons as well?

A: I had training for a Bren gun, I had been on a Vickers, no cover on a Vickers machine gun, the old dut-dut-dut, you know. And pistols, you know, rifle, plenty of rifle shooting.

 

Q: Para’s had Stens too, didn’t they?

A: Sten guns and I even had a Lewis gun. Yes, a Lewis gun as well, that had a round magazine, beginning of the war that was, not in the Para’s.

 

Q: Did you ever get any practice with any German guns at all?

A: I had, that is, we were coming into Arnhem – I forgot to mention – we stopped at this corner, and then a German car came straight up to us with about six or seven Jerry’s in, and me and Mitchell, he got the Bren gun straight towards them, I got the pistol. The rest of the Section, they scooted around the corner, quick, because the y come on us too quick, you see. We was chatting to these Dutch people. The Dutch people suddenly shot off, back into the buildings, and I fired my revolver, me four five Colt, a couple of times, must have fired it quick, I jammed it. Mitchell, he fired his full magazine at them, and then it was empty, and he said to me, “give me a magazine, quick”. I say he really should have kept his gun pointing at them, because they’d believe he’d still got some ammunition. He took his empty magazine off and I gave him mine, and quick, put it on his gun, I mean the Jerry’s had got us, or you got them.

 

Q: You’d got them?

A: They’d got us, the Bren gun was empty, and my pistol was jammed. But, the Jerry’s put their hands up and we had six or seven prisoners. One escaped, he went running up the street, limping. He’d got a bullet in his leg. There was no one else wounded. All that shooting and only one got hit! All the excitement, I suppose, but …

 

Q: So, you took their weapons then?

A: We took their weapons, and I took a German Schmeisser and a Luger off them.

 

Q: You kept the Luger did you, until you were captured?

A: Oh, I was a prisoner, and then it was, just futile, no good to me. I was hit, I mean, when you go to hospital you had to leave your weapons outside. Oh yeah.

 

Q: Any other incidents you remember on the way? Anything that happed to you, going into Arnhem?

A: I saw one or two skirmishes and that, but I can’t remember very much. I remember that one quite plainly, where they had me and Mitchell, we held our ground and we captured the six or seven and we only shot one, and he went limping away and escaped.

 

Q: So Mitchell emptied the magazine into . . . the Jerries, and loaded another one up, but by that time they’d surrendered?

A: Then they, they put their hands straight up, they did. Hands went straight up in the air and they didn’t realise it, but they’d got us cold, and we hadn’t got a weapon, but the others dashed around the corner and all the rest of the battalion was marching along there, and they heard that fight and they all stopped dead. The next thing we know, they had come around the corner, the Germans with their hands above their heads, and pushed them away. We even left the car there, we should have really jumped into that and rode on, shouldn’t we?

 

Q: Where was this? Was it just off the D.Z?

A: About 4 miles towards the bridge, from the dropping zone, can’t think where it was.

 

Q: Were you in the lead at that stage, or was there another Platoon in front of you?

A: I’d say the Platoon/Company was in the lead, that’s all I can remember. There might have been 20 more men in front of me at the time, but we were chatting there, to the Dutch people and suddenly this car ‘jumped’ around the corner, straight into us. Shock of our lives. They had a bigger shock than us, they did.

 

Q: How did the Dutch people react to your presence?

A: Oh, they was very [happy], they were asking us if there was many of us had landed, like they wanted to be free, didn’t they. But it wasn’t to be, was it . . . .

 

Q: Did they give you anything?

A: They gave us drinks, on the way in, and a bit of fruit, and stuff like that.

 

Q: How many of them did you see? Were they all on the roads, or were they all over the place?

A: They was pretty well all over the place, yes. At the time it was pretty quiet, but as soon as any firing started, they vanished then, yes.

 

Q: What about afterwards? Did you see the Dutch after you’d been taken prisoner? Did you see any Dutch then?

A: No, no. I say we saw them on the way. Didn’t take much notice then.

 

Q: What other signs of the battle did you see when you were taken prisoner, and were you marched out of there?

A: The Germans were all in the buildings and they had taken our positions, but the firing was all over then, but the . . . where we were, just all quiet then.

 

Right, thanks a lot. I think – stop it there.

 

 

NOTES:

[1] 5782772. Pte. G.E. Mitchell. Spare Bren Gunner from ‘A’ Company HQ.

[2] 2766005. Pte. R.C.N. Holt. Bren gunner, 2 Platoon.