Dads War part 8 Rifleman Ernest Wills served with the 12th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, the motorised infantry of the 8th Independent Armoured Brigade of which the Regiment was part. These are his words about that first day of battle that Dad shared. At this time the attack on Rauray had come to a standstill. The 1st Tyneside Scottish, whose flanks we were protecting could not get on anymore. The battalion was ordered to withdraw under the cover of smoke in the lull. Before the withdrawal I wrote my graffiti on the church wall (It is still there). The withdrawal was a nightmare. The enemy snipers had picked off the lads carrying the 18 sets (radios) on the way in. The covering fire from our mortars was dropping short and creating more casualties amongst us. Without the 18 sets we could not transmit to them to lift their sights. When you are advancing you do not see the wounded or dead. Even if you do, you cannot help, you cannot stop, and you must keep up with the advance. On withdrawal (you must not say ‘retreat’) you go back and pass through the carnage and see the horror and fury of the attack, the disturbed earth, and the gaping shell holes. A lot of the lads were lying either dead or wounded amongst the corn and would not be found for weeks after. A few we passed in the hedgerows were dead. They did not shock like they portray in films; often bearing no disfiguring wounds so they appeared to be asleep. Rifleman Marchant, a friend was paler than usual but he lay peacefully, with blood on his head and face to show where he had been hit. One we found alive was a sergeant from the 1st Tyneside Scottish. We had been protecting their flank, and how he got into our sector I do not know. He was in a terrible state, had been wounded in the foot, and could not walk, crying ‘We were overrun by the Germans, I am the only one left. Leave me, look after yourselves’ Freddie Hicks, my best mate, was with me at the time. We held a rifle between us as a seat for the sergeant to sit on told him to pull himself together and other sentences I will not repeat and brought him out. We would then be paraded; the CSM would call us to attention and would then read out the roll. We would then respond to our names. When there was no response the question would be: ‘Did anyone see him fall?’ ‘Was he wounded?’ Where, and how badly?’ Was he killed?’ ‘Where?’ The longer one was on active service, the more upsetting were the battlefield sights. You did not get accustomed to them, they affected you more. Could your luck be draining away? To look around the circle of your comrades and find how few there remained of those who left England with you. Each battle cost men, who would include several veterans; would it only be a question of time before one’s own turn came to be featured in the heart-breaking roll call parade. The casualties were: one officer killed and eight wounded; nineteen other ranks killed or wounded; thirteen other ranks missing, of which nine were subsequently known to have been killed. The picture shows Ernie returning to Tessel Church
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:34:57 +0000
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