artillery

May

20

1940

The BEF are encircled

German artillery on the western front, May 1940

Lots of rumours of tanks again. On arrival back forced another perimeter of village and blocked all roads. Sudden move again this evening. Marched to Ere about seven miles, Waited there several hours, supposed to be taking over line from another unit… All slept on the side of road. Finally received orders to return Taintignies. While waiting at the roadside to Ere about 10.30 p.m. Pte Hutchinson had his arm run over and broken by a truck.

May

19

1940

British withdrawal accelerates

German tanks, 1940

Apparently insufficient transport for everybody. Transport took some on, part of the way, then came back and lifted others, and so on. We marched until about 10 a.m. Everybody extraordinarily tired. Road crowded – at least 2 waits moving back on our road. Our Tpt not too well organized, drivers did not know their destination nor did I.

Mar

9

1940

Inside a Maginot Line fort

maginot

The fort cost as much as the Battleship Queen Elizabeth. The B.B.C. and every journalist in the world have tried to describe the Maginot Forts, and I can’t hope to improve on their efforts. The things which fascinated me most were the mechanisms of the cupulas, the way rate of fire can be speeded up when in a fixed emplacement so that one gun equals almost two, the arrangement for machine guns with all round traverse to be traversed at night with an adjustment of elevate and depress them in conformity with the slopes of the ground …

Mar

8

1940

Examining French anti-tank guns and mortars

British-anti-tank-gun

The anti-tank Gun had rubber tyres, a split trail, a telescope sight, and very light and quick gears, and it seemed that you couldn’t miss with it. I thought it much better than the one we saw in the Maginot which you aim from the shoulder, It was 25mm calibre. They said that you could fire 17 r.p.m.

Mar

6

1940

With the French artillery on the Western Front

155mm_Field Gun

we looked over the position of a 155mm (6inch) gun section in action in the edge of the village. It is a most impressive gun with a split trail. …. It shoots up to 25000 meters and has a traverse of 30 degrees each way. This means that at extreme range it covers 25 Kilometers (about 15 miles) in breadth of the enemy country, which makes you think.

Mar

5

1940

British position on the Western Front overrun

A British 6 inch gun being demonstrated on the Western Front

One of our forward infantry posts on the edge of a wood was wiped right out. The Bosche started it off with some H.E. in the branches over their heads, from a six inch mortar battery and a battery of smaller guns (this information is from the fragments picked up). Then the concentration lifted 100 yds.and a Bosche patrol who had been cutting the wire in front of the post during the first concentration rushed the post and apparently took them all prisoner. When our people got to the post they found two British dead, one wounded, and one dead Bosche. Sixteen had been taken prisoner.

Mar

4

1940

With the French artillery in front of the Maginot Line

british-medium-artillery-1940

At this stage everyone is afraid of “starting it” and there is a tacit agreement that villages are not shelled. A few days previously the Bosche put a stray round into a house in this village next door to the Groupement HQ; the Commandant got furious, rushed to the telephone and said “Je lui donnerai un cadeau”. He then shot up every Bosche village within range, firing 600 rounds. The Bosche has not repeated his misdemeanour. There is a general fear of reprisals in this curious stage of the war.

Sep

11

1939

The British Expeditionary Force leaves for France

Polo ponies or not, the Captain did sail with the regiment from Dover (the Colonel was to follow on in a few days’ time), and the behaviour of the men showed this ranked second only to watching the English football finals: we were in high spirits and we very definitely wanted to go to war: The laughter and the joking never ceased, and it was just as well that we left England happily, because our return would be a pitiable one.

Later in the war →