Scotland. The Assault Training. 246 RE

THE FINAL ASSAULT LANDING EXERCISES
December. 1943 — Mar.1944
In preparation for the final full scale exercises, the company exercises, especially at night, were undertaken very seriously, and we were never allowed to forget that Sappers are soldiers first and engineers afterwards.. 246 had already learned this, as a Company, In the operations with the BEF in France. Fortunately enthusiasm ran high in 246 even when in difficulty.

On one such exercise in the Company, two of the men who were manning a slit trench failed to challenge the CO Major Rodney Maude as he approached their positon, feeling that it was unnecessary as they clearly recognised him. Sappers Bill Humphries and Jim Pugh received, as a punishment, the task of locating and ‘destroying’ the enemy’s (2 Platoon’s) transport away out in the snow covered countryside.

They succeeded in finding their target, and to prove it they threw a couple of thunder flashes to denote their demolition, as instructed.
When, next morning the exercise came to an end, only then did they find out that the attack had resulted in one lorry being burned out but fortunately the mines on board did not detonate. Apparently one of the flashes ignited the camouflage netting on the truck.

Pugh and Humphries were put on a charge but finally they were only admonished for being “overzealous”.

THE SEVEN BIG ONES. DOWN TO BRASS TACKS
The preparation, the decisions on equipment, the “dry” runs at Invergordon; all were over Now we were as near to ready as we could be. There were seven of these exercises, the weather was bitterly cold, particularly during the Christmas and New Year, and some of the landings were made in almost arctic condidions. On shore one’s wet equipment quickly froze, and at night, particularly, it was not unusual for those who wore fortunate enough to find time to sleep to discover, on awakening, that they were frozen to the ground.

Training intensity was such that no one seemed to be adversely affected by such conditions. During one of these landings everyone was given a little “tommy cooker” stove so that a hot drink could be prepared by each individual soldier during the night. As soon as darkness fell thousands of twinkling lights could be seen, from the waters edge to the hills inland, as these cookers were lit up, pinpointing every group of’ soldiers, gun positions and tank laagers. Such was the tear that an enemy could profit by our keenness for a “cuppa” that the Command had to withdraw the facility.

Most of our trips out in the Moray Firth were on the open decked Tank Landing Craft or LCTs as they were known, but later on in the Spring or 1944, we had the pleasure of using the new “Liberty Ships” built in America and provisioned in the States before leaving. These ships were splendid, rm and dry, with meals served In. the cafeteria and plenty of chocolate available in the canteen.

The first landing made from these ships brought an enormous increase in the number of cases of sea ick soldiers,so the sales of chocolate were very much restricted from then on. Sea sickness was not as widespread as one would have expected. The vast majority of the soldiers were afloat for the first time in their lives but very few really suffered serious effects.

One of our Company Officers, Arthur Heal, (HE OF HILLMAN FAME) was quite all right as long as he was aboard ship, but as soon as his feet touched the beach he became violently Bick. Fortunately for him this phenomenon gradually wore off. For my own part, I was accustomed to the sea and I was never affected except on those occasions when I was out at sea In the American built PYBs, patrol boats Yankee British. They were rather like their Coast guard cutter, with a bridge tower very high out of the water, and they used to roll in a frightening “pendulum” action. I could never face the breakfast they offered me in the very early hours of the morning, before I transferred to the smaller craft.
That is the last of this episode about preparation for D day in Europe.
Owen asked if the younger men were drafted in? The answer is yes. I was one of them.

Sapper

 

Thanks Brian, brilliant mate.!!!!

 

64/5 years ago/A life time away
Sapper

 

sapper this is a first rate story

 

nice story there sapper

 

Hi Sapper, I am doing some casual research into WW2 activities around Moffat (Primarily from looking into the Aux Unit base that is in Moffat of which I have known about for many years) . Came across your post and would very much like to hear about your time in Moffat.

Allan