"Being under fire"
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"I’ve been asked, now and again, what it’s like in action and under fire but really there’s no answer to that. People watch films, television, see explosions, chaps running through it, but it’s something you can’t describe. You’ve got no smells, and the shock, the pulverising effect of the high explosive is terrible. My stomach used to hit one side and rebound off it, and course the terrible fear. I don’t know what was best, being in a tank crew or being in the infantry. Infantry chaps used to say to me, they wouldn’t be me, you wouldn’t get them in a tank, but I used to look at them and say nothing would get me on your bloody job either, but I suppose it’s what you’re trained for, but for the infantry I would imagine it was bloody terrible. We were protected somewhat from small arms fire but the poor old infantry, they were exposed to everything, and when fear takes over, you just want to go to ground, dig your nose as far as you can in the dirt, and it takes a lot of bloody courage to put your head up, I know that."
"I can understand some of the problems they had in the Great War. They criticised Haig on the Somme about sending his troops over in straight lines but when you think of it, the officers have got to keep control and when the firing breaks out, high explosive, it’s every man for his bloody self half the time, and it’s very hard for an officer to keep control of his squad. It’s bloody tough, bloody tough."
"I
saw an infantry company break in Normandy under heavy artillery fire, and I just
stuck my head up through the hatch and it was coming down like rain. They were
crouching in ditches and everywhere they could to find a bit of cover, but the
officers were running round with drawn revolvers trying to force them on and it
wasn’t a very pretty sight really, but unless you’ve experienced shellfire
you can never explain to people what it’s like. I did hear afterwards that
Montgomery broke this regiment up, sent the officers home. He said there are no
bad troops, only bad officers, but that’s how it was. There was a lot of
commanding officers relieved of their jobs in Normandy.
"But
what do you expect? For a lot of troops it was their first time under fire. You
can train and train back home in England but when you first get under fire,
it’s directed at you, it’s a different proposition. I suppose I’m glad I
experienced it and got away with it, but no, it’s not a pretty sight.
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