FROM COALFIELT)

TO BATTLEFIELT)
The road to Dunkirk revisited

This book belongs

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Printed by Springboard Media Project Tel. (O91) 567 8647

The Beginnings of this Book

This book olves a great deal to my U:rcle Thomas, an old age pensioner no\ but in his yoqnger days, a bit of a ', family black sheep, an artist, a musician, and Durham Light infantryman.

At ttre age of

18 he went to.Wat Posted rrissing in action at Dunkirk he eventually turned up back home in a French'niforrn two stone lighter than when the retreat began but otherwise in one piece.

Certainly my Uncle Thomas was no paragon of military virtue. He puts me in the mind of private John Greene who over a hundred years earlier had soldiered with the Durhams and the "Iron Duke" in Spain. Living to a ripe old age John Greene also told the tale in his own little book of how as a young man in tle O^Atn foot nJa aoagea floggings and firing squads and foqht tJ:e French when he had to.

* : I I :-

I must have been about 12 or 13 years old when I first heard my Uncle I'homas recall the hardships ofa soldiers life. Rummaging in my Granny's siileboard I'd found some postcards he'd sent home from France in 1940 and a
photo taken of him at tlrc time. was keeu to know rrore about it and as Uncle Ttpmas rvas upstairs wallpapering the front bedroom he couldn,t very- easily ge] out of teuing me. What I heard then, back in fg$ about fixetl baionets, fiIth colq4nists and the hard road back to Dunkirk were the beginnings of this book.

<V
w-i

"

il--

,{g\

Gavin;tohrPurdon

From Coalfield to Battlefield. ffhe Road to f)unkirk Revisited.

ng e bricf'look at the traditions of the part time pitman ln ther Ohester-Le-Street District, this book moves on to a of'eytr witne3s accounts gathered locally in which people lF thctr own words of how they went to war in 1939.

tlre lbcus of this book is the Evacuation of Dunkirk in :tory begins in the Great Depression between the two lllere, whcn the local Light Infantry unit, broken a fe bafore in the Battle of the Somme, was reformed in nnc (lount,y f)urham.
coel rnining area, a big percentage of its rank and file tAUnE pitnrcn, who, although the Great War was not long tl Tlre too young to have any part in it. Most of them had hfre a shot fired in anger and they didnt expect to.

tpected l,urn of events that took them from Durham to h vlvidly recalled. The make believe of those first days of ehing [hrough heather and bracken on the fells above nc iown of Chester-Le-Street soon gave way to the f hel,t,hr. Shipped over seas and ordered to dig in on the lng groundg of the Great War, among the abandoned tretu:ltcg and roadside monuments studded with the names of British Army dead, Chester-Le-Street tlryrnon fbund themselves waiting for a very real enemy. The book also tells of how 50 years later, in e srrurll group from Chester-Le-Street went back to that Battlefield. Gavin John Purdon

"Chester Lads Forever!" A brief look at the local pitman soldier 1803 r 1918
For generations mining communities such as Chester-Le-Street bred their coal owning colonels, their manager captains, mine overseer sergeants and hardy pit lads in abundance to swell the rank and file of the
volunteer rifl es whenever invasion threatened.

From the top hatted tail coated musketeers of the 1800's to the khaki clad "Terriers" of the 1900's pi traditions dominated these local volunteer forces. It took the decline of the coalfreld and the closure of the to put an end to the ritual of washing.offthe coal dust and dashing down to the Drill Hall for evening parade.
Drawing manpower from the ranks of a particular trade or profession was common enough in the volunteer of the British Army and naturally in a coal mining county the pits moulded the character of the D formations. It used to be said that shouting down the nearest pit shaft could suntmon up a first rate football the same might also have been said about infantry platoons. Not that the miner was in every way one of nature's military men. For a start blind obedience was not his point. The volunteer pitman was very much a soldier in his own terms. A strong sense of comradeship tempered with self reliance, and discipline with an irreverent sense of humour. As an individual he was physically, sharp witted and no stranger to hardship or danger. As a body of men \Mith their own marching trade union banners and public parades the militant potential of the miners did not escape the attention of authorities. No doubt when the British Regular Soldier could put the fear of the ungodly into the Duke of Wellington, miners parading around the pit villages must have given local squires of lesser metal than the Iron Duke sleepless nights. Giving muskets to miners however tended to coincide with periods of industrial plenty and fo threat when fears of invasion overode misgivings about domestic friction.

How seriously the volunteers took themselves isn't known. In the eyes of local folk they were often viewed comical, dangerous more by accident than design when their well offthe mark'musketry felled the occasion cow or frightened innocent passers by. Not without good reason were Chester-Le-Street volunteers m practice butts designed to face away from the town and onto the far bankside of the River Wear!
2

[,AI)S FOR EVER

County, fam'd of old,

A curious relic of the Napoleonic Era, the drinking song of the Chester-Le-Street Volunteer Rifle Corps, collected by John Bell in I8l2 and printed in his little book "Rh5rmes of Northern Bards."

it ever told, ledn etood forth so bold, 0heator lads for ever.
bo

n heard of their intent, ln hagte they sent,

scene of volunteers practicing the goblets still exists today.

A set of glass goblets were engraved with the toast "Chester Lads For Ever" and etched around with a
their musket drill. One of

Cheater thus is bent, fuln'd, sirs, for ever.

I eaid Bonaparte, each Frenchman's heart

Glory" and "Chester Volunteers."

;

Other volunteers anthems collected by John Bell in the Chester-Le-Street District were "Lumley Leads to

*lth all our art,

Ohrtter lads for
ever.

Monsieur Otto, you little know, to overthrow ;

wlll fight for

have slain,

ever.

pitman clad in his volunteer finery leaving behind at home a weeping wife and his ragged pit clothes for 3 weeks military service in nearby Newcastle.
;

One volunteer's song tended to outdo the other in long winded boasting, but head and shoulders above the rest is the gem "Bob Cranky's Adieu." Written in the coal mining vernacular it describes the comical scene of a

done is all in vain

the Chester man, wlth them - no never.

'll'd

council straight,

bfrncd the debate ;

trlcd, with all his weight,

"Cheer up, ma hinny! leet thy pipe, And take a blast o'backy! It's but for yen and twenty days, The foulk's een aw'll dazzle, Prood swagg' ring I' my fine reed claes: Odd's heft! my pit claes - dist thou hear? Are waurse o' wear; Mind cloot them well, when aw's away:"

Brltirh hear content

3

rIIr-..

To be

fair some volunteers were prize shots and could see off the best of competition, Regular Army or otherwig6, Not that military prowess was ever really put to the test. In the mock battles at Lumley Castle there were plenty of rifle vollies, bogle calls and glinting bayonets. The noise of "battle" was deafening and gunsmoke hung thicker than the powder reek on a coal face. But on those sunny afternoons of military make believe Chester-Le-Street't
,'fallen" ui*uy, "rose from the dead" and walked home afterwards. calling far outweighed the hazards of his military pastimes.

If anything the dangers of the miner's

own

With campaigns confined to capturing pit heaps and skirmishing about colliery yards the coal field left its mark on the local volunteers in more ways tha; ott". Th" grlme of the collieries was said to be the reason for changing the volunteer uniform from steel grly to rifle green. In Chester-Le-street the dark green tunics blackened badges and accoutrements earned the volunteers a new nickname, "the Chester' Black Watch," a name carried on into the twentieth century by a local amateur football team. over the years other military fashions changed too. Fraace the enemy became France the friend. Russia the friend None of became Ruseia the enemy, then ally againsithe Prussians y{ho were our lliends but later sworn enerries. this really matterea when Ure only "rlal" enemy was a lad from the next pit village shouting "bang yorrre dead"
through the nearby hedgerow.

part time soldiering was by and large pure escapism. A miner's working life was hard and any respite fron

it

welcome. strong dd;k antl strong rehgion were always popular options as was a dash of weekend soldiering, then back down tlre pit on a Monday morning with not very much harm done'

Even the Boer War hacl very little impact on the make believe. The local volunteers took to wearing the broad brirnmetl cowboy hats popullar in South A.frica but few ever saw an angry Afrikaaner'

Ellwood of Today there are no eyewitnesses to the antics of the Vctorian volunteers. In 19?4 the late Jobnson Chester-I-e-street recallecl the rough and ready manoeuwes ofthe pit'rnatic riflemen' "Franky Fuge was sergeant at one time, and he had a little pit pony a8 a pet, antl when tlris field_gun had to be taken out foi exercise, the' would have this little pony pul1in' it. The' were gannin'up to Tbizell Farrn one day,
4

F=t*Looking more like a South Carolina Colonel at ClttytU""tg than the North Durham industrialist he rldly was, and still set on a pedestal where ln" gut"t of his iron works were at Birtley Green is the likeness of Edward Moseley Perkins' was Colonel Perkins, Coal Owner and lron Master u *u5o, figure in the local volunteer movement andonetimecommanderoftheChester-le-Street Jet.chment. He saw his coal miners and iron workers as a personal private army and it was'woe betide the putteis, fillers, moulders' or puddlers, who didn't'volunteer''

-?.

*'tt.

j;lltjl:ra

": :i1'l

somebody clashed the gate and the little powney shot off draggin' this bloody gun behind it, and when the' up with it the bloody gun was lytng upside doon in the dyke. Colonel T\unbull was standin' there, and he tee tark swankee, and one of the pitmen says in a loud voice, "What the bloody hell's he tarking about?" zell Company used to fight Stanley in the fields around TWizell Farm. and many a time the' would hev tee "Hoo are yee, Stanley or West Pelton?" afore the' fired at each other. We were only kids at the time and we follow them roond when th' were firin' the blanks, and get the cartridges for the ragman. We used to dig the bullets oot of the butts on the rifle range, between Smith's Farm and Ginglin' Gate, and many a time, that's we got the money for a loaf o'bread.

the was in William Street, West Pelton, he used to wear these lovely blue troosers, a red coat, and like a 's hat.. By the'was some bloody smart lads, Joe Martin, to the day he died was Sergeant Martin, he used hev a waxed 'tache, and Harry Sharpe, he'd once been a regular soldier, and had spent a lot o' time oot in India. three of those lads went oot tee the Boer War, and four didnt come back, the' were killed with the dysentry."
gon of the local mineowner died with text book bravery leading his men against the Boers at the Battle of . A handful pit lads died wrechedly in the grrp of fever, others such as William Cuthbertson a well known r-Le-Street character in his day did their duty solidly and lived to tell the tale. Oddly enough the highest for bravery to go to a local volunteer at the time went to a man who never left the county, Captain William mining engineer and colliery agent. His decoration was won not in action against the Boers in far off ih Africa but in the blackness of Sacriston colliery's Busty seam fighting the miner's real enemies flood water foul air.

I had some bloody smart men, for all they were pitmen. Me granda' was a sergeant in the militia,

barely disturbed peace soon returned and one pleasant Edwardian summer gave way to another. Soldiering the "Chester Terriers" was a matter of a pleasant day or two in the sunshine and fresh air of the Cleveland or Cheviots, then back to your own fireside, to clean pit clothes and well greased work boots.

Gavin John Purdon.

Summer Camp, Rothbury Northumberland, in August 1g10. soldier on the far left without a cap badge is Mick Maher, a coal miner at Pelton Fell Colliery. Five years later Mick Maher was frghting on the western

''THE FOST\ryARR!'
The D.L.I. battle honour "Dunkirk 1940" was won half a century ago, an event fast becoming the dim and distant past. It seems 'no tirne since the 1960's and the 50th Anniversaryoflhe Great War. In Chester-Le-street then there was no shortage of men and women with clear memories of the "War to end all Wars." Today that is far from the case, arid even Dunkirk veterans are getting thin on the glound. Back in the 1g70's when memories were clearer and easier to come by Bob Barker and Lena Little, residents of Chester-Le-Street district told of the Great War as it was seen from the door of the Durham pit cottage.

ECHOES OF REMEMBRANCE
passed. The chance to piece together'a detailed local eye witness account ofthe Great war has long since

in Chester-Le-Street, back in the early 1960's. Stories were there folthe telling- I slightlv built i"-"-l"t talking to my Grandl's friend, Jimmy Noddles. Barely five feet tall andinfantryman inJimmy was a -stature the trenches for military sereice. As an "Bantam" a volunteer well below the regulation Mr Surtees who *fr"r" Ar" mud was up to other men's kiees, it was up to Jimmy's backside! Then there was old t"iJ -" n" f*t ho e bave to Chester-le-Street from the trenches of the Westem Flont. HaYing tramped over "i' irlr -"tft"tt a"r" floors in boot'e sti thick vrith French mud old Mr Surtees or young Mr Surtes as he was then, p-"""J.a to driDk a bottle of beer etraight off without pouring it into a glass first' It was all too much for his It was alldght to kill Gerrnans with your bare hands otlr"r.,uho gu.pucl "They' ve turnerl our-tarl into a ".l'uge!" and smash oirei people's homes into rubble but back in Chester' you had to mind your manners.

It

was different when I was a boy

baving to also recollect two old ladies who used to play bingo on a saturday night with my Grannie. onerecalled run round to the the door of their home in North Burns, and bundle up he" fatheis trnch uniform, trt "n Street. She never forgot tJre snap, crackle and pop ofbursting lice, ilU" tulo"" shop at tJre bottom of Cooperative as the tailor ran his hot iron across the dirty khaki.

of.t

a The other olcl lady who lived in the Qlose East told me how hlr farnily had oily eve.v/on-two medals, one a niner and V.C. Her brother Mick was other a -rtrru-.ti", price rrom Becle college, Durham and the die in no D.L.I. land. "It was just like my brother Mick to mans ao"it g trr" ct"ut w"t hail saveal a wo-u;derl eoldier left to remembet when he was a boy if he found a wild bird rto thalt. He was kincl hearted, but he was a daredevil too. Ah him too. He or a rabbit tlrat was hurt be'd have it in a box at home looking after it, but the' was tlrat wild streakin both of hie ankles' lle :,r-puo "r thu mdge at craghead down onto the colliery wagonway for a dare and broke was just a schoolboy then. He had to be carrieil home."
Tbday,

in 1990, medorids tike ttrat are all but gone, only the cold stone words of memorials ar left behind.
Gavin John Purdon.
10

ll

'NTOOT SWEET'
' was a lot of lads went.from Tkizell Pit to the Fost Warr. Jack Armin was killed, "Pushy" Robison was killed, ry Battensby was killed, Bobby Little was killed, and Joe Fuller's father, he was as good as killed. That med 5 of a little place like TWizell. You bugger, ahl niwer forget Billy Armin comin' home from the trenches. He was : He stood in the yard, We arl had poss tubs then. "Mother" he shouts, "Fill this tub wi' hot watter." Billy teks rbloody clothes offin the yard, every stitch. His Mother.says, "Lad, thoo hes nowt on." He says, "It's the first time in months." He was a pitiful sight, frost bitten, frozen feet, standin' up to knees in watter, months on ah divint kna ho.w the hell he survived. He got into the poss tub, filled wee hot watter, had a bath and went the hoose. He says, "Noo Mother put arl them bloody clays into the poss tub, and give them a good possin' "yer he was lousey. Bob Wears was a sergeant in the Durhams during the Fost Warr. He won the French V.C. the de Guerre. He says to me one time, "Ah once remember, we got a German prisoner, a bloody greet big tee base. Why lad it was miles. Ah says tee mesell,"Bugger him and , and ah got the job tee tek it in his pocket, "Toot sweet" ah shouts in French, " Ah just lowsed a Mills ah was gannin the other way. The bugger went off, the bugger starts to run, onto the heap one day, at Tbrizell, when we ah went back meesell." s his collar up. One of the lads says, "Oh hell ready to gan doon the Bob so he looks at them and says, "Get ther's two bloody greet to hell back tee Grange i Aye that was segeant Bob Wears.

Bob Barker.

11

,t

I
I

'NTHE SLUSH
lO eall me

PUTTER''

Brother the slush putter, 'cause he was that good a putter. He used to be a good worker, a very pit. Anyho he always made good mone ,the s,tg,-q,,&,:,:pf the Fost War, the' was a recruitin' party ptt. It was nine o' clock in .'whef [,'pLr,g,,,pt from the forst shift, and me you signed on for." He was up. Me Father went mad came in, them. tth Durhams, and was in urith another chap and she
be away. It was enough to been wounded, it was just. of us that ah had to go the frames together, long his wounds. They sent for in' when they sent his bits rybody was sad about it. We had a cousin, and durin' r took him in, but she heard in, dressed as a woman, this

ueed to go with this nothing more to do wi any young man in the wound. On the Monda' Mother was sittin' makiri Oneg, and she was by hers the fields to come home home, and the medals he a memorial in the church War he was arlways would get wrong, and she

lfie Mother nearly died when s was dreadin' the police comid lway that long she says, "You can lbr him.

next morning. She felt that

Rarnshaw (Lena Little)

13

A wooden cross hangs on the North wall of St. Cuthberts and St. Mary's church in Chester-Le-Street brought back from the Somme in the 1920's where it was set on the crest of the Butte De Warlencourt after the battle.
?.,

!:i,i.:, t-tt:

That small hillock near Bapaume was the scene of horrific fighting even by Great War standards. On Guy Fawkes night 1916 Prussian Guardq and Durham Territorials fought savagely for possession of the chalk mound. In torrential rain a murderous brawl took place. Bare fists, shovels and rifle butts flew. Wounded men drowned in the mud where they fell and the living gave and asked no
quarter. Chester-Le-street's Rifle Company was there in the thick of it, although, after a year's service on the Western Fron! the unit bearing the town's company letter and battalion numeral had already suffered such heavy casualties that very few of the original Chester' Terriers were still in it.

,ifrt*rc
wYe Wztiu,&
tt:: . r
!::

St Cuthbert's and St. Mary's church had old ties with the town's military units. With the thickest walls and stoutest doors in Chester-Le-Street it was for some time the Volunteer Armoury. Within living memory some of the muskets were still in the church. The late Mr. Jack Seedhouse recalled them being borrowed as stage props by the local Amateur Dramatic Society.
Z:,.ftIW$. I#.!!;i

t4

'TWO SHILLIN'ADAY'
Ah joined the Tbrritorials when ah was 18, in L929. Workin' the pits it was the only way you could get a holiday. The bou was thirty shillin'then, you had to fire your course at Whitbu and if you didn't qualify the' was ten shillin' knocked off th bounty. Out o' the thirty shillin' bounty, the' was frve a kept off for your army boots. The pay was two shillin' a you had to be twenty six afore you got marriage al 'Coqrse we weren't married when we joined, but we wej in bein' married. When you went to camp it was only' shillin' for the fortnight. We were living'in with the wi so we didn't tek it see bad, but it was hard on some.
You got two uniforms, the dress one was decent, the' were new anyhow, but the work one, the' were bloody old ones that had been in the trenches. When ah fost joined ah come yem to*me

mother and says, "a'v getting a champion fit", bul sellnnt Simpkin had pulled the old gag on us, grabbin' ilJ|flnflU material at the back so it looked a smart fit at the fron pulled the tunic tight, an' says, "yes it's an exact fit", ah tried the bugger on at yem it was like a top coat.
pretty rough then, nee tailors Tommy Dodds joined wi' me. He belonged West Pelton way. When we went to sign on, Simpkin was the P.S.I. Then, he "what's your name?" and Tommy says, "Thomas Lynn Mu Dodds" and the P.S.L says, "forget the Sarah Ellen bit we'll just
Thomas Dodds down.

i
I

Jimmy McGarey M.M. Sergeant B Company 8th D.L.I.

16

:lf ;;r'"t'

11 years before Dunkirk. B Company 8th D.L.I. at annual camp' Ripon, Yorkshire, tghg. Picked out on the photo is 18 year old Jimmy McGarey, newly joined and ttroroughly enjoying a pitman's holiday.

l7

'WHEN WE FIRST JOTNED'

of fellah, he wasn,t really cut out wuii, ;;;h;: / rrr DU Jvrrtgu an oo il ^CL^-^ ^L-,,r got -:*l anyhow ah.says tee rommy, tci' me the tin plates, ah,ll ger the T:*-t:5i.:1"_:l the teas." Whey ah'got the dinners, come back, ah was in ? ,bit,l:tr.:, dinner, an'yee get ]3^t? lltl,sj,, the tent, waitin,, an' waitin'. Ah says, an' Lrr t arla DcJD, h:11: when ah went lookin' for 'im, there he was pushed reer to the back 'o the queue. Tommy would niwer'ave suryived i' the army.
.

f^: * ltt:^T^11'^1:-*t

n1{as,pt[jo.r1ea the'.gether. Tommy was a quiet kind

;;:# .,-rlt, *il;il ;ffi H?ilffi#i

-Ty-:-l::",'l:

ft*{?"

The' was a canny few of us pitmen, a lot of lads were from the Anrte Pit, Jimmy Atderson was sergeant, he was overman up at the Shop Pit, an'the-was Lieutenant Nelson, of coursd tris ratner s r"- y *"r C*iowners, the, owned Pelaw Main- Collieries. A good few had been in the Fost war, the C.S.M., s""g.r"i u.1"" i.r" , the Colour serggant, Ttrmmy Jackson, P.s.I. simpkin, Ralph fimothy, sergeant, he was an M.M. i,the Fost war, a rot o,the men had been i'the trenches, the' were owld soldiers, an,knew a-rl i;he tricks.

Birtley and Chester-Le-Street were'8" Company combined, but three quarters of the men were from Birtley. After a few vears, the' made a new full Company at cheste.le-Street, an' ihose that lived nearer had to go there, includin' myself. ][e ueed tee gan do-wm tee Marske an' Redcar, places like that. we,d grn io" -.""t trr."u o" four mile, up to the trainin'areas, where the manoeuwes *ua'l*ld. Whey we "", ro-or."a u".y siart, an'trre, -the used to be this joke we had that a midden man wouldn't kna till he heard "iru"" moans on trr" lu.t"oiii" cart, that the last load ofrubbish he'd
hoyed on was a territorial soldier

yer got used

ard ulliforms was sandy jackets, green troosers, an' puttees, oh dear me, yer were left wi' bloody git loops cloth hangin'if ver didn't get them reet. You had tee whitewash yer belts ." il; ir;l y"r""i?trr"
The.tMi'

it.

"',"1,

"y*

tu

o,

we were sleepin' twelve to a tent, an_if y.ou got- by the doorway iwerybody was standin' on yer when trre,,come in, an' if it was clarty, orr dear me how. The' were big bell tents wL wereiivini i", *rr"v ii *.. orr" -r,' to one panel when we were under canvas,tut it was. arlways mare. yo,,r ni rraa io ue "ippofito utti"'*." u u-rr' certain way to fold yer blankets an'-that. If you were awayon manoeuvres the'was a line o"deriy left, an,ifit ha4

ilffiG

comeontorain,whenyou{'entback,allyerkitwasjusthoyedintot}retent,itwasarlowwer.
18

blt better like, we got boxes for to put wor kit in "B" Company boxes was painted green,

some

red, green, or yellow. The food used to be terrible anarl, the' cooks were that black you didn't kna wefe cooks or sweeps. We ate offbare boards, sixteen to a table. The owld soldiers were on dishin'the 'lf yer didn't keep yer nose clean you used tee get the fat an' arl sorts, it was bloody terrible. Later on ft&t to a table, an' the was pales for yer slops an that, we even got tablecloths at the finish.

were away the fortnight, there was arlways one night manoevre, complete silence mind, ye'd be deen the lines, when somebody would fart, an' then everybody would start laughin', lad it was comical.

Jimmy McGarey M.M.

Sergeant B Company 8th D.L.I.

19

;,,i

ril

B Company, (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.I., marches to a peace time summer camp in the 1930's. In the front centre is Jimmy McGarey, on the right Tommy Taylor and just visible over his shoulder is Tbmmy Coulson.

20

The Red Flag

Ah wus in the Terriers before the War. Me father had been in the old Volun[eers. Ah remember him telling me once at camp him and the other lads in his tent were stood to during the night. The' were expectin'it. So theo arranged to turn out in just boots, longjohns, ammunition pouch, belt and bayonet, spiked helmet an' rifle. Well they were at action etations in half quarter the time it took the other lads,
buttoning tunics an'that. The C.O. complimented them oN,iNobody could stand up.for laughin'when the' got fell out.,,,li'''$

Not that the Army has much of a sense of humour. Ah gummer we were under canvas at Richmond. For a la somebody started to sing the Red Flag. It was just a joke. from tent to tent from Battalion to Battalion, 6th, All 151 Brigade were singing it at the finish. ' Flyin' Here." Whey man officers were runnin' a out. The'thought it was a mutiny. It was comi time offwe'd go into Richmond and swagger to be Regulars. We would take the Terri an'leave the Durham bit like the Regula I'd packed in the Terriers by the time war broke out. As it happened ah didn't see any service with them, ah went onto war work making scout cars. Our Willy went though, me brother, he was killed in the 8th Durhams. Jack Cavanagh

Private,
B Company (Birtley and Chester.le.Street) 8th D.L.r.
t"""-'"'

$
;i

,r-

;"J

24,'

.r-

"Sor! Can yer lend uss a Shillin'?"

The' were hard times, the Depression you know. Soup kitchens, Parish Relief an' all that. The, was a police baton charge against the miners picket at Harris Bank just down from our Drill Hall. Hard times to say the least.
The boots ah got from the Territorials were like gold. Ah was out of a job an' you had to walk miles lookin, for work even though the' wasn't any. It was as well ah had me army boots. None of us had a penny between us. our Platoon Commander was always good for a-few bob. He never ever asked for it back either' Many a time ah've seen lads out of the platoon go up to him an' say "Sor! can yer lend uss a shillin?" and they got it from the Lieutenant. He was a decent fella. That was from his own pocket. Not very military ah suppose but that's how it was.

(Birtley and Chester-le-Street)

"""-::":""ri*i:{

''A

Miner by tlade"

Ah joined the Terriers in 1935, ah cannot exactly tell yer what month. Ah was a miner by trade, workin, at South Pelaw' Ah'd tried me hand at arl sorts in the pit, startin' wi pony drivin', then ah come puttin', then ah was on cuttin'wi' the pom pom cutters. Ah did a bit hewin' and fillin' off that an, went on stone but when the War broke out ah was on band wallopin', gettin' the seggar band out, gettin' it tubbed an' sent out for.mekkin, bricks. Ah was mekkin' good money at the time, three pounds odds, mare than me father was makin'! but nowt, to what ah was makin' for the coal owners, an' yer nearly had tee kill yersell to get it. Ah remember sayin' tee Mr Errington, the Overman' "Ah wish ah had the price in me pocket that them twenty tubs ahve' just filled 'ill fetch Jack.,, But anyhow the War put an end tee that.
22

lirother came up to the pit, he had this card sayin' ah had tee report tee the Drill Hall. Whey ah was as black ,rri l,l111l fireback, strite oot the pit yer kna Ah went doon tee the Drill Hall, an' Sergeant Major O'Brian was there. ll. sitys "What the hell are ye doin' here? We want nee black men in here. Get away bloody home, get weshed, an' g.l .vor bloody khaki on afore yer come back". So ah went home an' got weshed like he telt uss tee, we lived in I'lrrrrl Avenue then, pitmen had to go home black, 'cause the was nee pit head baths in those days. Ah sayed tee me 1\lul,hcr an' Father "Ahve' got tee gan back tee the Drill Hall, yer kna what for.
[iu when ah went back the Sergeant Major says, "Right lay your gear here, you're in the Advanced Party". Ah "Bloody Hell, how am ah ganna be on now?". He says, "You work at the colliery?" Ah says, "Yis". He says, 'ritytt, lpnvn that to us, we'll see yer arlreet".
ttnyway George Willy Legget was the Company Storeman doon the Drill Hall, an' ah was on wi' him when the iltarrt Party come in, dishin' the rifles an bayonets oot tee each one, blankets an' everything else, palliasses an' the ilte, 'cause we were arl sleepin'in the Drilt Hall at the time.
Fio

\l'

Joss

Lit'e

Corporal B Company (Chester-le-Street ) 8th D.L.r.

'Ah'd Never Seen A Fivet''

Fp all took the King's shilling, an' signed on to become Regulars. The' had a trestle table set up down at the Drill Hrll, I.,ieutenant Waggett was doing the paper work, he had a bit of a squeaky voice. He handed me a five pound Hote when ah signed an' said "Take that straight home to your mother." Ah was just a kid really, the youngest in ltte llnttalion. It was touch and go whether the 8th took uss. Well ah'd never seen a fiver. It was a month's wages fur e pit lad. Needless to say we were all straight into the Bridge for a drink. Ah still had change in me pocket out s lhsl fiver when we were in Oxfordshire 3 months later.

Thomas Maher Private B Company (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

x

23

.*-*

'NTHE BEST

BLOODYWAR TIIAT'S T\AIER BEEN

OI\1".

Ah remember it was Frida' the fost of September, 1939. Ah'd been at the Shop Pit, Allerdene Colliery, Low Fell, for about four year. Ah was on 611in', hoyin' coals aboot, an' gettin' close on two p'und a week for it, a lot o' money then, like, two p'und.
Anyhow, ah was in the backshift, an' ah come back tee ban.k at quarter past five, put me lamp intee the larnp cabin, an'the attendant says, "You've got to report to the Drill Hall as soon as possible". So ah come hyem, then lashed down there, thinkin' ah was ganna be late for the war It lasted owwer six year for me,
You went down, aa' got five p'r:nd straight away, what was called Embodiment Money. We'd finished work on the Fdda', gettin' wor pit pay;, then at the end of next week we had anottrer pay lyin' at the Colliery, then the' was a week's pay doon at the Drill Hall an'the five p'und Embodiment Money on top o' that. Ah says, "It's the best bloody war that's ir.ver been on, tlis, lad".

We were sleepin' on the Drill Hall floor. Me an' Ikey's lyin the gither on the Frida' night, an' Big Jossie comes up an' says, "How sergeant'. Ikey says, "What's the want?" Jossie says, "Greenwell, he's pissed on uss". Ikey says, "Whey gan an' piss on him back'. Anyhow, the' was a complaint put in, an' Greenwell got tbree days Confined to Barracks off Captain Walton, who was the Company Commander. Anyway everybody was goin' home for the weekend except Greenwell,

Captain Walton set away in his car, he lived over Durham way, an' he got see far an' corne back to tl.e Drill Hall, an' told Greenwell to bugger off home, 'cause he wae stuck there by himself.

24

B. Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.I. outside their Drill Hall in the town during September 1939. Unlike the 1lth, their sister Battalion, the 8th D.L.I went to war with a fighting chance trained and equipped as modern motorised infantrymen. To begin with heavy weapons were in short supply, real ones arrived before the Company went overseas. Until then, men carr5ring coloured flags were
the "Bren Guns" and "Mortars."

A creased fragile gremento of September 1939. The roll call of 10 Platoon, one of the three Platoons that made up "B" Company of the 8th D.L.I., placed on standby at Chester-Le-Street Drill Hall, the week-end war was declared.
Among the 35 names listed are 4 men who contributed their recollections to this book, Jimmy McGarey, Joss Little, Bob Fort, and
Thomas Maher.

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When we got the new battledress an' that, down in

Oxfordshire, the'were much easier, gaiters instead of puttees, an' nee buttons tee clean, the webbing was better too, one big pouch on each side. The band was stationed with us at Chester-Le-Street. Three parts of them were owld fellahs. Whey the' didn't gan away with wor like; the' were owwer owld. Good beer drinkers though, best beer drinkers in the Eighth, the' used tee practise i' the Fightin' Cocks. One Sunda mornin' we had Church Parade, an' we used to come doon the back way from the Church, when Captain Walton stopped the band from playin' the mooth organ. He sayed the band was puttin' wor arl oot o' step. So we had Big Jossie playin' the mooth organ instead.
We had 1e m?rch to Whitburn,the whole Battalion like, an' we had a week firiri'on the range. We were here about five weeks

For the fost week or the fost fortnight we'd just march up to Waldridge Fell, and do Section Formations. We still had the old Fost War gear, the big wide webb belts an' pouches, five pouches on each side, small ones yer kna, for rifle bullets.

in all, then ah think about the beginning of October was

when we went away doon tee Oxfordshire.

Jimmy McGarey M.M.

Sergeant B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

27

Brothers in arms. The Coulsons in Chester-le-Street, Autumn 1939. Joe on the left was in the Chester-leStreet Company of ihe l1th D.L.I., his brother Tommy was in the Qhester-le-Street Company of the 8th D.L.I.

'T,ETS JOIN THE AIITIY"

' was a recruitin' campaign in Chester-Le-street at the time, an' the' was Jimmy Hubbick, Billy Cook, meself, Stevenson, an' another lad, we all worked at the store, an' we were out drinkin' that night, in the Bridge Pub, a bloke called Grundy had it then, an' we came out full of beer course. Somebody says, "let's join the . So we all trooped into the Drill Hall, once you got in, the' closed the doors, an' you were there, you couldn't your mind. Queerest thing about it was the medical, you'got it there and then, signed on, an' got your king's n'. The' sayed, "are you fit?" when ah sayed ah was, the' sayed, "O.K., sign here". As it.happened ah'd bad ght arl me life, bu[ there ah was in the

-ffi*,il*r*'r*),
T:*:ji:::::,::::
for twelve.

Durhatpfuffiantuv.

,ffiM

,-W,W

a\mffiM y knew the' was a war coming and eeW;(ti#M,,ffi,#Wfirrldl+nwMad*to

'o.AssoonasWarwasdeclarcd,the,'a*t.ffi,wWwMi,"6gffiWKi:*;',ffit'i,,ry:n"!:t?W:Tll1l1.^:.ii . We were in there about an hour afu#NWflhl|f,tMW'were eag(tf'Wi8'eet across to W,{'bub, 'cause it was getting
whole of us, Jimmy McGarey, Ikey now. We were sorted out into platoons to buy the rations in the town, Jack Crowe was We'd go for route marches up to Waldridge Fell
were on parade, or the'was an officer about.

tw"WM.i"W;i*t g,iii*:; WiW,flhe army anyhow. Well they

W!,fr,

lDermott, Big Jossie, a lot of 6en ttKbt are st. much. ' that, but ah don't think ffiM#Mb did very mu Messing Sergeant, an' WWould just gan wi ! back, an' of course we were arl foi called Jack Crowe anything but*

":M::,;
8th &

Bob Fort

llth D.L.L

Private,

29

'T\TICKING PEARS WHILE \ryAR BROKE OUT"

Ah joined the beginning of !939, ah. think the February. All me mats wre joinin you Imow, an' ah suppoee that's what give uss tlre idea. As was just jobbin' around, Pelton Fell, Waldrifue, 'Cotia, all them pits. 'Course that was the tbing, to be in the Territorials, so me, Joe Dodds, an' Bobby Gordon joined- Joseie an' them had been in a good while, but we all joined together. the idea wa8 to get your bourfy money, an' go to camp, things lile that, see.

Beforc war bmke out we were all mobilized an' sleepin' at the Drill Hall. War was expected. Ah can remember the Sunda mornin' it bmke out, ah wae up a tre in Chalmer s Orchard, nicling pears wbile war bmke out Then we got moved about a bit, one of first places was Dunston, to do guards on the station. The'were on formin' the Eleventh Battalion then. Drill Hall when the !vay, ah was too young to go with them, but ah got transferred in the Eighth Battalion rd.
\!.

Thomas Mahen Private 8th and llth

D.LI.

30

''CHRISTMAS DINNER''
The' was Sixth Eighth, an' Ninth D.L.I. in One Five One Brigade. When the war started the' made a reserve line to us, the Tenth, Eleventh, an' Twelfth D.L.I. So when the Eighth moved out of Chester' Drill Hall to go tee Oxfordshire, the Eleventh moved in an' took owwer. We went to Chadlington, H.Q. was Charlbury. It was arlreet, just a little village, they'd never been invaded afore, till we got there.
We used tee gan to different people's houses to get baths yer kna. We were livin' in a barn, an' the officers was in the farmhouse..We started Company training, then we got Battalion training, manoeuvres an' that, out in the fields. We got issued wi' the new style battle dress when we were there.

The was a pub there, the Sandwich Arms, the landlord had a garage, an' we use to billet there, when we came oot the barn. The landlord an'landlady made us arl Christmas Dinner. We had a smashin' do. Ah remember Tbmmy Coulson, belanged Pelaw, he was a Corporal then, complainin' about the beer been flat, an' we were gettin' it arl for nowt, the tables were laid after closin' time, soup, roast potatoes, brussels, turkey, an' a sweet, but the' still had to complain about the beer.

Jimmy McGarey M.M.

Sergeant, B Company, ChesterrLe-Street, 8th D.L.r.

)'hr.wd

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{

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31

''A,LITTLE VILI,A.GE IN O)GORD''

We were sent to a little village in Oxford, after been at Chester' maybe two months. We went to Chadlington, that was the actual village "B" Company was in. Down there, the only thing that comes to memory ah did a Divisional Guard, 'course we were gettin' real soldiers then, very little good wi' weapons' but regards drinkin' an' lookin' the

part. Ah don't remember a-lot about that period, except gettin' drunk in the pub, an' playin' football two or three times a
week, ah suppose we were gettin'fit.

Ah was home for the New year's Eve, an' it was about that time the' decided ah was too young to be there. As it turned out ah was twelve days too young to go to France \Mi' with Eighth Durhams, so ah was sent back to join the Eleventh Battalion then. Eventually ah' ended up at Sunderland, Chester Road Schools, wi' "C" Company from Stanley Drill Hall. We moved to Hall Lane Schools at Houghton, an'we went tee France from there. Bob Fort Private 8th and llth D.L.I.

''COAL FOR THE COOKHOUSE''

We were posted away down the South, Southern Command came up under Northern Command, the Northern Command went down under Southern Command. We were at Charlbury, Chipping Norton, places like that. We got sent away different places, fired a course, went on gas tests an' that yer kna. Ah remember once the' wanted some coal for the cookhouse, so three or four fatigue men were detailed offwi' me. When we come back from gettin' the

32

33

"whey you' ve missed it" coal, here's arl the lads lookin' spick an' span. Ah says, "what the hell's been on?" the' says, Ah says, "Missed What?". He says, "Whey the King's been inspectin' wor, he says we've got a good regiment". Ah icot u good regiment? it's as weel he didn't see us scruffs then," we were as black as the roads wi'gettin'coal. says,

Joss Little' Lance Corporal B ComPanY (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

''OFF TO FRANCE''
The' formed another Battalion, tl1e Eleventh, an' ah was left at Chester DriU Hall when the Eighth Battalior went away, actually ah was too young. But eventually when the' started sortin' people out for thie Battalion an' for that Sutt"Uo", sone stayecl wf the Eteventtr, but ah was one of a group ttrat got transferred ilown to the Eighth in -Oxford, at Chatllington.

llWe were doia, manoeuvres, you know, endurance, route mardres, an'arl that, an'we actually went offto France 3?om there. We got t}e train fuom Charlbury, went to Southampton, ont'the boat, an' from there to Cherbourg".
Thomas Mahen Private, B Company (Chester-I-e-Street) 8th D.L.I

34

. Chadlington, the tiny Cotswold Village where Chester-Le-Street men of B. Company, D.L.I. were billeted for three months before going to France. The Chester' I the kindness of the Oxfordshire Country folk. A hot bath in someone's house tea and home made scones at a friendly fireside were a welcome antidote to ni

sleeping on straw in barns cold December days out on manoeuvres.

35

''AROUGHf)O''
We did away from Chacllington, marched to the station, the transport had already been shipped away, so we had tee manhandle arl the stuff, the Brens an' the boxes. Whey it was arl snaw an' ice, it was a mugh do just to get to the station.
'We

were stritc off the train at Southampton an' onto the boat. It went an' lay outside o' Portsmouth till it was neetime, an' thg convoy cor:ld set sai-l for Cherbourg. We got there aboot seven i' the mornin'. Whey Cherbourg's a git lang station an' the cooks had a meal on. we weren't movin' out till aboot mialnight, so we were allowed to go into Cherbourg. We had to be back for aboot ten. So that was the first taste the lads had of the brothels. When the train left Cherbourg that night, just joggin' alang, it was an owld one out of the I'ost War, wooden seatB an' that, ah went alang the corridoq here's two o'the lads lyin'full length on the seats. One says, "By, that was lovely lad. you've seen nowt like it, ah wish we're at the next place".
When we got to St. Remy du Plain it was only a small village, whey the' was nee brothels there, the nearest one was Mameuse. Whey if you'd seen the snaw, it was a hard winter, but the' still managed to get there. You tall about dogs servin'bitchee in arl weathers, an't}re' had te walk yemm after.anarl.

A tSt. Remy rlu Plain we got the lice stJdte away. We ever had been in our billets afore us must have left it, 'cause the place was thick wi'dorty straw. The' were owld buildin's, owld places, the lads was firll o'lice. The Sergeaat M{or had two pairs o' shears, one was to shave the' heeds, an' the other was tee shave the'balls. Ah mind one lad sayin', "ah hope yer not gettin tlrcm shears mixed up Geordie". Life was pretty grim there, a hard winter, snaw, cold, still it was a change an' ah suppose we eDjoyed it in a way, gannin' intee the cafes an' that, not that we had much rnoney like. It was a coal minin' area we were in, not far from Lens, an' the was plenty of pits 'roond there. From Vimy Rifue you could see any amount ofpit heaps.

36

Eergeants was allowed to billet out, it cost you a few francs. Me an' Ikey Mcdernott bunked in wi' this little owld Fredchman called Maurice, he was a glazier. He had a limp from been wounded i' the Fost War. He used to give the lade rum for nowt, so the' would smash a'indows in the village on a pay Fricla' neet, an he'd gan limpin' alarg on the saturda morrfn', an'put them back in. By he hated the Germans, an' we were tcllin' him how we weDe ganna wipe the floor wi' them this time, tlle' woulaln't get the chance to set foot in France, an' yer bugger we were back 5cmm within a month.

Jimmy McGarey M.M.

Sergeant, B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.L

{.%ffii':

37

V"

e London Midtand and Southern Railway steam packet "Duke of Argyll" took Chester-Le-street's 8th D.L.I
to France in 1940.

It was a stormy winter crossing from Southampton to Cherbourg, but nothing compared to the storm that would
over the 8th Battalion men who crammed her decks.

modernised battledress, with their brand new Bedford trucks and Bren Gun Carriers, none would have beli t within a few short months the battered remnants of their Battalion would be limping back to England, most of i ipment destroyed or left behind.
.

Photo of the'Duke"by permission of National ltlaritime Museum.

38

'YOU WOULDN'T THINK THE' WAS A WAR, OIY'

When we got to Cherbourg, we had a bit of a look 'round, then we were piled onto these bloomin' old cattle trucks, typical French, an' away we went. First place we got to was st. Remy du Plain. We were based there a week or so, an' used to get trips out to places like Alencon an' Mameuse, these kind o' places. It was more or less just doin' guards, occupyin' these rrillages.

Then we were moved away to a place called Logny, a torvn like Chester-Le-Street. You wouldn't think there was a war on. Kid's comin' 'mund on a uight seltin' the "Paris Soir" an' that. We used to be sent on different guards from there. One of tl:e first ah went on was a platforrn patrol on this station, where the main line trains from Paris to Bolougne went through. Ah remember this train stoppin' an' it was firll of American civilians, the' would be gettin' out o'Eumpe while the' could, an' one lady said ah looked rather young to be a soldier. So that was platforrr security with the French. We wer doin' route marches anarl, ah remember these boots ah had on were newish. On the way back we stopped, we'd done a bit mock action in the woods, cowboys an ' indians. Ah took me boots off, an' me sock was stickin'. Lieutenant Regnart says, "lets have a look at yer heel". It was just like a tomato. Ah put this prowder on , but when ah got me boot back on it was agony. When you walk it goes away a bit, but it's still sore. We were walkin' behind the fifteen hundredweight truck, ah was carryin' tJre Bren, an' limpin' a bit. Big Jossie says, "Giz the bloody Bren, an' get a bike off the back o' the truck'. The Sergeant was ganna put us on a charge, he says "You're supposed to be carryin' the Bren, not ridin' a bloody bike".

Thomas Maher.

Private, B Company
(Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.L
39

*i#=

'T)IGGIN' AI\TI TAI\K TRAPS''

round about When we went owwer tee Fiance, we landed, got onto the train, the' took wor up, way up tee we were on Gondecourt. What we were doin' was these trucks was takin' us out tee a place called Seclin, where North part o' France, diggin' anti tank traps. We were expectin' the Jerries, an' the did come eventually, from the into the ditch, down to where *" *."., where we'd made these trenches. But what Jerry did he'd run a tank strite got stuck, blew the turrei offit, an' drove the next tank strite owwer the top ont. One or two didn't make it like, the' Jerries back as it an, picked off by our lads what was fightin' the rear guard action. But the' couldn't howld the marches, turned out. So that's what we were doin' afor" *. *urt into action, diggin' tank traps, doin' a few route things like that.
Joss Little. Lance Corporal B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

**$
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40

;;rffi;;;^il;6;
House.

srill

ii"g

soon lefr with their bu*: tg tl.re sea and to survivJthe onslaught of the German Blitzkreig'

smililfi;t

l"*: billet in t*: _Y:TT School *r9t" Gondecourr 3 men outsicre their
:t

4t

and dive bombers.

''THE RUZZ ON THE GRAPEVTNE''

My Company was in Houghton when we got the buzz on the grapevine we were gantee France. As usual 'i the
arrry, 'stead o' sendin' trucks to take us to Durham, we had to march. We set off, it was a Thursda' night, back end o' February, an' we rrarched from Houghton tee Durham i' t,l.e pourin' rain, firll pack.
Got on the train,neebody hacl telt us where we were goin', but we had an idea it would be France. Anyhow, away we went, travelled all night, you couldn't see where you were at, station signs veere down, youjust had tee try an' work it out, "Whey this is York, ah've been here before", that kind o' thing. Eventually we pulled into the Docks at gouthampton. We sailed from there, an'landed at Cherbourg. Usual French railways, vre were put in cattletrucks that had ten hosses or forty men written on the side. We aways into the country, somewheres in Nortllern France, so we wer put lnto bams wi' these git big rats runnin' around.

At regards army trainin' an' can't remember doin' that much. You only got the usual parades, church

parades,

things like that. Ah only ever fired me rifle about twice, so regards army trainin' ah suppose we were a fisciplined Eob, you could put it that leay. Ah remember the Provost Sergeant of the Battalion, he was a policeman in ciwy life, he liked his discipline, a real army type. He was a fellow called Tiplady, belanged Portobello. Ah'll not tell yer lhat ah thought of him. He had my mate Danny on fourteen days detention for nowt, field punishnent yer kna, p.ich wasn't very pleasant to say the least. But Tiplaily was tJlat kind of fella. When he came back he must have frrested nearly everybody in Chester-Le-Street. Ah forgot to tell yer about the Durham Shakespeare band, they fnlunteered on block as stretcher bearers, in fact the band leader ended up as Company Quarter Master Sergeant, fn' when the'were arl needed, they joined the' gether at the Battation band. They went across tee France with us. Ihe' used tee plav in the square of this town tee the French residents.

Bob Fort. Private, 1lth D.L.I.

43

S;i.;'"r.rii"l:
ir,
*r: N's .f,tr-.,;.,.

i*iirst:rii$

Number 1L Platoon from Chester-Le-Street's, B Company.

Gondecourt, Northern France. Confidently posing for the camera, the ill fated class of 1940, smashed in the retreat to Dunkirk. the 8th Durhams spent months ditch diggings in Flanders fields but also practicing motorised infantry tactics. They were as good as anything the British Army had at the time. Tank for tank, gun for gun, aircraft for aircraft, the allies were stronger than the German forces opposing them. But the sophisticated German grasp of combined air armoured, and infantry assault, close artillery support, communications and battlefield engineering left the allies standing.

;fl
.:\ f]";r -.
.N.

1,'\,,llA

r"a CARTn'

"'

Not all French like the,British but the ** ' , srned to like us It never se j me, a bit like Dur ljke up 'round Sacrisffi % \h felt quite at home. N iittass in tfre church on d , dri .'*he cafes on an . Ah was friendly with a lass"therej ,".= pa*ents had a outside Gondecourt. She was a lass. We'd wo pr in the fields, hoyin' stuff we'd this big_ ,I we were both young and hot bl r..Q{qto

3-\t

the end.oJ
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we usually both ended up on the " you might N "\;

say.

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45

CARTE POSTALE

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POST CARD

"QJ . .1. .Ltt!x,

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t t"A. :nl'{

fr,&ta

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Sent home to Chester-Le-Street in 1940, by Private Thomas Maher of 'B' Company 8 D.L.I. Like the Territorial Battalions, the

ilitary postcards must have been "in

ls" since the Great War, then quickl rought out, dusted down and put back o

"'We

We We We We

are some of the D.L.I. are some of the boys all mind our manners all spend our tanners are respected wherever we go.

BACK IN ARRAS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIFTT YEARS

As we march down the avenue Doors and windows open wide All the lads and lasses cry The D.L.I. are passing by. We a19 some of the boys.

Oh Merry, Merry, Merry are we We are the boys of the Light Infantry We sing high we sing low Wherever we go The Durham Light Infantry never say no."

One May evening in 1990, down a back street in Arras, after a good meal and a few bottles of wine, a little restaurant rang to this Durham Light Infantry marching song of two World Wars. The sound of "Les Tommies" was impressive enough to coax the chef out of his kitchen to ask for an encore.

47

'ONTHE
we were on the march a couple o' days, an' the way we were ganqi come tee Vimy Ridge,an' we were fell oot . This officer comes says , "Aye sorr." He says, 'What corporal?." Ah says, "
"That's

marchin', till we kna what tee dee lads ?". Ah later". He laughed an saYed
. We were

reet".

*N
on both sides of the road. We'd just up, ' cause of the wpr, but the' was

Anyhow we moved up , gannin' alang this road,one secfiotr up, one secti gone by the big monument' it'll still be there yit . The place was arl still this souvenir shop open, wi'postcards an'pens an'that.

the canadians.had lost a hell of a lot of lads around there monument. we were just past it when this aircraft come fl british." That was when it opened up on us, "brrrrrrrhhhhh

r, an arl

"Rames is roond that r\N" It's arlreet she' s

s r

...N$
*_.

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1r

,'

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.1.

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48

The' was a ditch on both sides of the road, an' ah says, " Right lads jump for it". one says, "Ahm not jumpin' in there". so ah says, " please thee bloody sell, if thoo wants tee get mown down, here's one that doesn't." it was five or Fix feet deep , firll o' clarts an'it stunk, but ah couldrr' t o' cared less ifit had been shit yer kna. At the finish we had tee drag this lad into the ditih an' hotd him doon. Ah says, " Listen lad, ye dee what ah tIl the, an' you'll not gan far rang, but dee what yer telt. " Ah arlways remember Captain Walton saying' the sarne to me, back at the drill hall, " Noo look, yer in here to do what yer telt, do tJle job an' complain after." so ah told the lad the same, "When ah say get in the ditch ah means get in tlre dikh, not stand there like a scarecrow". It went away doon the mad machine gunnin', an' ah sayed, "That bugger'ill be back yer kna". It turned au'come back up, but the'vtas this French tank wi' a Hodgkiss machiae gun mounted on it hid in amang the trees, waitin'. It let bleeze, an'tJee plane was machine gunnin' as well. we heard this,"Aaaaarrrgghbhnn" ah' says, " he' s had it". the French tank had got it, it had the fire pgwer that we hadn't, an' put pay to the plane.
So aayway we got out the ditch, reformed, an' moved up to where the plane had crashed, an' when we saw it, it was a Jerry arlright. when it landed it didn't tek flame,it must have been mushy. So we went owwer an' had a look. We

got the pilot out, but he was dead like. We took his helmet off, an' he was just a young lad, he looked about eighteen year old. The' wae some photos in his wallet, what must o' been his Mother an' Father, an' Sister, an' another one written on from a young lass. The lad's name was Hans, an' ah sayed, "Aye whey Hans, thoos had it hinney noo" Joss Little Lance Corporal, B Company ( Chester - Le - Street ) 8th D.L.r.

49

I I

50

t\Me'll

Meet With The Enemy in an I{our.tt

\
$

Lieutenant Regnart come round the platoon an' said "We'll meet with the enemy in an hour." So that was really the first time we were goin ' into action. We'd had boiled eggs an'bully sandwiches for breakfast an' one of the lads said, :'Well the's nee fear of us shitin' oursells!" which got a bit of a laugh. Ah suppose morale was high enough, although I would say we were in a bad way with all the foot slogging. The weather was red hot, we were tired, we hadn't had much sleep. The' was blood comin' through the lace holes of my boots, an' ah wasn't the only one. But a had me Bren Gun. Ah was a good shot with it an' me mate Bobby Gordon was with uss carryin' me ammunition. Ah suppose the'; was that bit wonry in the back of yer mind. What we didn't know was that there where we were goin' 70th Brigade, the 11th Durhams an'them had
been overun the day before.

Thomas Maher Private B Company (Chester-Le-Street)

1990. Beneath the Great War memorial on Vimy Ridge.

Maher recalls how as a 19 year old Light Infantryman he breakfasted with boiled eggs and bully beef sandwiches on the morning of the Arras unter attack.
51

+\-1:

.: -s:l:!.:\". .'' 't ri:: . G

L

d N-"

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".r$.N"

1i

today, the skies and fields of Northern France. 50 years ago they were a bloody Behind this hedgerow the men of the 8th D.L.I., advancing into battle for the ime found a " butchers shop," the bodies of nearly a hundred German soldiers French heavy machine gun fire. There was little time for pity, by the Chester-Le had crossed the field to Duisans Wood on the left of the photo, they were al ting their own dead and wounded.

'' IN THE

FIGHTIN'''

Everybody knew that eventually we'd be in the fightin', but we didn't think it would be as quick or as sudden as it Was. Actually what we had in mind was a visit to the Maginot Line, an' doin' our stint there, but we never got near ft. The first time we saw action would be when we went to Vimy Ridge, before that it was just an adventure, we were Erl young. When ah got up onto Vimy Ridge, an' saw the memorial, an' all the old Fost War trenches, it brought it back to you the seriousness of it.

Actually we weren't far from the Germans then. We marched down the Givenchy Road to this village, an' ah can remember this Jerry spotter plane, it was a Storche, flytn' round. A couple of Frenchmen were bangin' away. Ah wouldn't care, the bloomin' thing was no hight, an' it never got hit. Ah was always suspicious that those Frenchmen were plants, the' was a lot of Fifth Columnists. Lieutenant Regnart had told us to trust nobody.
Anyway we marched on, an' this Storche was still flytr' around. You got the feelin' that when you were marchin' with your own platoon, you were the only ones fightin' the war. You felt you were on your own, but ah suppost that Btorche could see the whole Brigade, the whole Division even, stretchin' for miles.
These tanks went flytn'past us. Ah believe the' were Matildas, the' flew past us anyway. We got to this village, an' it was deadly quiet, yer know, an' the first thing ah saw was this dead Frenchrnan, lyin' in the church doorway. We marched on through the village, it was like a ghost town, the Jerries had been through there. Other side of the village was a rise, an' the' was another two Frenchmen there, drinkin' out of bottles, an' handin' them to us.

Lieutenant Regnart said not to take any. Top of this rise an' down was a cross roads. One road went to Arras, one this way, an' one straight on. That was the first real sign of it we all saw a German transport on fire. Those tanks had caught it, a Jerry was lyin' in the middle of the crossroads, all his guts were out yer kna. He must have been S.S. 'cause he had their two lightin'flashes on his helmet. Further along the road was a Frenchman standin' over two dead Jerries. Ah thowt he might of been a Jerry too.

53

F---

Over the cross ro"ads*'the,oftler was given to fix bayonets, as we were comtii''Lp to-this wood. 'Cause ah was on the Bren, a-p-'-earryin' that. The road went through the wood, an' as ,-:*"*t" got to the other side Corporal Hall comes up to me an' ' says, "IJp here with yer Bren Tom". We'd heard machine

gun fire first just before that, an' he said, "Norman

Huscroft's copped it". Ah sayed, "What! Just wounded?" he says, "Nor, killed". The Jerry couldn't of been more than fift,y yards away when he opened up, but he got clean away

half hedge, an' just lay there waitin' for events.it-Iub-r on around an hour we could here the skirmishiiiij us, when the sergeant carno*toflirnin' art' said, " Right, get out".
Thomas Maher Private, B Company (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.L

54

The grave of Private Norman Huscroft, the frrst Chester-le- Street soldier in the 8th D.L.I. to be killed in action on the road to Dunkirk. Private Huscroft's death was a shock to the company for all they were a front line fighting unit on active service. The death of someone you had grown up with and worked alongside in the coalmines was hard to believe at first, soon it was an everyday event to through the packs and pouches for rations and ammunition they no longer needed.

it was left to the local French people to give the British dead a decent burial. The Germans
Often
were more concerned with pursuit of the survivors then rounding up the casualties.

Private Huscroft is buried in the village cemetery at Habarcq on the Arras - St Pol road not very far from

where he was killed. During the phoney war

Habarcq was the temporary home of Lord Gort and Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force. Mobile warfare turned Habarcq into the front line and permanent resting place for dozens of British soldiers killed in the very real war that briefly raged through the surrounding fields.
55

''COUNTERA
The plan was to close the gap Jerry had made in the lines with his village we went into the' was one or two lyin'dead, they'd been enough, an' to tell you the truth, ah think they'd arl been pi out in the road.

went in front of us. The first 'd never had a rebuJf for lang twelve foot lang stretched

"A" Company was advancin' on our lefb, we'd just got ugh this vil in "B" Company. It was bad countryside, the first one to be killed remember this old woman with a pram, she was lyin' arl twisted, ri

t's where Norman Huscril-ft got it,

re, a wood there, pPen fields, ah

lets.

It

was down on. the Mons Road we saw these tanks, we had tw out afore we found out the' were French. When the Jerries got on the two forward companies, an' our attack was halted then
We fell back on this village called Warlus, an' we had to hold $ Word come for platoon Sergeants to meet at the edge of the vi an'the fifth division was supposed to advance through us. others at the meeting', here when we got back to the squa an' we just managed tee jump on the back of it. Wh Division's advance was off, an'that we had tee was there, he said we'd done well under

.Yerb

s:

hbd two knocked bombers come in

.s'

amang the house an'that re goin'to hold the village, Ralphy Crowe, an' a few [g$rt truck was pullin' out,

eetin'w
e got back

Lieutenant

through that the fifth Ridge, Major Clarke of the Ninth, an' was

killed in Sicily.

Jimmy McGarey M.M.

i.\"N:
..1\*\s

iNi\\'

".i

Sergeant B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8rh D.L.I.

Whilst Chester-le-street and Stanley Companies held the flank, Houghton-le-Spring and Birtley Companies of the Bth D.L.I. advanced across these open fields on the ridge above Warlus Village. Within sight of their objective, the Arras Doullens Highway, Houghton and Birtley men came under accurate mortar and machine fire. TWelve Junkers 87 dive bombers, the infamous "Stukas" swept down on them from above the woods on the left. Advance turned into a stubborn and costly house to house defence of Warlus village, then to retreat. A small plaque, in French, on the village water tower recalls that man5r soldiers died in the surrounding fields during the combat of May 1940. These concrete water towers are common in the area and actually played a major roll in the battle. Bearing the village name in large letters German tank commanders with the aid of powerful binoculars used then to
navigate by.

''THE'WOULD MACHINE GUI{ OWT THAT MOVED''

Of course the' weren't long.on hittin' back at us, bombers, the lot. We were just beside this wood an' the Jerries were flytn' in high. The Officer took a few pot shots but the' took no notice of us. The' were after bigger fish. Mind the Jerry bombers that had dropped the'loads were another matter, they came back low as Hell an' the' would machine gun owt that moved. Whey the bullets were fleein' an' we had to take cover ahind this wall, then make a dash for the wood an'better cover when we got the chance.

Thomas Maher.

Private B Company
(Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

''AH DON'T KT\TOWWHO WAS THE MOST FRIGHTENED''

"Anyway we got on with the advance, and started into these woods. Mind we took hundreds of prisoners to start with. Ah remember the first German we came face to face with. He was crouchin'down among the bushes with his rifle at the ready an' we just walked into him. He could have shot us if he'd had a mind to, but he just threw down his rifle and up wi'his hands. Ah don't know who was the most frightened, him or us. The officer waived his pistol at him an' the lad just gave himself up."

Thomas Maher Private. B. Company ( Chester-le-Street ) 8th D.L.L

58

ttTook Prisoner"
I got took prisoner at Wancourt. We didn't know what hit us. There were German tanks all over the place. We got some rough treatment as well I can tell you. It was a forced march off the battlefield. Some off the lads were wounded and they were falling back, but the guards pushed them on with rifle butts, shouting "Raus! Raus!"
marched to the German Border on foot, Luxembourg, somewhere like that, before we ever saw transport and that was a disgrace, crammed into cattle trucks and taken by rail right into Poland. We were jammed in like sardines. You just had to do your business where you stood, you couldn't help it.
We went to Thorn, I ended up working on a farm, gathering sugar beet. My D.L.I. uniform fell to pieces and you just wore what you could get hold of, French uniforms, Polish, anything.

I think we nearly

'.,',,

.,,,,,'', Sf#*l"h"fi

D.L.I.

Steve Barter photographed in May 1990 not very far where he was captured years before 50

'IIIIAKIN' BACIC'
Anyhow, the Company had g'ettin' smashed up and some of us was makin' back. It was neet time, pitch black, Sergeant says, "Right, ah want ye to gan up there an' fetch that gun doon; wi' these two lads". Ah says, "! bloody gun?" It was a two pounder. He says, "We've got one up there, one up there, and one up there." So we up an' gets gets one doon, came back to the truck an' ah says, "Hey, what bloody mob's this like?" He says, "An tank gunners." Ah says, "Whey yer bugger we're in the wrong bloody place here."

Anyhow we gans up for this other gun an' gets it doon. We'd just got it doon when ah says, " Listen". Ah heard rattlin' yer kna. Ah says, " the's somebody up there that shouldn'd be". Ah sayed, "We'll get the other gun doon sharp as we can, yukked on, an'we'll get out of it". When we got back it was arl quiet yer kna, ah says, " Sergeant, it's time we weren't here". he says, "Right, move out"

Us were on the fost truck, the' was two or three Scotch lads anarl from the K.O.S.B.'s One of them says to me,j "Hey Corporal, where the hell are we going?" Ah says, "Your guess is as good as mine, as long as this truck taks me] away tee hell out ont, where Jerry is there, ah'l be happy". Ah says, "Ah'l meet Jerry face tee face when it's light, but not in the bloody dark, coz he could come from any direction he has a mind, an' yer wouldn't kna where he was.
Anyhow we managed tee get away, an' we come tee this village, ah just forget the name of it, it was just outside Bethune anyhow. "Moppy" Armstrong gans intee this hoose, tecks his gears off, tecks his jacket off an' gets intee this bed.

Ah sayed, "Moppy if we've got tee get oot of here in a hurry yea'll be catched w-i' yer pants doon". Ah says, "Yer lyin' in there an orders is you've just tee loosen the belt of yer gears when yer restin'. If yer get nicked yorr'rr" only yersell tee blame for it".

60

We'd been there nearly two hours when the Jernes landed. Ah says, "Gerrout! Howay! Move! Jerry's comin!" Moppy says "Eh? What?" Ah says, "Moppy lad howay!" He says, "Or' lad, the's nee rest here". Ah says, "Howa lad, Jerry'll find the' if the' disn't move". "Jerry's comin' in the top end o' the village an' we're gannin oot the borrom". Moppy got his claes on. Ah've nevver seen anybody put them on as sharp in arl me days. He was lacin' his boots up in the back of the truck. Joss Little Lance Corporal B Company (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

Right. Bach

on the battlefield 50 years later old Durharn Light Infantrymen"remember what it was like in the May of 1940.

61

The Sunken Road at Duisans. Stanley and Chester-le-Street units of the 8th D.L.I. were holding this flank position with their battalion's anti tank gunners during the Battle of Arras when a column of tanks crossed the horizon at speed. A savage skirmish flared up. Tanks were destroyed before the fog of war lifted and they were recognised as French army models, not German Panzers.

A few hours later, it was another roving column of French annour passing back this way that safely escorted the battered 8th D.L.I. survivors of Houghton and Birtley Companies out of Warlus, and rescued a party of bailly wounded Durhams left behind in the retreat, loading them into the tank decks aiid carrying them to the new British line at Vimy. This minor miracle of survival was greeted there not with cheers but by an irritable "Where the hell have you lot been?"
62

RIGHT
The battle will of Private Joe Coulson'B'Company (Chester-LeStreet) 1lth D.L.I.
Joe Coulson survived the retreat to Dunkirk and evacuation to England but was killed in action 4 years later during the Italian Campaign.

ox coru,El,o* rol#t fril;t""frt;t O''ICBN TIT CB^NCB BECOND' BT o.c. urtf. FORil OF WILL to bo usd bv r aoldier dosiipu of looviog tho rbblo- of hir Proprty rnd Efiectr to ono pcnon. (Bcc prge !7 for f,'orr or Wnr lcoving

"

lage.ier lo morc thrn ono perron.)

.,'ll,oi5HllffI,
(D) Brnr rnrr (b) rrny nnmb:t.

,, /r"l/.
. .

/.A

-P..f-2i..
..
.

. ....A.e..575:Z.t/..........

CHERRY BRANDY

(c) Brst oen t.

t"l .. /r/ .r/: . A1... .. .D-. k. /................ heroby rcvoko rll lVillr horetofore medr by nc rt ony time, and declrm thir to bc nt lrt lVitl end Testrmont.

Ah remember in the retreat Joss Little found a great barrel o' cherry brandy. Well Joss was strong as a bull an' lifted it owwer his heed tee get a drink oot on't. We had a few free "Vin Blancs" on the road back! Well Captain Leybourne went mad about it.
He told Jossy to put it down, then he emptied his whole revolver into the barrel, shot it tee bits. Poor Joss didn't kna what tee
say.

r
...t
.

app<,int

{nr ..lff.lt.iJ. ..H*.Lr:.f..lt

.

at xt e 6!, tt!t.,..(*rn.1..5.g,.^..t,V.t*.tt!tn
.

.Qt:tyc|. l:i...[t,..

Thomas Maher Private B Company (Chester-le-Street)

8th DLI

63

''SAFE IN FRANCE''
The Germans had pushed through, an' we were banged into trucks in real British Army style an' rushed off to where nowt was happening. We were all left sittin' on this hillside just outside Arras. We just lay there an' we could see the refugees streamin' down the roads, some one way, some the other, iwerything in a mess. Some dive bombers flew right over us. The' dropped the' bombs, "Bang, Bang", but not on us, we were just lyin' there smokin' an' gettin' our grub while we could. We were playin' hell about havin' to eat cold rations. Nobody seemed to have any idea how bad it was. Then we got bundled into the trucks an' you were off. Tell the truth ah niwer saw an angry German, an' ah wandered round France from the day of their push till ah came offthe day before the' ceased evacuatin' from Dunkirk.
We got to Gondecourt, an' that's the first time ah met somebody else ah knew, from the day complete chaos happened. We went into this big Post Office buildin' an' the' was hundreds of troops there. This officer was handin' out field cards to send home. We filled them in, the' had "Safe in france", an' "I am in Hospital", on the back, things like that. Little brown cards, an'you put your parents name and address on the front.

Ah met Tommy Nightingale there, an' a lad called T?otter, belanged Pelton Fell. Tommy was a cook in the Eighth Batallion, an' Company Quarter Master Sergeant Moore, who was Mentioned in Dispatches. He was killed in Sicily, gettin' grub up to the lads in the fightin'. They'd just killed a pig, am' it seemed as though we hadn't ea.tin for months, an'we had pork chops and chips. We never saw them again after that. That night we were all bundled into trucks, an'we rode arl night, for about twelve hours, an' when the sun broke through the next mornin', we were back in the same place, an' debussed. We couldn't get out, we were surrounded. One of us says, "Whey am not stoppin ' here, lets away", so we just waiked, me an' this lad from Craghead, called Sid Smith, he'll be a chap in his seventies now. How we got back ah'll never know, ah mean we were in Gondecourt, an' that's a lang way from the French Coast.

64

..s\i\

.'.:: r.

,r'

We didn't kna where we were goin'it just seemed like in we got there ah don't know, but that was where we were the roads but kept off them, the' were packed an' gettin; di fields and headin' the same way as the traffrc.

.,,J5,'' SDLI. What we were ganna dee when telt us we just went. We followed e whole time. We kept gannin owwer the
'; villages was evacuated an' we helped the whole place was blazin' over our heads, an' fields of army wagons, just dumped, we I we got back ah just {onrt know.

Sid an' me were scroungin'' for food where we ourselves. We got blind drunk in this cel ah co ah had tee drag Sid out, he was as drunk wt. The'w looked for the ones with rations on, an' our tunics. H

Bob Fort

Private llth D.Lr.

.r *

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:
'i:ll;i "l"rd'

"

N
f.
"s.\l \N

65

impse of the enemy. s Head Division near D.L.I. they fought against in the retreat, the Death's Head Division were motorised infantrymen sho of battle experience before the bloody May of 1940. Unlike the 8th D.L.I. who were mostly coal mine
commandants.

the Death Head Division were recruited mainly from concentration camp guards and thei

rl
i
lL,,

66

IITANKS''
These Dornier bombers come owwer. We were firin' at ttrem wi' rifles, but it was a waste time. Somewhere at the other side of the wood Brigade must have been gettin'it. As one lot were droppin' tJre' bombs, another lot were followin' on, an' comin' ow\rei An''way it arl went quiet for a time, then the shout went up, "tanks", but the fost thing to come 'round the corner was the Church ofEngland Padre.

o'

Anyway the order was to "Fall Back". Me an' a lad cailed Franly Flowers Iiorn Pelton, an' another lad, ah'jusi forget his name, we got on tJre M.O.'s truck. Everybody was tryin' to get away, you'd wonder where the' arl come from. We got back to this village near Lens, the' was a school room, an' we had to wait till dark. It was gettin' on late aftemoon like. We got some cocoa, an' some bully, an' that, then me an Franky had a look'round the village. The' was a hall qpposite, an'it had been bombed, the'was bodies lyin'about, but it dicln't seem to botler you, 'cause you didn't have to be in action long before you were in a wild sort of state.

The'was arl these ambulances, an'a Sergeant shoutin', "Is the' any drivers here?" Ah says, "Aye, ah can drive." He says "Whey you go wi' one ofthese", so ah' got in one ofthese ambulances as the spare driver, an'we set away.
We were gettin'towards Armentiers, an'the roads was cramrned. The' was these French horse drawn wagons, an' the' were holdin' everybody up, it was chaotic. We were there hours. The'was a Frenchman with his pistol out an' he was shoutin' at these others. Tlaffic was comin' this way, an' traffic was comin that way, so we just pulled into the roadside. Ttre'was rifle fire in the distance, then machine guns, these Frenchrnen pulled their horses into this field at the finish. Somebody shouted, "Motorbikes". so we got away quick. The'was two roads to take, we brire leIt, the tracer bullets were flyin' overhead an' a hell ofa lot offirin'was goin' on, 'cause where the' was motorbikes, tanks, weren't far behind. Anyhow those Frenchmen copt it. We got through Armentiers, it was gettin' Stukad to hell, an' we were back to more or less where we'd started from, sonewhere 'round Seclin.

We pulled the ambulances in by these farrn houses. The' was a driveway like that leadin' up to Lambton Castle, trees on either side, an' the $'agons pulled in among the trees ofr the driveway. We'd been there a couple of hours, had somethin' to eat, an' were just sittin dozin', it was a lovely afternoon. Ah was sittin' wi' Frarky trlowe;:s an' this other lad. Now you carmot hear a Jerry plane when th' come in low like that one did, 'till the' on top 'o yer.

b/

This lad says, "Get down". Whey ah went then this heat, an'it was owwer. The' my mouth was hangin' open, it hand". On the other side of
been caught by the bomb

L}t' didtr't

heaiNhing, just felt me lugs,

bp. Then he stdrted the machine gunnin',

wi' glasses says, "Come on lads, give us a the trees, the' wasn't a mark on them, they'd
il.

Thomas Maher Private, S Qsmpan/ (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.I

68

May 1990. In the air conditioned comfort of a continental coach tour, Durham Ligh Infantry veterans speed away from Arras and across the Bassee Canal. 50 years they had travelled the same road, hot, dirty and exhausted, packed into lorries tha crawled at snails pace, bumper to bumper, through the traffic chaos. Unchallenged in sky above a German spotter plane watched their every move and not very far behind
the advancing German army.

'rytE RIFLE BOWLTWAS FLEEIN!''

Ah had me 20th birthday on the battlefield, the 28th May 1940. We were back up 'round Poperinge then. A lot of the Companies were nixed up, Dog Cornpany, Charlie Company an' that.
We were holed up in a bam, an old hayloft wi' half of the tiles off. Cornfields to the front, quite high corn. T?re' was a cow in the field an'we were watchin that inetad offor the Germans. Ttre'was creepin'thmugh the corn. We thought it was owyer guiet so we fired into the comfield. The cow went down wi' the fir6t shot. Anyway t,l.e firing flushed the Germans. The' were there right enough. The' were four in the corner of the field. Well ah just give them firll 10 rounds rapid fire. Me rifle bowlt was fleein, This German went down badly wounded. He was cr5ring for his motJrer - "Muter! Muter!".

qot

one on them but of the

in on us quick enough. Well we knew what was comin'by then and it got ripped apart by Gerry heavy machine gun fire." \ t\ Harry Moss ,i. Lance Corporal D Company le Spring) 8th D.L.I.
'"r\i

70

"Allemands! Allemands!"
Cavalry that took uss. An old French woman came runnin' up to uss sayin' "Allemands! Alle*"rrds!" an' right enough there they were on horseback. The Germans had a lot of modern stuffbut they had old fashioned cavalry as well. We gotiook right off down to Paris, marchin' all the way on foot. Ah met up with a lot more lads from Houghton conrpany that was took prisoner' Arl me hair was shaved off, an' ah had bonny black hair then. We were sent to poland to work in the coal mines. The seams were 12 inches to 50 foot thick. You had to take the bottom out first them the top. The, was all kinds workin' down there, Polish soldiers, Ukranian lasses, the lot. That was bad enough the slave labour but our carnp was built on top of an underground ball bearing factory so if it got bombed we woul-al go the lo,rrrrey.';

"llgot to-ok prisoner at Poperinghe on the old Fost War battleground. It was German

Harry Moss
Lance Corporal D Company (Houghton le Spring) 8th D.L.r.

_--

May 1990. A landmark of the retreat. Its peak flattened since 1940 this pit heap was used as an observation post by the 8th D.L.I. The failure to escape from mines and mine owners was source a of humour to the pitmatic light infantrymen. Not only was Lord Gort, the commander of their Expeditionary Force, a North Durham Coal Owner, but here they were scaling pit heaps and skirmishing through colliery yards. One wit remarked "Ah think wL should get Jfew towkens on for this!" meaning a days fighting around a colliery should entitle them to pit pay and army pay!

I I

\\

72

"Fightin', but fallin' back".

The retreat started on May the tenth, an' we come oot o' Dunkirk on the mornin' o' June the second. You were fightin', but fallin'back, arl the time. The' had things organized like. You were given a position, an' you would dig your trench an'that, an' wait there for the Jerries to catch up. You could see them comin' a long way off, then, we'd open fire when the'got nearer. Generally the machine gunners give us coverin'fire to get back to the lorries, an'we were offto the next spot.

Mind we could hardly get moved on the roads for refugees, poor buggers, the' wadn't kna where the' were gannin. The'was droves, pushin; prams, an' carts, some wi' horses pullin' cars, 'cause the' had nee petrol. The roads was crammed. Jack Lee, the Cook Sergeant, was tryin' tee be helpful, an' hoyed this big tin of hard tack off the lorry for them. Well it landed reet on this man's foot. Ah says, "He'll be teckin prisoner ah dare bet."
We were in our last fightin' positions afore the beaches. Major Percy, belangin, the Ninth Battalion, come roond an' he shouts, "Come on, get out, get out, ah want you lads out." So we fell back onto the sand dunes, a few miles out of Dunkirk, an' we lay there. What we didn't kna was what the' were ganna use us for, to put in a last attack for to howld the jerries up. But it fell through, an' we were told it was our turn next to move out.

You were told once yer got onto the beach to keep movin', no matter what happens, if yer dive bombed, an' the's casualties, just keep movin'. The' was fellahs lyin' drownded, an' equipment, packs an' rations an' that layin' washed up. You could see the odd boat lyin' see far oot, one was a hospital ship. It's funny like, but ah never give it a thought about not gettin' home safe, for arl the'was any amount layin' dead alang the beach. Ah remember at the time me an' Dicky Moore had a touch of dysentry, you were supposed to keep moving', but we had to stop an' drop our slacks by this boat at the edge o' watter. Whey what you were passin' . whi' havin' the dysentry, was nearly arl blood. Of course when we got home, it was arl in the papers about "the bloodstained sands of Dunkirk," an' Dinky Moore says, "That must have been where you an' me were Jimmy ahind that boat".

73

offthe sands, an'through these fields, a remember the' was a dead horse lyrn', it's ribs were stickin' up, an' arl the meat had been took off it for to eat. We went into Dunkirk itself an' it was blazin'. The'was gear arl owwer, lorries an'that. For days they'd been burnin' tyres, smashin' things, an'blawin' them up, stacks of brand new stuff. ' Then we were back on the beach. The' was a lot of officers, an' things was well organized around the pier, the' was nee panic that ah saw, neebody tryin' tee rush their turn.
So anyway, we come back up We come offon H..M.S. Windsor. When we got on it was crammed. The sailors was givin' us bread and tea. It was lovely, ah went to sleep, an' the could have sunk that boat and ah wouldn't have known. We'd had nee flairly sleep for three weeks. Jimmy McGarey M.M.

Sergeant, B Company (Chester le Street) 8th D.L.r.

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"We are some of the D.L.I. We are some of the Boys." May 1990. D.L.I. Dunkirk Veterans enjoy a civic reception in Gondecourt Town Hall, Northern France. In the dark days of May 1940 the Mayor of Gondecourt hid the silver bugles left behfnd by the 8th D.L.I. in his cellar. He said he always knew the 8th D.L.'I. would come back becdirse he had their bugles. Come back they did, in 1944, down the long hard road from North Africa, through Sicily, Italy and Normandy to the Belgian border.

75

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BEACIf"

We got through Bethune, down intee Dunkirk. Jerry hadn't closed in by then. Ah'says, " Reet lads, we have to move on, down onto the beach". we'd just gettin' onto it when the Stukas came doon "Aaaaaaaaaarrrr'rirrr", then, "Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr". Machine gunnin' alang the beach. whey none o' the lads was hit, mare through good look than good management. Anyway ah got the lads into the water, an' we' d been in there a couple of hours when this military policeman comes alang an' shouts, " "Howay lR Howay, back on the beach". Ah says+t\W e canno there machine gunnin' the beach?" He says, just scatter roond yer". Ah says, " Aye hit yer man, the' whey, they've just got to hit yer the once". Joss Little B company Lansg corporal, (Chester- Le - Street)

8th D.L.r.

76

''THE SKY \ryAS BLOODY REf)'"

The sergeant said, "it'll be the same thing again tonight, we're gonna get as many wounded out as we can, soon as it's dark". This wasn't far from Dunkirk, you could see the sky was bloody red. The' wasn't just a few ambulances this time, the'was hundreds. We drove on into Dunkirk itself, a few of us got hit, an' the trucks were burnin'in the road. The' was lines an' lines of infantry, the R.P's were directin' them left onto the beaches, an' the ambulances down to the dock. Well the' was men as far as the eye could see.

The'was a hospital ship there, called the St. David, we were gettin' all the stretchers out an'lined up the dock, an' the boat cre\ry were takin' them on. The' was two nurses there, ah'll never forget them. Because by then, the' were shellin' us all the time. The other side of the docks were bein' bombed, an' the beaches were gettin' it. Well these lads were wounded, an' the' were screamin' like hell. The would be nothin' worse, like, bein' wounded, an'lyin' out in the open, an these two nurses, one was an oldish woman, an' the other was a young lass, an' the' were just walkin' amang the stretchers sayin', "all right lads, we'll get you out". Eventually we all got onto the boat. Ah was in the saloon, an' the' give us some hot cocoa, an' that was it, ah could hardly remember another thing. We'd had no sleep for days. This lad says, "Don't take your boots off'. When youlve had them on for days, an' you've been on the march, an' tek them off, you feet's that swollen the' wont go back on. Thomas Maher Private, B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.r.

77

"Iwerybody med Yer welcome"

been up in, shirt, slacks, an' boots' sid smith an' I had we got to Dover, an'' arl ah had was what ah stood Anyhow, it happened' he an' that's where we split up ah don't know how the, gether the whore time, we got into the station, *rrrihurre wandered one way and me the other' at in staffordshire' on the way, the train must have stopped Ah got onto the first train, an'landed up at Lichfreld yer welcome' sandwiches' cups o 'tea, .offu., iwerybody med nearly iwery station, an' the' were grvin' us cigarettes, thirty regiment, an' the' showed you a bed' Ah slept for about Ah reported in to Lichfield, give me name, rank, an' money off me neebody bothered you. Ah drew some "Lichfiekl, six hours, got up one mornin', had me breakfast, come-back, got into a pub an' phoned me father ,cause paid for quite a while, an' went down into we hadn,t been pay, to tell him ah was O.K. so driver from wallsend said he was goin' back up North' while ah was in this pub, the, was a long distance lorry ah said, "Ah whey, a'hm comin'with yer'" therg Ah stopped at Fatfield seven 4aY!,tlgl u!.*:it back and Eighth Eteventh were Fortv Nine Division, men -r n^------^11 A.,1 ^f *lro fhnrrs,qnd mer that orders or Devon and cornwarl' out or the thousand fiHllrfrJtii5;i:1r"'llilirTi";il;"r^;i eighty had got back' werrt,to France wi' the bleventh Battalion influx of four or five hundred Royal sco or forty new lads from chester-le-street, then a big we got about thirty got sorted iut, new officers, new N'c'o.'s' the' got straight from training. Eventually everything Fusiliers, Battalion together an' that's when the work started.

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Bob F

Priv
11th

80

'THE SEA\ryAS JUST LIKE

AI,AKE''

Eventually we hit the beach at Le Panne. Ah've been back there a few times since. We got onto the beach, an' the' was thousands an' thousands there. Neebody knew what was happenin', you could see the boats comin' in, the' was bodies lyin' on the sand. Anyhow we joined this queue an' just kept walkin' alang, till eventually we come to this small pier. The'
was a destroyer on it, an' me an' Sid managed to get on.

Whey we seemed to be waitin' an' waitin', an' on the open side of the destroy6r was a little fishin' vessel. He happened to be castin' off, an' ah shouted down, "ah yer gannin'?", an' the shouted, "ay", we're away now so Sid and I jumped onto this fishin' vessel. We pulled out of Le Panne harbour, an' we'd just got clear when this destroyer shot past us, an' away-

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It took a destroyer an' hour an' a half to get across the

Channel, but we were on the sea for twelve hours. Of course the sea was just like a lake, smooth, an' the Sun was blazin' down, an' ah-sat on top of a case containin Libby's Milk. Ah've loved it from that day to this. Whey ah was just drinkin' can after can. The' come 'round wi'coffee, the sailors on this trawler, an' give wor arl coffee an' hard biscuits, but the milk was lovely.

Bob Fort

llth

Private
D.L.L
81

Our Wilty's Rifle

Our \{illy signed up for the Tbrriers at t}re start of the War. The 8th Durhams. Of course the whole family trooped down to the Drill Hall at the top of Harris Bank, to see him on guard duty marching backwards and forwards. We were that proud of him you'd think it was Buckingham Palace he was guardin' not Birtley Drill Hall. He whispered out the side of his moutb "Gettaway home the lot ofyou. Youll get me shot!" He went ttrrough the mill at Dunkirk, the' all did. He was back on leave just after Dunkirk. A German plane flew over our house in broad <laylight. Ah was fascinated, gawping up at it. Willy grabbed me an says "Get down yer daft bugger!" He h:newjust how dangeroue the' were and ah didn't. He was a fine lad. VfiIly got captured in North Africa an'was drowned in the Meditrranean when the ship takin' him to Italy as a prigoner ofwar was torpedoed,

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seemed right to me. Willy lost hig rifle in tJle Rtreat to Dunkirk and he was made to pay for it. The money was stopped out of his army pay an' he was still payin' for it out in the Desert when cajturett. Woulcl you believe that, when you thi;k of aU that wag lost aDd deliberately destmyed at and the' had bim paying for tJre loss of one bloody iifle.

I'll tell you something that never

Jack Cavanagh

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Next thing ah kna, we were at Newhaven walkin' down the gang plank, these Silver Lady people were there, givin, us a little bag each wi' a couple o' bars o' chocolate, some cigarettes, an' chewin' gum. We went through another gate, an' the' was a train waitin', an' we got on' ah didn't kna where ah was at, tired, shattered, sore' but the' was a lot worse than me. Bob Fletcher, Norman Huscroft, killed, any amount badly wounded, some lads minds went through that. A lot had it worse than we did, but there it is, it happened, an'lets hope it disn't happen again.

Thomas Maher Private, B Company 8th D.L.r (Chester-Le-Street)

Safe back from Dunkiik, Chester-L-street "Tbrriers" Thomas Maher (on left) and Bobby Gordon. Bobby was killed in the Western Desert.

later

83

"Fourteen f)ays Leave"

We got onto the train, an' the' was people givin' wor chocolate. an' tea, cards to send home to say we were arlreet, an' that. We went from Dover to Aldershot, but it was lovely weather, we were under canvas. The' was arl sorts there, nearly arl what was left of the British Expeditionary Force, the Guards, Scotchmen, you could change your money from francs into British money. We went from there, afber a couple o' days to Knutsford, in Cheshire. We were gannin' on leave, we were gettin' fourteen days leave, an' we were arl on the train when the officers come round, Major James an' them, to tell us it was altered to forty eight hours. The' were frightened the' would be an invasion.

Jimmy McGarry M.M.

Sergeant B Company (Chester-le-Street) 8th D.L.I.

'ACOOK'S TOUR''
We landed at Dover , this ambulance train pulled in , the' took the stretchers off the boat an' onto the train ,it was arl fitted out so they didn't sway when the train moved. The rest of us formed up, we were from different regiments, King's Royal Rifles, some o' the K.O.S.B 's, the' was Yorkshire Light Infantry, an' a few of us from the Durhams. We were arl mixed up.

The' took us up to Brecon in a truck, it was the first South Wales Borderers there. This Sergeant Major says, " Right lads, we'll get your particulars, then we can contact your regiment, they'll be somewhere in England now we don't know where, so you might be here a month". we were there aboot three weeks as it turned oot.
We got money, an' grub, an' this Major from the south Wales Borderers come an' asked us to say nowt about what we'd seen, or what we'd been through, ' cause he sayed the morael of his troops was very high, an'he wouldn't like it to get lowered. He says, "If any o' the lads come an' ask you where you' ve been, say you' ve been on a cook' g Tour".

Joss Little Lance Corporaral B Company (Chester-Le-Street) 8th D.L.I.

84

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IIIAY 1990. THE ROAD TO DUNKIRK REVISITED

For all the bugle calls medals and memorials of the visit, and for all I was standing shoulder with the very men who soldiered there 50 years before, I could not really picture that desperate and blooby struggle of so long ago.
The weather was uncomfortably hot, much the same as May 1940, lilac was in bloom and meadow larks sung high above us. The distant woods and villages were a little out of focus in the haze, but noisy juggernauts on the nlarby Common Market motorway broke any spell that might have been cast. Then, Harry, a 70 year old retired miner recognised the lay of the land. From over there under cover of the green May corn German a.ssault troops had crept towards him. Without any word of explanation Harry an "aisJd imagined rifle. His right hand with a terrible and deadly skill of old flewln a controlled blurr from trigger to rifle bolt and back again, sending " ten ro.unds rapid" into the edge of the cornfield where the storm t"oop"iJ t uJ Uio Fire - Eject-Load -Fire - Eject - Load - Fire - Eject - Load.

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was a powerful conjouring trick. A few swift movements struggle of50 years before fel tvery close by.

in thin air of an old man's hand and the life and death
Gavin John Purdon

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