D-Day Memories.
I have just been watching the 65th anniversary D-day ceremonies, and the fly past of the Lancaster and the Spitfires brought to mind a Major Battle that we did near Louth, Lincolnshire on late May Bank Holiday in 1990.
The site was an old Bomber Airfield, probably Manby, that had been recently abandoned, and somebody was trying to develop into a showground.
The old Sergeant's Mess had been bought and turned into a pub, leisure centre and B&B for the village, and I stayed there for the weekend, very convenient because the whole event took place just outside the door.
Lunsfords were well represented, and Brian organised some formal pictures of the troops and the officers which are shown below. Of Lunsfords' role in the battle I can tell you nothing, but maybe someone out there can contribute something!
By now I was well established in my secondary role as General of Artillery and on the second day, at the Army Council Meeting, we were told that for some reason the armies were going to change sides and instead of fighting from East to West we should today be fighting from West to East.Now the guns were camped up for the night on the East and after the meeting I had to assemble the gunners and get the guns transported right across this very large site and hide them from the public view before the start of that days battle. It was a huge battlefield as you will see from the various pictures of the guns being moved. It was also very hot, as you can tell from the picture of the Colonel in informal dress!
Anyway, that is the background, the real story is this:--
The call of nature took me to the loo one night and the chap next to me started chatting (I could still hear in those days) He was intrigued because he thought he recognised my accent and we found out in conversation that he was from Wolverhampton, where I was born, and had in fact lived in the same road as my maternal grandparents.
It turned out that he was in the RAF and living in the village, but was stationed at Coningsby, not far away.
Coningsby is the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and this chap was the Sergeant Major, (or whatever the RAF rank is called), in charge there.
Now we became great friends and on the last evening he invited me to bring a party of Lunsfords to Coningsby the next day when he would personally show us round the flight. And so it turned out that three or four car loads turned up at the gates of Coningsby the next morning. As we were about to pay our entrance fee to the museum I said that we were to there to meet this chap, whereupon everybody jumped to attention, we were ushered through the turnstyles, the most sincere apologies were given because he had been unexpectedly called away on duty that very morning and his deputy took over as guide.
Now the historic flight was laid out in this big hangar, and there was a fenced walkway round two or three sides from which the general public could view the planes from a distance. But not us! Oh no, as honoured guests the barrier was lifted and we were free to wander at will right up to the actual machines.
A wonderful experience!
I have two other memories of D-Day, nothing whatsoever to do with Lunsfords, but they may be of interest. 65 years ago, as a 2nd Lt. in the Royal Engineers I was issued with tropical kit, and one evening put on a train with a lot of other reinforcement officers . We embarked on a Liner, the Orontes, in Glasgow during the night and early the next morning set sail down the Clyde, with no idea where we were bound for. On deck at about 8.30am to catch our last glimpse of the old country we were surprised to see the banks lined with people cheering and waving flags, which seemed strange because there was nothing special about us and if they did this for every troop ship that went by they couldn't get much work done,
It was only after the pilot had left the ship that the Captain announced that allied troops had landed in Normandy that morning! We bypassed Normandy and went on to the established theatre of war in Italy.
And five years later, on June 6th, I was walking down the aisle to marry Joan, my first wife!