Fight in Wood
“'Jerry'was fighting hard to stop us landing,” continued the Sergeant,“but soon the beach was swarming with our chaps. My party worked along the base of the wall after we had charged across the open beach. We fought our way up the slope and got into wooded ground above. It was full of Germans. The wood was crisscrossed with low stone wall,just like Sicily. There were snipers behind these walls,and they let us have it. The chap next to me went down,shot through the neck.
“There were also trenches,which the enemy defended strongly. We drove them out with tommy-guns and rifle fire as we advanced,but the men behind the walls were causing us trouble and casualties. The first of our chaps had got through the wood and were working round the ‘Jerries’ when a grenade lobbed over the wall and exploded at my feet. I got a smack on the head and I was out of the battle.
“The Germans were by this time popping off with their mortars. The beach and wood became a very hot place. There was a certain amount of barbed wire among the trees,but it was low,and we got through it without much difficulty. When ‘Jerry’ went back a bit,still fighting pretty hard,I made my way back to the beach and,with other wounded,was loaded on a ship. It was a lively party,but we shifted ‘Jerry’ from his strong points,and everything was going well when I left. I did not think I would be back so soon,but I am glad I had been over.”
Private Kenneth Phillips,of Hull,who got a mortar wound in the leg,said the Germans saw them coming all right,but they seemed to be a long time getting their big guns firing. Most of the German coastal guns,he thought,must have been knocked out by bombing and naval gunfire,because when their artillery did open up they concentrated on tanks trying to get ashore,and no gunfire was brought down on the infantry after they got inshore. Mortar,machinegun and rifle fire was pretty heavy,however.
Tribute to Sappers
“The sappers,as usual,did a marvellous job under heavy fire clearing beaches of mines for us,” said Private Phillips. “Once we got to the shelter of the wall and moved up through the woods ‘Jerry’ started to go back. We rounded up quite a lot of prisoners and loaded them on to ships. When I left the beach on Wednesday our chaps were advancing well inland. We had done the first part of the job nicely.”
Corporal Arnold Meakin,Royal Engineers,of Doncaster,was one of the first men on the beach as his job was to clear a way through mine fields for the following infantry. Said he:“We cleared a number of mines,and troops were getting through in good order. Mortar fire and snipers were responsible for most of the early casualties. Then my pal went down,and as I stooped to give him a hand I stopped one through my shoulder. It was my second visit to that part of the world,as I was there in 1939.”
Corporal Sidney Pooley,a 23-year-old Hullite,said his party’s job was to take a little village and knock out an 88-millimetre gun known to be there. “I got 120 yards up the beach towards the objective,when a sniper’s bullet cracked my helmet and knocked it off,but it did not hurt me,” he said. He showed me a hole clean through the crown of the helmet. It had cleared his scalp without touching him.
The next shot was not so lucky,as a sniper got him through the back of the neck. I noticed that one of his ears was fill of sea sand. “I’m leaving that there for a souvenir,” he said. “It’s the first bit of enemy territory that we brought back.”
Cpl. Pooley was wounded in Sicily,and had fought in Africa.
As the craft discharged their wounded,funs and tanks were run aboard,and as I watched they turned round and headed back to France. Reinforcements pouring in night and day without pause.