The Rabbit

My grandfather Mr Benjamin Hames, who is now 87 years old, was a member of the Territorial Army prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, and on the declaration of the war he was assigned to the 115th field artillery. He was initially sent over with the ill fated expeditionary force in 1940, and like many others was rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk.

As a qualified builder he was deployed to London on his return, to rebuild the properties affected by the bombs, as well as maintain his duties with the TA. This is where he met my Grandma, Grace, whose mother gave him accommodation during his time in London; they are still happily married 63 years on.

Following this he was re-assigned to the 94th field artillery regiment, to prepare for the invasion of mainland Europe. He landed on the Normandy beaches 4 days after the invasion began. They made their way through France journeying through the many deserted villages and towns,
Obviously the local people had left things just as they were, leaving their animals and the farm land deserted, the soldiers would milk the cows, when they could, collecting the milk in empty petrol cans, thus providing much relief for the animals themselves and fresh milk for the men.

It was on one of these excursions that they came across a rabbit in a hutch, it was released from its cage to at least have some chance of survival in the wild as opposed to starving to death, as they did with many animals.

When the soldiers returned to their lorry to move on, they discovered the rabbit had hopped aboard. The rabbit then joined them on their travels. When the gun was set up and put into firing position the rabbit would hop from the lorry and get underneath the gun, at each firing of the gun, the rabbit’s ears would flop down and cover its ears up, but it did not move, when the gun was moved back the rabbit would jump back into the lorry.

This carried on for quite a few months, word got around about the rabbit and its antics, and even attracted the attention of their Colonel at the time. Eventually the rabbit succumbed to disease so was put down.

This was no doubt a welcome break from the toils of war.

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