Surprise Meetings

I was stationed in Great Chard, Kent, No 3 Operating Group HQ. My job was admin. With D Day imminent we had been warned that we would be going to France a soon as possible after the first landing.My eldest brother was with the Essex Regiment Royal Armour Corps stationed at Eastbourne so one Sunday I made my way there to see him and say our goodbyes not knowing when we would meet again.
D Day came and a few days later we were moved to Hedge End on the outskirts of Southampton. It was a tented camp where they now sell caravans. As I was so near my home I got special permission to leave camp for a few hours which enabled me to take a couple of pals and visit Mum and Dad, what a surprise that was for them. We just had time for a quick meal and a wash. Back in camp we moved very early next morning to London and boarded a liberty ship and sailed away that evening. We were in the hold which was full of troops, I remember it was pouring with rain.We arrived off Gold Beach,I think it was, at sunrise and had to scramble down rope ladders into landing craft. I remember that there were lots of landing craft of all shapes and sizes coming and going. We then found out that we landed far too soon and when our transport had been sorted out we eventually found ourselves in a small village a few miles inland between Caen and Bayeux. The actual fighting was going on in the taking of Caen.
A few more days passed and I was billeted in a local farm house. One morning I looked out of the bedroom window and there were tanks all around us.I remember dressing and hurrying out to see which regiment they were.I knew from the division signs painted on the tanks that it was my brother's regiment. I asked the troops standing around and they confirmed that Bill, my brother, was at a briefing meeting in the nearby field. Bill maintains that he came to the farmhouse for some water and I opened the door which was a big surprise for us both.I think that I waited around and when he saw me he couldn't believe it was me, we both agree that it was an amazing coinicidence and a terrific moment. He told me that they were moving into battle that night with the Canadian troops attacking Caen after 1000 bomber raid but if the opportunity arose he would try and see me again. Amazingly later Bill was driving through a flattened Caen in a jeep and as he past a perfumerie there I was at the door. Bill's wife Marjorie had the bottle of scent for years after the war and wouldn't open it.
A few days later my brother Bill turned up looking the worse for wear.He was on his way to Bayeux with his CO's false teeth who had been wounded by a sniper and was in hospital there.He told us that in closing the gap they had lost a lot of tanks and men but a very large number of Germans had been taken prisoner. I said cheerio again and it was to be much later before we met again.
We had moved into Caen and then to Antwerp and finally to Brussels. I had a letter from him saying that he was in a village, Zevengen,where he was giving lessons to reinforcements before they went into battle.
Near the end of the war Bill was sent to Brussels for R&R and I was having a drink in the Montgomerie Club bar when in came Bill most surprised to see me again.That was our last meeting in Europe, he went on into Germany. I was posted to Palestine. Thank God we were both able to meet up again when the war ended and we both came home. Bill is now 88 and I am 82, my other brother who is now 79 was in the army but did not go abroad.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.