5/7th Gordon Highlanders

75 Norton Lees Crescent
Sheffield, S8 8SQ

Arnold Lukey — 5 / 7th Gordons

August 1944, near Douvres, FRANCE

The Battalion had to capture a length of main road which was about two or three miles in front of us, almost parallel with our front line. ‘B’ Company was to attack up a road which was roughly at 90 degrees to the main road. ‘C’ Company was to do likewise up a similar road about a mile or so further south. The attack was to take place in darkness. After about half an hour, I was ordered to contact ‘C’ Company to see if they had reached their junction with the main road. I found that ‘C’ Company had reached their junction. In order to avoid going across country in darkness again to rejoin ‘B’ Company and since I felt sure that they would have reached their junction with the main road by now, I decided that walking down the main road would be the quickest and easier way of getting back to ‘B’ Company. I found that the main road had had trees on either side and they had been felled by the Germans and now criss-crossed the road from side to side. This meant crawling under or over tree after tree in darkness and the main road from one junction to the other was about a mile long. I finally reached the other junction only to find that ‘B’ Company was NOT there! So I decided to walk down the road up which they were meant to be coming. After about half-a-mile I spotted some movement in the ditch on the left hand side of the road. There were the leading men of ‘B’ Company stealthily creeping up to their objective. After assuring them that there were no Germans at the road junction, the advance continued at a quicker rate.

Next day the Royal Engineers started work on clearing the main road and they found that the entire length down which I had travelled was mined and booby trapped from end to end. Is it surprising that I believe in God!

22nd October 1944 in Holland

At midnight we set off and walked three miles across country behind German lines to take the village of Welbosch and settled in quickly. As morning dawned, a German officer was spotted saying farewell to his ladylove and was duly captured, as were thirty-five other prisoners during the course of the morning. The Battalion Bren Carriers and transport, which set off by road in daylight to join us, met stronger opposition — 2 killed and 18 wounded.

End of the war in Germany

4th May 1945 - At 20.00 hours rumours began that the war in Europe was over. This was confirmed at 21.00 hours. From the Commanding Officer downwards, there were celebrations, the firing of verey lights, sten guns, revolvers, etc.

5th May 1945 - The war on our front ended, officially at 08.00 hours today.

6 / 7th May 1945 - We are ordered to occupy Bremerhaven which was twenty miles beyond the German front line. I was on the advanced party of about 100 men. The convoy was headed by three Sherman tanks followed by nine trucks and, in the rear three more Sherman tanks. We passed hundreds of German troops all walking around freely. There were a number of German tanks and guns, even German “A.T.S.” girls. We settled down for the night in Bremerhaven on a piece of open ground with the vehicles in a circle and us on the inside of the circle, just like you see in American wild west films.

8th May 1945 - We were joined by the rest of the Battalion which made us feel much happier.

9th May 1945 - We found the huge German liner, the “Europa” tied-up in the docks with three thousand displaced persons from Russia, Poland etc., on board.

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