Memories about my father David William Azzaro
Volume 2. From the start of WWII up to arrival in the Middle East
[Included in my printed files is an 'official' War Diary
for 44th Division Royal Engineers for the month of May 1940 which covers the
retreat to Dunkirk.]
It begins in very formal army style. As the retreat to Dunkirk gets
underway, the style changes to include more informal comment (Perhaps it was
no longer being dictated by the commanding officer).
At some point,
as Dad's section were moving away from the enemy,
they watched and cheered a column of tanks advancing forward. The ensuing sound of gun fire suggested that
the enemy were not far away. Shortly
after, some of the tanks passed them again, this time damaged, gun turrets
missing, wounded on stretchers laid out on the upper structure.
I think the next stories come from the final stage of the retreat to Dunkirk:
At Mont des Cats (When young I always
thought this was "Monday Cats" ). Dad and
the other man who shared the typing were in the HQ in the crypt of the monastery
when the order arrived for the final retreat to Dunkirk. They tossed a coin
for which of them would type the order. Dad won and the other man remained
in the crypt to type the order. He was later mentioned in despatches for volunteering
to remain in the HQ. Dad joined the
troops defending the hill (The monastery is at the top). The hill was being
shelled & the crypt was the far safer place!
The regiment/division(?) was divided into units, each under the command of
an officer or NCO. Dunkirk was about 30 miles away. If they sustained casualties, the injured were
to have their wounds dressed as far as possible and then left behind.
Several men were injured when their unit was strafed by a German fighter .
The man immediately in front of Dad and the man behind were seriously injured. The casualties were laid at the side of the
road and made conspicuous with white flags in the
hope that the advancing Germans would find them still alive. I knew of this story while we were still living
at home, but the lasting impression that this left on Dad only became known
when he related it to Val one Remembrance day while we were living in Aldershot.
Dad had been issued with a helmet fitted with an experimental visor (intended
to protect the wearer from shrapnel). Dad said that his visor deflected a
bullet which would have killed him. The visors were withdrawn after Dunkirk
as being of little use.
On arriving
at the perimeter of Dunkirk, at the end of the day's
march, Dad's
group were told that the Royal Sussex were to man the defences, which they
did all night and were not too happy about it.
In the morning they were told that the order had been countermanded
and the Royal Sussex should be on the beaches. Most of the regiment received
the correct order and went straight to the beaches. On arriving on the beach
they found the regiment, but the beach had been heavily bombed overnight with
many casualties.
The diary records that after failed attempts to get off the beach by the small
boats that were ferrying men to larger ships, the regiment were given permission
to march into Dunkirk and evacuate from the Mole.
It appears that each division/regiment was allocated its section of
beach and time slot. When a bombing
raid commenced, evacuation ceased, often running over the time slot. You then
had to wait for a new time slot to be issued, which might be days ahead. The
"Little ships"
were mainly used to ferry men from the beaches to the larger ships lying off
shore. A cabin cruiser, for example, would tow several rowing boats or ships
life boats. The last boat in the line
would often overturn, losing the men who were crowded into it. In deeper water,
this was often fatal. The sight of the "Brighton
Belle" apparently at anchor off the beach was
a reassuring sight. However, as the tide rose, it became obvious that this
paddle steamer was sitting on the sea bed and not afloat at all.
[I can add an extra line or two to the Dunkirk evacuation. Dad said that his regiment first arrived at a beach outside of Dunkirk itself and started evacuation from there. After a while they received a message to say that their beach had become too dangerous and that no further evacuation from it would take place. They moved on into Dunkirk and came to a sector commanded by Montgomery. His was the best organised of all the beaches - around the perimiter were guards alternately facing one inwards and one outwards. Those facing out had orders to shoot anyone unauthorised trying to get into the area; those facing in had orders to shoot anyone trying to jump the queue. Dad's regiment were given permission to use Montgomery's sector up until a certain time limit. All went well but the time limit was reached and Dad still hadn't reached the front of the queue. He had to move on again - maybe this is the point when they started embarking from the Mole. He said that this was the point where his spirits were at their lowest. He even thought about hiding in the basement of one of the buildings and waiting until he could surrender to the Germans. ]
When the
film "Dunkirk" was released in 1956, we
all went to see it. Dad was not keen but as everyone
else in my class was going to see it Dad relented
and we all went. Dad said the only
inaccuracy was the beach scenes. He
said that the first thing you did when arriving on the beach was to dig a
slit trench In which to shelter. The
film depicted men spread across the beaches with little attempt to take cover. He identified with the group making their way
to Dunkirk and said it could have been his unit.
Dad had lost
his glasses on the beaches. The MO
observed that the Germans could have opened an opticians shop with all the
glasses that they would have found.
Once home,
on leave, Dad's Uncle George questioned him about
one of the group (Dick Wittington?) who had arrived home before the others.
He was a dispatch rider with a motor bike and it appears that on learning
of the evacuation order, decided it was time to get out. Dad tried to diffuse
the situation by saying that everything was too confused to know what really happened, but
it was clear that "Dick" had arrived in
England several days before the rest of the regiment.
I'm not
sure if this next story came immediately after Dunkirk or a little later.
I understood that the regiment was sent to Yorkshire to re-group.
"We (Dad
and 2 others?) were walking on the moor (somewhere near Halifax?) when we
heard a plane approaching. We dived into the ditch at the side of the road.
The plane passed and we climbed out. An elderly Yorkshire man was laughing
at us: 'It
was one of ours' he said. We told him: 'where we have been they were never ours'.
He then asked if we had come back from France. We said
yes. He asked if we were at Dunkirk,
again the answer was yes. The old Yorkshireman was amazed and proclaimed: 'Then
God has answered our prayers. The King ordered a day of prayer for the army.
You boys are the proof that our prayers were answered.'
In order
to boost morale when the regiment went to France, several veterans of the
Great War, were assigned to it. Unfortunately
these guys did rather the opposite. They
both came from Yorkshire and promptly disappeared while they were re-grouping.
Autumn
1940
[ Dad married Lilian Barnes on 6/8/40 ] I'm not
sure how periods of leave fitted with getting married, or being stationed
on the Kent/Sussex border. (Hawkshurst, Robertsbridge, or Romney?)
There was an incident when he and his wife booked into a hotel. They spent the evening drinking in the bar.
Several officers were in the same bar. The stairs to the bedrooms were in
the bar area and going upstairs would be very conspicuous - the problem being
that Dad had not applied for a sleeping out pass.
Eventually his officer went to the gents and Dad and wife made their
escape upstairs.
The orders,
in the event of an invasion, were to cross the Royal Military Canal onto Romney
Marsh, with the Scots Guards, blowing the bridges behind them. Dad thought this was pointless - he had seen far
wider rivers in Belgium present the Germans with no trouble.
The cross
Country run. General Montgomery became
concerned that the army in Kent/Sussex, while waiting for an invasion, needed
more exercise. He ordered a cross country
run for all units. Dad's unit were to be led
by a young officer, known to be very fit.
However, the entire army could not go at the same time and the office
would have to be manned. Dad was aware of the arrangements as he typed the
order. He noticed that those who were not going on the main run would be running
the day before - led by a much older officer.
Obviously Dad needed to be on the first run! The young officer went
along too, as he was not sure of the route.
By the time they reached the half way point the "old"
officer was well in the lead. He waited for the men to catch up and told them
that as he was an old man, they were all expected to be home before him or
do the run again. Dad and some of his friends arrived in sight of the officer.
The younger officer just managed to keep up, but spent the next few days suffering from groin
strain and the MO put him on light duties only.
Dad reckoned
that Canterbury High Street, on a Saturday afternoon could be one of the most
dangerous places to be. The street would be packed with men on weekend leave.
When an officer walked down the street they would all salute, elbows could
inflict serious injury and there was no room to move away.
Journey
to Bagdad
At some time
in 1941 Dad managed to get himself on a "Course". It took some time as his application had to
be signed by an officer and none wanted to loose him from the HQ. Eventually, he managed to corner a junior officer
while the CO was away. One reward of
the course was that the man who passed out top of the list was always sent
to the War Office. Dad's academic determination achieved this success. But a previous draft to the Middle East was
one man short - so they took the first man off the following course. (so the man in 2nd place was the one sent to
the war office). I believe he was back in Yorkshire for the course in late
autumn perhaps [must be 1941]. Dad said every church choir was rehearsing "The Messiah" ready for Christmas.
By now Russia had entered the war against Germany and Britain was trying
to help by sending supplies via the Arctic convoys. The alternative was a long journey around Africa
and into the Persian Gulf. Thence by road/rail to the Black Sea. PAIFOR (= Persia and Iraq Force) had the principal
task of improving the overland part of the route through Iraq. When Nan heard
that Dad was being sent to PAI Force she assumed he had volunteered for the
"Parachute And Invasion Force".
Dad was not allowed to say where he was going.
Dad was embarked
on a troop ship - most of the troops were going to the Far East presumed to
be going to reinforce the Singapore garrison. There were three decks filled with bunks 3 high.
Dad managed to get a top bunk. His
neighbours were two professional boxers who took a shine to him. They proved very useful when someone tried to
take his top bunk. The lower bunks
were unpleasant when men started being sea sick.
Dad said that if the ship were to be torpedoed, saying your prayers
would be a better bet than attempting to get up the ladders to the boat deck.
The Convoy
left Liverpool and sailed straight into an Atlantic storm. I recall Dad saying
that he tried to remain on deck for as long as possible, only going below
to eat and sleep. He took a book and
sat by a funnel where the warmth was useful.
From time to time the naval escorts could be seen and heard chasing
around the outsides of the convoy dropping depth charges. Whether any ships were lost or U boats sunk
he never said.
As the convoy
progressed across huge Atlantic rollers, as ships climbed up the waves and
reached the top, there was a time when the propeller was clear of the water
and, without any resistance, would whirl furiously. Then as the ship descended
the wave, it would bite into the water with an enormous thud. It was terrifying
but the worst place to be was just above the propeller. This was the accommodation
for those who had failed to report for embarkation on a previous convoy and
had been rounded up by the police. Behind
Dad's ship in the convoy were two ice breakers:-
because of their design they did not ride smoothly through the waves.
I remember Dad saying that riding in his own ship was bad enough but
being on an ice breaker would have been horrific.
The progress
of the convoy was plotted by amateur navigators. No instructions were given
about changing time so anyone with a watch could crudely calculate longitude.
Some men had diaries with a map of the world in the end-papers.
The consensus was that their route was straight across the North Atlantic
almost to America, then south until re-crossing the Atlantic to round the
Cape of Good Hope. Landfall was made at Durban which was an incredible
sight - no black out, no bombing. Unfortunately Dad was on sentry duty when
the ship docked - guarding the Wrens' quarters.
A duty he thought utterly pointless since all the wrens were sleeping
in the army officers' cabins. This also meant that
when he eventually got ashore, all the local ex-pats, who had taken care of
soldiers on shore leave, had disappeared. Once again Dad was on his own in
a strange place.