47 Royal Marine Commando: An Inside Story 1943-1946 by Marc de Bolster

Author:Marc de Bolster [de Bolster, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2014-12-11T08:00:00+00:00

CSgt Fred Batt, HQ-Troop:

Very shortly after dawn we were all moving round to see who had got through to that point and it was approximately 0700 when I eventually reported casualties and strength to the CO By this time in all the pits, tommy cookers of solidified methylated spirit, were underway and a meal which consisted mainly of porridge and tea was being consumed. Personally the tea tasted so delicious that I was surely tempted to use a further part of my ration but decided to have a brew later in the day instead. The morning was really uneventful—the CO was making plans for the assault on PORT-EN-BESSIN (our final objective), the acting Adjutant and myself went assorting Tp Cdrs and generally looking around our position. At midday we freed our tommy cookers into use again to make some hot toast and more tea and settled down until four o’clock when the main body would move off into the attack and my little party under the acting Adjutant and RSM would act as rear-guard. Some sniping activity was taking place all this time but insufficient to worry us very much but as soon as our main body moved off to attack our position as rear-guards was subjected to heavy mortar fire and consequently at approximately eight o’clock we were ordered to evacuate this position and move into a trench about 200 yards in rear. This rather appeared to be a trap as we had no sooner completed this move than mortar fire was switched on to the trench and a machine gun opened on us. This continued for two hours and by that time we were completely numb from the continuous explosion of mortar bombs all around us, and it was colossal luck that a bomb had not actually pitched in the trench despite many exploding some six or twelve inches away from us. Shortly after ten o’clock it was reported that the final success signal had been seen from the town and almost at the same moment a terrific shouting and this came from ahead of us. What happened then is very confused, and a befuddled mind can only recall hails of machine gun bullets, orders and counter orders and eventually a realisation that in front of me were a number of my colleagues including the RSM with hands raised in the air.

As I looked around I could see we were surrounded and so had no option but to follow those ahead of me. That my mind was blank at that time I have no doubt, I can recall nothing else until finding myself behind German lines, some 200 yards from our own lines, and a preliminary search to ensure that we had no weapons.

After the initial search we were marched away across fields, down roads and after much apparent wondering by the guards over us we eventually arrived at a place which I imagine was Company Headquarters. It took a matter of seconds to decide there that we

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