S.A.S Men in the Making by Peter Davis

Author:Peter Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473846197
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Action position, Bagnara, 3 September 1943. Showing shredded jacket and cacti.

At last the shadows deepened, and the opposing hillside grew blacker and more indistinct in the growing darkness. The first stars shone palely above us, and I decided that it was time for us to move back. We did not relish the idea of lying in that exposed position, allowing the enemy to make full use of the cover of darkness to creep up on us and surprise us.

So softly the word was passed round and silent figures assembled in the shadows of the house. Widely dispersed, we set off down the road, thankful for the darkness which protected us from the watching Germans.

Tony’s section, the nearest of our troops to us, was easily found a good 300 yards down the road from the position we had just left, McNinch and Tunstall went straight on to the Aid Post which Phil Gun had set up in the town. Tony and his lads were extremely pleased to see us and were fully aware of the ordeal to which we had been subjected throughout the preceding day. They could not do enough for us and were soon busy cooking us a meal and a hot brew of welcome tea. I fully expected to hear all sorts of recriminations against me, both from Tony himself and from his men, but instead, all I met with was sympathy and understanding. It was just bad luck, they said, and we had done in their opinion, remarkably well to be able to come out of it with so few casualties.

It can be understood how these remarks and sentiments cheered me for I was taking Tobin’s death and the other casualties very hard.

Anxiously I asked after Mitchell’s sub-section. ‘They were amazingly lucky,’ Tony replied, ‘for although they were nearly all wounded, we have got them back and there is every chance that they will all recover quickly. Glacken and Corporal Mitchell seemed to have got it the worst. Paddy Glacken was shot in the back, but luckily the bullet went in at an angle, and came out without breaking anything. Corporal Mitchell was hit under the arm, in his side, and I am afraid he lost a lot of blood before we were able to get to him. Kirk got one through the leg, Squires through the wrist, and Little in the arm. Clarke was wounded in the arm by that first mortar bomb.’

Thank heavens they were all right and that there was every hope that they would recover from their wounds shortly, and would suffer no permanent harmful effects. As it turned out, all of them, except for Kirk were back with me by the end of three months, medical category A1 and operationally fit again. Kirk’s leg gave him a lot of trouble owing to the nerve having been severed, and it was thought that it might take two or three years before he was completely all right again.

I gathered also from what Tony said, that some of his section had been terrific getting my wounded lads back.

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