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We began to drop right and left
Letter dated 22nd October,
1944 from Lt. A.V.L. Mills 1 RHC to his father Col.
A.L.S. Mills. D.S. O.
It was wonderful to see
England again – a most welcome sight after the bloody
continent. Of course I could not see much from the
Dakota in which I was flown from Antwerp, and when I
arrived I was merely carried in my stretcher to an
ambulance. I feel lucky as hell to be alive with only a
bullet wound in my right arm, above the elbow, which
partially broke the bone, and a bit of a gash in my
right calf where another bullet nicked me. I’ll never
forget the day I got it – Friday the 13th. We all
thought of the date when we got the orders for the
attack. It was a place north of Antwerp where we had
been held up for some time. We couldn’t take the town so
we were to attempt a left flanking movement along the
open country to the west. There was no cover at all and
the ground was absolutely flat except for the dykes. Two
companies got cut to pieces trying to take their
objective in the morning, and so the remaining two
companies were sent out in the afternoon. We had lots of
support from the artillery, but that’s not good enough
when troops are well dug in and especially when a lot of
them are paratroopers. I was in the afternoon show and
it reminded me of accounts of the last war. We formed up
behind a dyke and advanced over the open ground. When we
got practically to our objective (600 yards away) the
machine guns and mortars became too hot and we began to
drop right and left. Somehow a few managed to get the
objective. Those of us who were hit lay out in an open
field with no cover. Whenever any of the wounded moved
the Germans opened up and the stuff was flying all
around us. Some of them even crept up another bloody
dyke and lobbed hand grenades among us and I could hear
German voices distinctly. I thought they were going to
polish all of us off as we lay on the ground practically
surrounded and pretending to be dead. You couldn’t help
any of the wounded because anyone who moved attracted a
burst of fire. Those of us who actually got back lay out
there for more than two hours until dark and then
crawled back. The stretcher-bearers waited for hours
until dark and then crawled back. The stretcher-bearers
were then able to come out. It was a grim day all right
for the whole battalion. All the company commanders were
casualties and most of the platoon commanders. The
strength of the rifle companies couldn’t have averaged
more than 30 at most. The battalion seems to have
horrible shows periodically and this was one of them. A
couple of NCOs who had lived through May-sur-Orne told
me that this was just as bad as that. The Canadian Army
is running though a hell of a lot of officers and men
and all these damned politicians lie who say that
reinforcements are adequate and well trained. The truth
is – ask anyone who has been up at the front and has not
just visited some HQ – that they are poorly trained. The
are dragging them into the infantry from everywhere in
order to keep us up to strength, and then they can only
keep us about 2/3rds up to strength by hardly ever
giving the lads at the front a rest.
story - courtesy of the
Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada –
History Archives - The Black Watch Letters and Images
Project / Prof David O'Keefe) |
