Flying bomb sites
(Also a supply of diary paper is acquired)
1st September
Narrative: The Flying bomb mentioned is the V1 (Vengeance Weapon 1), designed to attack cities in retaliation for allied bombing raids on Germany. The V1 campaign against England started just after dad landed in Normandy. Until the sites were overrun by the dad’s advancing army, about a hundred V1s per day were launched against England from sites in northern France. The first V2 was launched in anger on 7th September 1944.
“Although the pace had seemed to us fast, and we had had little time to rest we found that we had dropped behind once again. The Guards’ Armoured Division were between Douai and Arras. Twelfth Corps had reached the Somme at Condé and the Eleventh Armoured Division was expected to cross the Belgian frontier that night. We were now approaching the main flying bomb area, and it was with some surprise that we learnt that twenty-four of the sites had just been liberated. Somehow, we had never imagined that there were that number, though we were soon to find that there were still plenty more.
Our orders were the same as those of the previous day. We were to seize and hold Doullens, and to bypass all opposition en route. The latter provision we quickly took advantage of by bypassing Amiens.
The country was very open now and very like our conception of the battlefields of the last war, with their long straight poplar lined roads leading across a sort of Salisbury Plain. In order to bypass opposition effectively, a large proportion of this route was done across country, but being fairly flat we were able to do this without much difficultly.
Progress was again very slow and even when we struck the road again speed did not increase. By this time we were in the habit of equipping each vehicle with a supply of corned beef and biscuits so that each could be independent. As we trundled along the roads through numerous villages the flag waving and the throwing of flowers and fruit continued. In Beauval as in all the preceding towns, the revelry had reached considerable proportions. We had a small halt here during which we consumed an alarming quantity of "vin rouge" while the armour in front of us was having difficulty with some anti-tank guns on the road to Doullens.
This road rose out of Beauval and clung to the side of the hill for some considerable distance. On our left we could see a wood where, it was reported, some two hundred Germans had been removed by British shellfire. It was evening as we passed the enemy anti-tank guns, now knocked out, and topped the rise which formed the Southern side of the valley sheltering Doullens. As twilight began to make its presence felt the fires which were burning in the town below us were creating a faint glow in the darkening sky.
We halted on the outskirts of the town where the hill was at its steepest, and, in the trees on our left, we could see the outer walls of the strong Napoleonic fortification called the citadel. As orders for the attack were being given a great number of prisoners were being taken. An artillery spotter plane swooped down to the height the vehicles' wireless aerials and dropped a note. It read: "There are four Germans in the shell hole to your left." On investigation this proved true, and they soon joined their comrades going back.
The plan was to send in two companies. We were to be prepared to kill the enemy as they endeavoured to escape from the other end of the town, by firing over the town. What Germans there were in the town either surrendered or escaped from the other end of it without our knowing.
We accordingly drove in and proceeded to hold it until further orders. We drove past the blazing buildings which appeared to be factories, and established ourselves in the centre of the town.
It was a large town and, being a centre of flying bomb activity, it had received considerable attention from the Royal Air Force. All the civilians had evacuated and the empty shell of what had been the centre of local life took on a ghostly atmosphere as the sun finally set and later the scene was lit by a strong pale moonlight. We occupied a stationery shop which proved quite comfortable and provided us with an ample supply of notepaper.”