D-Day Veteran Fred Bates' moving story.

one four four two three eight three two toilet Frederic bites [Music] before the outbreak of war for my early days most of my working life was in the health wholesale grocery trade I went into the army from her grocery company in Birmingham I knew at the age of fourteen when I had actually gone and volunteered to go into the Army in the boys band only to be told by the MCO come back when you're 18 you saw me that Sunday morning which I think was the 3rd of September when Neville Chamberlain came on air by radio saying that we were now at war with Germany well at that age one didn't really understand a lot about what war was well I got my calling up papers to me to join the general service corps in Colchester five days after my 18th birthday I know the deltas our didn't want to be called up that one didn't realize what they were way of volunteering and what they were going to go into he was so naive at that time in our life think we ant as they are today where they knows how much more I wanted to go into the Dorset Regiment not knowing that they were actually infantry the reason being that there was a lot of Birmingham fellows joined the door sets fire to the wall and it was well known that there were hell of a lot of Birmingham Burmese in the Dorset regiment the thing was at the time I volunteered and got called up where I was working at a time the bus said to me you're not going in you are in a reserved occupation which would have kept me out of the service but Fred said fred is going into the army and offer window I just accepted the call up and I'm still remember going down to New Street station to travel down to London and then on to Colchester and ilyich so remember getting out of the Train and getting into the back of an army vehicle and being taken up to Gujarat barracks where I done all my training including a driver mechanics cause they got the posting from Colchester to Margate Cliftonville I can recollect getting into Margate the fourth daughters were away on what they used to call an exercise or maneuvers so I time on my own in that fortnight before they came back [Music] and we were in a literally like a prisoner war country we'll all tents in caves in you couldn't make contact with the civilian population I'll join up with him and then from there we were sent to pixel on say I spent nine month there with the for Dorset's prior to being transferred I got back to the battalion only to be transferred from the 4th battalion the Dorset's to the 1st battalion the Dorset's who went over on the morning the 6th of June 1944 a certain Thursday we left the camp in army vehicles opened vehicles to be tightened down to the docks [Music] and this will be going down I was dipping into my pocket telling all my English : say into the clouds we were allocated 200 French I believe and they were little tiny square notes I can recollect over in Normandy giving the French farmers a fire Frank mode for a mug of milk we got on board about and I was allocated a hammock when I eventually got into it with quite a job Dillon into one I can remember when we were on deck and we were ready to go down something which would never tiring down was the they netting the ropes on the side of the boat where we had to go down into the landing craft and the landing craft were bobbing up and down like nobody's business we were allocated sections of our gold beach our romance was the township we landed on what they called geek sector jrj geek sector which was marshy ground I'm literally wading ashore up here worrying about my cigarettes in my small place for the dust soaked through not knowing what we what was getting torn at us they were amongst the first to land along with Tom Shaye's green Howard some what-have-you and I've been transferred to them without any prior warning they are gonna be moved so I left all my old mates back in Big Show and joined fresh faces [Music] we've never had any real insight into what we were going to fight Tom didn't mean anything to us that that morning it was 7:30 when they landed about thirty when you ask people what was the date of d-day a lot of people will say the 6th of June well one has to ask them as Who I remember what day was it and it was a Tuesday morning which one will never forget we wasn't expecting what did face us we will never actually went through any exercise without involved we had a time to exercise up in Yorkshire but it was a London inland where they were supposed to be the Germans landing in England and this exercise were up in your career but we had no inkling as to what the Germans were shooting at us I got German machine guns that we knew nothing about we'd never been told I can't recollect ever been told they got a dreaded Spandau machine gun which fired 1,200 rounds a minute and it was a swathe of fire from left to right where you kept your head there there was the dreaded 88 millimeter anti-aircraft gun they use as field artillery and there was not one of our tank that could survive a hit our tanks our equipment against theirs was useless irrespective of what we were told we got the best we got this it was a load of bull but we didn't know that and as he went inland the German tanks were already prepared for landing in the fields where we were advancing into after the return flips or whatever you know if you believe you they had been dug down into holes where there was only that the turret of the tank above ground with an 88 shot one of the reasons I was sent to the 1st battalion was the 1st battalion had been in mortar North Africa Sicily and Italy only to be told when they landed in Italy that they were going home thinking oh we've done our work which they had only to come home to pick up us youngsters to mix us with veterans of other conflicts to try and help us along what to do what not to do with the old boys you know the one that would be seen actually we had not seen action when you come across the real thing it frightens you to death it's a it's another world it was murder and we wasn't we wasn't accustomed to what was happening and in that first hour there are two cows casualties every minute in that Iowa after that area bloggers get so upset thinking about that more [Music] we never ever knew what we go into face we were never told they only don't as I was ordered when I landed on Normandy in Normandy two months into my 19th birthday I get so upset thinking about what happened from that day on and why am I still here I feel as though I'm gone back to them they've been left behind [Music] as we were London where there's been shelling inland and on the beaches there was something I don't think that they'd ever thought about but where there were shell holes in the sea there were a helluva lotta fellas drowning with all the equipment by going into one of these holes in the water the Navy was shelling over our heads they'd been bombing the coastline and of course knowing Tom Davis him they didn't never got the target to fight and shoot against another living creature the only creature I ever killed in England was the unfortunate seagulls that happened to be on the firing range just outside of excellence' when one of those got hit it hurt you in to see a seagull killed but not realizing that you were right they're going to kill people [Music] the end of the day we were outside the bio we got off the bases and Bayou was supposed to be the first objective only bayous expected battalion along with Tom on the first day of the landings but Bayou was Titan on the 7th of June and I remember going into value and what did we say when we got into bio buddy back in the local cemetery dead pencil away there was a some of the fence the Normans who were not very happy to see us we had a french-canadian officer with each company and they worked the what the Gaul can alone a commanding on loan we had that Canadian officer with us continually and I remember the one night we were in a failed dog leap in a you know little dog out in the night when we heard all this rustling along the other side as a head fell and I go up to this Canadian officer which I remember well and he said come with me and I wish I had never up my mouth thinking what we'll what we're gonna face we went down towards this next field and what was it what was coming along a hedgerow a cow that was another shocking sight was to say these poor animals killed a lookout to save him a hillock and I've seen the battleship site let's say that were firing over our heads and it used to take when we counted it our laws remember he used to get up to about 18 before you heard the shells going over your head in front I was shelling in front and lo and behold after the war I found out that law dozen in the Navy was out there firing onto the beaches and when I met him after war life I've met up with it I said well you missed my there were times when they're shelling fell short causing on this boat unnecessary loss of life and while we were on that hillock I can recollect seen it a Flying Fortress coming back off a daylight raid that was shot down as we were looking up at it and seen that sign forces coming down to land into the ground with no parachutes these were all part and parcel for what was happening around you dead dying and wounded we heard nothing about sausages while I was over in Normandy the only comments we got from German prisoners of war was one when this war is over you will be at war with Russia and believe you me they were writing what they said we were that close to another conflict with Russia and there are other comments from German prisoners of war when it was raining cats and dogs was nice flee go Jota no flying today now I came into contact with a lot of German POWs later on in life when they were serving on the terms he come 67 sansa camp in havoc ethics and they were a family men and men marked myself there was the odd fanatic but they were just like us really you can't judge a book by it's cover they were good and bad amongst all of us when you hear of Germans shooting prisoners of war it was not one-sided we were going along one day when he was going by a field where there were raw core of military police and they were in the process of shooting fence Norman civilians the reason we found out why was that these Norman's were taking the boots off our dead soldiers bodies well what was a pair of boots when the fellow had done they were only taking his boots that must think they must have been shorter but there were actually killed by the military police and I'll stand up in court and swear on a dozen Bibles that that happened well you missed the usual you know the usual things but you were used to a little and with maybe in the funny ATAR and not like in eighth when we were going on the road miles with our packed lunch are you societal so I had to the trader ma who would like my Boyle League and I got killed in a cross we didn't go hungry of sorts we used to go down to the forces containing excellence' and now the lovely evening entertainment with the ladies there and get us spam summaries which was then in then dice a luxury one of our might scenic come in my platoon said I've got a date sticks up for you Fred I said how do you say yeah he said I'll take you down to Woolworths where she works and this young lady was the other side of the counter and when she put her hand on the counter for some reason or other I seen a wedding ring on her finger my principal was who was a married lady now you might as I get away but I was on the 18 they were now Timaeus field I never went on that life my only first and foremost with Connery from day one till the day she died one and only girlfriend [Music] my life must have been charmed for me to come back but I came back on the stretcher I cannot recollect it now a lot because I was unconscious when I was taken back into the casualty see how is Joseph Lee receiving station area I do not know a lot about what happened that day they were things happening there where you could get knocked out with a blast or whatever and that must have happened to me I was a fortunate enough not to get seriously wounded after a while I was transferred to a hospital up in Southport Lanka's here well I went home from Southport dressed up in red white and blue hospital attire in those days if you were wounded soldier or whatnot in the army also I don't know better now than earful but we would just stop in blue navy blue red white and blue Jaken trousers white shirt and a red tie and we went about like that Ned to me that was inviting people to feel sorry for you when you were most embarrassed of being made of photo [Music] [Music] I can recollect going on a they give you a choice of going on a course to Turin get your Commodores into City Street so I put down for painting and decorating course and went away for a few weeks on this course but of course the NCO in charge was still in the army and after a few this that's enough with the boss he used to say well shoot off and lose yourself for a couple of hours before you go back to your barracks though I didn't learn a lot about that I can't remember a lot about going to the place where they decide to sue the lien class and be honest but we were fitted out with so they lien clothing but I cannot wait to like getting it a tough coat amytal anything I can recollect the suit which I'll go on the photograph when I got married and I think between then and now that was about the only suit I had new [Music] okay merit my sister had fortunately got me to furnish rooms including a kitchen in a house where there was a lady owner my sister and her husband and colony myself and we got these two rooms with a furnace with a kitchen which included gas and electric for one pound 25 pence per week well when I got my first young it took a long long time to get settled down into work civilian work so I went from one place to another before in 1950 I went down to the labor exchange in those days the job center where they were advertising at Alfred burdensome General Foods of America and I got my first job but general foods from 1950 up until 1963 when the full of a fella packed up and left but within six months are bumped into my two boxes in town to be asked Fred why don't you go back inside and apply for a job so Fred went back inside got a job back and on another 19 year with the company out on 32 year in total with a split and it was a best company one could work for [Music] I've never been light through the time back I went into a shell which I'll never got a hotel [Music] it was horrendous when you see people with you one meeting down the next he could argue in whatever diction you wind I sometimes wish that I could erase them from my memory but there's some things that hold you you can't get rid and you go back and all you think is why why am I here [Music] on my demobilization papers you add a light up on you discharge from the officer I see and I'm blanking there when I tell you what they put as a lighting up on the program example early works better without supervision [Music] you

Channel: Nathan Portlock-Allan

Views: 141,806

Keywords: Fred Bates, Normandy Landings, D-Day, Gold Beach, WW2, World war two documentary, ww2 documentary, Nathan Allan, Nathan Portlock allan, Nathan Allan photography, Lost Voices, lost voices of world war two, Lost voices of ww2

Id: g4365J5p5xY

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019