The Lighter Side of War - Chapter 1 TA RASC 39Th Ack-Ack Sheffield

The Lighter Side of War - Chapter 1 TA RASC 39th Ack-Ack Sheffield. A father's advice - June 1938

By Actiondesk Sheffield

People in story: Reg (Butch) Reid, Fred Alexander, William Angus Reid, Helen Reid, Stan Smith, Ray Cheetham, Ron Gregory
Location of story: Sheffield, Grantham, Bakewell, Newark, Nottinghamshire
Unit name: TA Royal Army Service Corps 39th Ack Ack
Background to story: Army

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk – Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Reg Reid and has been added to the site with the authors permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
A Note of Explanation
On Thursday, April 21, 2005 Reg (Butch) Reid and Don Alexander walked into BBC Radio Sheffield Open Centre and approached the BBC WW2 People’s War Volunteer Facilitator on duty at the People’s War Desk. They handed over a copy of the book that had been written, by Don, of Reg’s exploits as a ‘Desert Rat’ during WW2 entitled ‘The Lighter Side of War’. They asked if we would be interested in putting the book on the BBC WW2 People’s War website.
Don Alexander holds the copyright on the book and he stated that both he and Reg would be happy for his story to be added to the BBC WW2 People’s War website electronic archive since they believed that the text should be more widely available for the public to read.
We have scanned Reg and Don’s book and it has been placed on the website in 30 parts. We have tried wherever possible to keep the original format of the book but minor changes have been made but only where necessary. In the main each part corresponds to one of the 28 chapters of the book. However, because of the constraints with regard to the 3,000 word limit that can be included in each story, Chapters 2, 7 & 10 have each had to be made into two parts and referenced ‘a’ for the first part of the chapter and ‘b’ for the second part.
The following contents list show the website reference number given to each story.
Volunteer Facilitator (RM)
April 28, 2005
The Lighter Side of War
By
Don Alexander
The story of T/68784 RW (Butch) Reid of Sheffield
Soldier; First class mechanic Entrepreneur; Likeable rogue; Desert Rat.
"Britain's Bilko"
Copyright: Don Alexander 2002
Foreword and acknowledgements
I first met Reg (Butch) Reid and his sense of humour when he came into my Sheffield cutlery shop on Ecclesall Road and accused me of re-using tea as they did in the desert war in 1943!
He recounted his army service in such detail and with so many anecdotes that I thought it really ought to be written down. Other people could then meet Roy Brotherstone, Geordie Wheeler, Lieutenant Errington, `Girly' Ruth Hawes, prosecutor Captain Bonham-Carter, `Ack Ack' Annie, Sergeant `Bollocks in Brackets', Frej the Arab, even a Mongolian soldier of the Red Army who stride or flit across the scene. My only hope is that it reads as interestingly and comically as when told by Reg himself.
Reg spent a lot of time patiently explaining details and we visited Winthorpe and Langford Halls, near Newark, Beverley Army Transport Museum, and Connah's Quay, North Wales, where it was a pleasure to meet Roy Brotherstone and his wife Lucy.
I read various histories of the war to pinpoint events and dates as 133 Coy RASC made their way through North Africa and Europe. Most useful was Anthony Wood's little book, `War in Europe 1939-45'.
My father, Fred Alexander, who died when I was doing national service in Berlin in 1961, is remembered and I have made use of his copy of `Infantry training, fieldcraft, battle drill and platoon tactics' (War Office 1944). I have also used his copies of Monty's personal message to the troops before D-Day and Monty's letter on non-fraternisation with Germans.
Thanks are due to Susan Alexander-Barnes and Lynda Taylor for typing up my scrawl and putting it on disc, and to Liz, Alistair and Andy at ALD Design and Print.
Reg and I dedicate the book to our long-suffering wives, Jackie and Mary.
Don Alexander November 2002
Contents
Chapter Title Ref. No.
Chapter 1 TA RASC 39th Ack-Ack Sheffield. A father's advice - June 1938 A4220975
Chapter 2a 39th Ack-Ack Newark, Notts. R.W. Reid, D. R. Langford and Winthorpe Halls A4222333
Chapter 2b George Bennett shows naked ambition A4222757
Chapter 3 Maryhill Barracks/Springburn Ministry of Labour Training Centre, Glasgow Fitters Course January to July 1940 A4223026
Chapter 4 Vauxhall (Bedford) engine plant, Luton - July to August 1940 A4223198
Chapter 5 No. l Heavy Repair Shop (HRS) RASC High Wycombe - September 1940 to January 1941 A4223459
Chapter 6 133 Coy RASC South Littleton, Evesham, Gloucestershire - February to April 1941 A4234727
Chapter 7a `A' Platoon, 133 Coy RASC Broxmore House, Whiteparish, Salisbury, Wilts - May to Sept 1941 A4234899
Chapter 7b Reg becomes BUTCH thanks to Smith and Wesson and lands himself in trouble A4235005
Chapter 8 Military Prison-Fort Dahlen Barracks, Chatham - October to November 1941 A4244519
Chapter 9 Back with `A' Platoon at Broxmore - December 1941 to February 1942 A4244717
Chapter 10a Dunipace House, Bonnybridge, nr. Falkirk, Scotland - March to September 1942 A4244870
Chapter 10b Butch goes on `chicken detail' for Lieutenant Errington A4245248
Chapter 11 Attleborough, Norfolk - Mid September to early November 1942 A4260791
Chapter 12 Notes on the war in North Africa prior to 133's landing A4260935
Chapter 13 By Cruise Liner - Glasgow to North Africa 8th November 1942 "Operation Torch" A4261051
Chapter 14 Blida, Algeria. A Dear John letter Lieutenant Baker replaces Errington A4263121
Chapter 15a Algeria: Blida to Constantine to Medjez el Bab Tug Wilson's diving lesson A4264409
Chapter 5b Lieutenant Baker thinks ahead - then leaves Butch in the desert A426469
Chapter 16 March to May 1943 - Butch and the `Entente Cordiale' - The final push against Bizerta and Tunis133 Company (7th Armoured Division) play their part. Benghazis. Major Dodds' demise A4283426
Chapter 17 Kairouan - a Holy City - June 1943 A4283741
Chapter 18a Sousse by the Sea - July 1943 A4283912
Chapter 8b Sousse: Couscous then where to next? Italy? Blighty? The Riviera? A Restcamp? A4284083
Chapter 19 Tunis to Glasgow - October 1943 A4284209
Chapter 20a Clacton to Bognor to Lymington and the Solent. D. Day - January to June 1944 A4284452
Chapter 20b D - DAY! D - DAY! - 6th June 1944 A4284597
Chapter 21 Bayeux. A minefield. German helmets. A Bailey Bridge. Bottles of Guinness. A4284704
Chapter 22a People that pass in the Day. Scots Dewar. The Yankee Pilot. The Medic. Brussels. River Maas. Fraternisation. A4284731
Chapter 22b September '44 - January '45. The River Maas (Meuse) and the Ardennes. Our 1st Class Mechanic's progress. A4284966
Chapter 23 Winterslag, Belgium A4285073
Chapter 24 Eindhoven - March 1945 Holland - Into Germany. `Across the Rhine on the Twenty Nine' A4293001
Chapter 25 Hamburg to High Wycombe to Hamburg to High Wycombe again to Hamburg again A4293489
Chapter 26a Berlin August 1945 - February 1946 A4293614
Chapter 26b The Brandenburg Gate A4294794
Chapter 27 Itzehoe to Essdorf tank barracks to Hamburg - March to May 1946 A4294965
Chapter 28 Hamburg to Sheffield to Catterick Camp A4295117
CHAPTER 1: TA RASC 39th Ack-Ack Sheffield June 1938, A father's advice
"Volunteer lad - join 'TA and learn a trade.* War's looming and when it's declared you won't then be called up into 'Infantry ".
Reg's dad, William Angus Reid, spoke as a twenty-one years service army man in an Infantry regiment - the 1st battalion East Surrey's - and had seen his comrades killed in the First World War. He was injured, had shrapnel in his back, and was sent to Blackpool to recuperate with other wounded soldiers. There he met and fell in love with a waitress, Helen, whom he was later to marry. Their son, Reginald William Reid, was born on 27th May 1919 in Walkley, Sheffield.
This son, now 19, wasn't fully convinced at first. There was much talk of aerial bombardment taking over from conventional warfare - Zeppelins had bombed and killed civilians in Sheffield in the First World War - the Germans had bombed Guernica in the recent Spanish Civil War. What havoc could modern aero planes cause these days. Would troops be needed?
-Of course! When it comes down to it the Poor Bloody Infantry has to go in, and if you wait till you're called up that's what you'd end up in. Remember – 60,000 British troop casualties on 'first day o 'battle o 'Somme. Six-ty thou-sand! -nearly all Infantrymen. Me an' yer Mother don't want thee to be a statistic!" -
Grammatical note: The apostrophe ' before a word indicates the Sheffield glottal stop, replacing 'the'. Now you've learnt summat!
Though army life was in the Reid's blood (his grandfather, a Scot, born Aberdeen, had also been a career soldier - a leading drum major in the Brigade of Guards) in Reg's case he thought it had been well washed out. Pacifism was in the air, the Regular Army in Britain had been reduced to six divisions (about a tenth the size of the German and French armies. Back to what the Kaiser had called a contemptible little army!) The TA part time soldiers made up the numbers. His father's career had taken young Reg and his mother Helen Reid to Jersey and Gibraltar with the British Army, but military life had intruded too much for her liking. And William drank too much, smoked heavily, and gambled. He'd never before given his son any advice, but on reflection, Reg judged this could be sound advice.
So, on the 24`h June 1938, he walked into the Army Recruiting Office at the Edmund Road Drill Hall, Sheffield, along with two friends, Stan Smith and Ray Cheetham.
Ray Cheetham was what would be called today `vertically challenged'. He was an inch too short for the Army. (He had worked at Marples Tools factory and there boards were placed for him to stand on to operate machines). The recruiting sergeant said "Stand on your tiptoes Cheetham ". He did so and was measured. "Congratulations laddie, you're in the Army".
Thus it was that T/68784 R.W. Reid signed on for four years with the Colours and one year in the Reserve with the TA Royal Army Service Corps 39th Ack Ack, based at an Ellin Street, Sheffield, factory unit. It wasn't full military service, but effective - one evening's training a week plus a fortnight's camp at Grantham. During the day Reg kept his job as a greenkeeper at the Hallamshire Golf Club on a high ridge at Lodge Moor overlooking the beautiful Rivelin Valley. He and a colleague would put a flag in a hole and go side by side down the green, meticulously picking out every weed, every daisy, dandelion and clover that dared show its head. The greens of course would be regularly mown.
There was much activity on the hills around Sheffield - searchlights and anti-aircraft gun emplacements were hurriedly being built to help defend the half million people and their vital steel and armaments industry which would surely be targeted from the air in the event of a war. Virtually all of Britain's special steel and alloy industry lay alongside the twenty miles of the River Don from Stocksbridge down to Rotherham and beyond, and much of the rest was along the River Sheaf and the River Rother. The Government was worried about this concentration and firms were being encouraged to build satellite Electric Arc Melting Shops in Manchester, Matlock, Gateshead and Brymbo, initially to be manned by Sheffield melters.
Reg was determined to do his bit to defend his city and his country while at the same time taking every opportunity to enjoy life. He was after all still a teenager, he had a motorbike and soon became very good friends in the TA with a lad called Ron Gregory. The two of them made frequent visits to Bakewell on Reg's Excelsior Manxman. To zoom up the roads into the hills west of Sheffield over the thousand feet mark was sheer heaven. Air like wine, prevailing winds blowing down from the city's highest point of 1500 feet at High Neb on Stanage Edge over the Western Moors, down through town and eastwards down the Don Valley taking Sheffield and Rotherham's industrial and household smoke with it.
On windless days a pall of smoke hung over the city - except the West End - caused by houses and factories burning coal; way before the Clean Air Act of the 1960s led to smokeless fuel for houses, and clean steel making.
What was Bakewell's appeal to them? Was it the charms of the sleepy market town with its Derbyshire stone church, stone houses and stone pack horse bridge set on the meandering River Wye amidst the superb Peak District scenery with Chatsworth and Haddon Hall nearby? Sleepy on most days in the 1930s except on market days with its heaving cattle and sheep pens and bustling markets. Well, young lads can appreciate such things but sweeping round the bends on the Manxman from Owler Bar to Baslow, then round the thirteen `killer bends' from there to Bakewell was part of the appeal.
Also - cherchez la femme - they'd got to know two lovely Derbyshire lasses and met them regularly in the town.
These halcyon days came to an abrupt halt with the Autumn 1938 crisis. Austria had been annexed by the Third Reich and German troops had invaded the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. Reg and the lads were now called up as full time soldiers and were posted to Newark, Nottinghamshire. They were there one month only.
The international crisis came to a head. Britain's PM, Chamberlain, met Herr Hitler at Munich and returned with an agreement - famously waving this piece of paper after landing back in Britain and proclaiming `Peace in our time'.
This was greeted with joy by the British people who remembered the carnage of the First World War. Most didn't want to hear of Germany's arms build up in the 1930s - Winston's was a voice in the wilderness.
Later the Munich agreement was regarded by many, after the event, as a craven surrender to Hitler, but it did give Britain a breathing space to prepare for a possible war, now regarded less likely as Hitler declared "I have no more territorial ambitions".
And it did mean that Reg and his pals could be stood down and returned to civvy street. He could go to Bakewell with Ron Gregory again to see the girls.