A Snapshot in Time - June 1940

It is worth remembering that although two battalions of the Border Regiment had managed to get to Dunkirk where they were evacuated in May1940, one battalion was still in Northern France in June. Nick, who is currently keeping up to date with the social media, has been taking sections from the diary of Major WJM Gubbins of the 4th Battalion to highlight their plight. Today's blog post gives an insight into the Battalion's continuing story, 80 years ago.

'Dawn broke on the morning of 9th June. It was a very misty morning, and therefore, we were not easily spotted on our drive by enemy aircraft. However, they appeared twice. The second time was when we were close to Dieppe, where they had been bombing. When we arrived at the farm, we were put into an orchard.

The whole Battalion assembled there, less ‘D’ Company who were still at Inchville. It was here that we had our first good wash and a meal for several days. Every man had eggs and bacon for breakfast, so we became fairly well fortified for the next move which came at midday.

 

The C.O. held a conference in the farmhouse. He gave out his orders which he had received from the Brigadier. They ran something like this: “Take up your position, guides will be there to meet you. Start digging right away; continue digging all morning; give the men a hot meal at midday and let them rest all afternoon; occupy these positions by this evening.” The time was about 12.30 p.m.

Well, as will be seen, we did not finish digging until about 1.30 p.m. and so a hot meal at midday and a rest all afternoon were quite impossible, as the trenches were not completed until 4.30 p.m. The men were now getting pretty exhausted, as the digging was hard, and it was an extremely hot afternoon. 

No sooner had we got this position completed when a message came through to say that the whole Battalion were going to move immediately to occupy another position nearby. ‘I wish they would make up their minds.’

It was very disheartening when we had just finished one job, having to go off on another. However, war is war, arid we just had to do what we were told without grumbling. There were some rumours going around that some German tanks had been seen in the vicinity and that that was why we were being moved.'