A soldier’s personal account of World War 2 from 12th December 1939 – 2nd March 1946

Part Five – Freezing

All the time we had been in Cheshire there had been snow, but in the early part of February it began to fall more heavily and continued for days on end until the roads and railways became blocked by drifts of ten to fifteen feet in depth. The situation reached serious proportions and caused the complete dislocation, in many parts of the country, of all the road and rail traffic, holding up food and vital war supplies.

Cheshire was one of the most heavily affected areas and the order went out from the Western Command that all military training was to be temporarily suspended in order that the troops could be used for clearing the drifts. We ourselves were affected because the supply depot from which we drew our rations was at Leek and the road between Leek and Macclesfield was completely blocked by deep drifts. Our task, together with the 6th Loyals, was to clear this road from the Macclesfield end whilst another unit were to set out from Leek in an attempt to meet us half-way.

We were delighted at the prospect of this operation. It would be a welcome change from the square-bashing and stretcher drill and apart from that we would have time off from shining buttons, polishing boots and being ‘properly dressed’. There were no restrictions on dress, we were allowed to wear anything we liked in order to keep warm and on the first morning, armed with shovels, we fell in wearing gaiters and puttees, scarves, gloves, balaclava helmets and everything we could lay our hands on that was warm. I think we laid it on even more thickly than necessary for Staff–Rose’s benefit and the motley crew that stood in front of him on parade that morning must almost have resulted in his having an attack of apoplexy.

During the next two weeks we must have shifted hundreds of tons of snow. From early morning until dusk we dug in drifts miles long and sometimes three times our own height. We uncovered lorries and cars by the dozen, some of them completely buried where they had been abandoned by their drivers when the blizzard had overtaken them and made it impossible for them to continue their journeys. We took our food with us and had tea bought up to us twice a day in insulated containers.

After the first few days every stitch of clothing we possessed was wet through and since there were insufficient facilities in the billet to dry some thirty greatcoats, battledresses, pairs of boots and socks, we had to rely on the method of placing our clothes over the blankets while we slept and allowing the warmth of our bodies to dry them, but it was a slow process with the thick khaki cloth of our uniforms and there was no alternative to putting on cold, damp clothes the next morning.

We came to the conclusion that in spite of our eagerness to dig snowdrifts as a change from squad drill, we might only have succeeded in leaping out of the frying pan into the fire. In any case it was by no means pleasant turning out in the morning and setting off in an icy wind, sitting in the back of an open 15-cwt truck, wearing wet clothes and on one occasion it snowed heavily while we were out and re-blocked the road behind us which we had cleared only two days previously.

We had to abandon our task of clearing the road to Leek in order to dig ourselves out and by the time we had reached the truck waiting to take us back it was growing late and was quite dark by the time we reached the billet. It had not improved matters to have had no really hot food during our snow-digging operations but with no fresh rations arriving it became necessary for us to live on iron rations – bully beef and biscuits – and when we returned once more to the old routine training programme it was not without a feeling of relief.

We had good friends in Macclesfield. During the bitter weather it was almost intolerable on picket duty. The beat outside the gate was no more than ten yards and it was impossible to keep warm during the two hours of gate duty with such a short distance in which to march up and down. One’s feet and hands seemed to freeze into solid blocks of ice and once, when I was on duty, my boots actually did freeze to the pavement when I stood still for a ten-minute rest.

The people who lived in the house on the opposite side of the road were wonderful. On each of the three shifts, from 8 to 10, 10 to 12, and 12 to 2 at night, one of the members of the family crossed the road to give the picket a quart jug full of steaming hot cocoa and a mug and although such a practice was a serious violation of all King’s Rules and Regulations, which seemed to be a religion where Rose was concerned and towards which he was extremely devoted, even he became human enough to turn a blind eye to the jug, hidden hurriedly behind the gate at his approach. But it was the OC himself who finally over-ruled Rose’s refusal to relax standing orders regarding picket duty and allowed us, for the duration of the arctic spell of weather, to stand in the hall-way at night and changed the tour of duty from two hours on and four hour off to one on and two off in order that we should not have to endure the cold for such long periods.

I never knew the names of the people who lived in the house opposite our billet in Park Lane, but I shall always remember them and their kindness and be grateful to them for it.
There were other people who were good to us too. Passers-by who slipped packets of cigarettes and blocks of chocolate into our hands as we stood on duty and those who bore us a thought and bade us a cheerful and friendly ‘goodnight’ as they passed, homeward bound, in the dark. They will never know how I appreciated their gestures but I shall never forget their little kindnesses and the spirit in which they were granted.

With the belated coming of Spring came a new development in the war situation and the ‘phoney’ war became a ‘shooting’ war. The sideshow that had been provided by the fighting between Russia and Finland was brought to an end by Russia’s overwhelming supremacy of arms and manpower but almost immediately following the armistice, Hitler’s storm-troopers marched into Denmark and invaded Norway.

The Finnish flare-up had resulted in the partial mobilisation of the Unit but the end of the struggle in that country brought no stand–down order and within a few days of the invasion of the Scandinavian countries we were once more under orders to make an imminent move. The first seven-day leave to which we had all been looking forward with excited anticipation was cancelled and instead we were rushed off in batches to spend a few days at home.