Description
Object description
A detailed ts memoir (39pp) entitled 'No Dawn Tomorrow' by a sapper in 260 Field Company, Royal Engineers, 43rd Wessex Division, covering the period from spring 1944 to July 1945, with preparations for the Normandy Landings, hearing of D-Day, travelling through London to great reception, crossing to France a week after D-Day but having to stay off the coast for days due to a gale, being attached to infantry units to deal with mines and obstacles, witnessing heavy front line fighting, taking prisoners, three weeks building river crossings (July 1944), marking minefields and witnessing the capture of Mount Pincon (August 1944), joining an armoured column, building a raft to ferry armoured vehicles across the River Seine, crossing through Belgium and Holland, taking part in Operation Market Garden, advancing on Nijmegen and stopping just short of Arnhem, details of helping the 1st Airborne Division back over the Rhine from Arnhem by boat while under enemy fire (25/26 September 1944), taking over as a Corporal, adopting a stray dog, enemy bombing, befriending a Dutch family, crossing into Germany, an accident involving the unloading of mines which killed many, burying the dead, being billeted in deserted houses in Gangelt, Germany, on leave in Brussels, being selected to go on a course at the School of Military Engineering near Ripon and the journey back to England (December 1944), seeing the change in mood in England from the early days of the war, spending Christmas with his family, rejoining his section in Goch, Germany (February 1945), preparations for crossing the German Rhine, seeing the Canadian attack on Xanten, the attack on the Siegfried Line and his job removing concrete tank traps and obstacles (March 1945), crossing the Rhine on Buffaloes (Landing Vehicle Tracked), advancing towards Hamburg, being badly wounded by a mine while constructing a bridge (April 1945), his evacuation by plane to a hospital in England, his terrible injuries and losing his right leg and his sight, attending a specialist RAF eye hospital in Yatesbury, Wiltshire, under the care of a Wing Commander Smith, his gratitude to the doctors and nurses who took care of him, hearing that his sight would never return and being referred to St Dunstan's as a patient at the hospital in Stoke Mandeville, and the account ending with his unveiling a war memorial in his home town in September 1947, and throughout giving details of his emotions, impressions, fatigue, and nerve strain, his movements, rations, and the impact of the death of friends. Together with a ms letter (2pp, July 1945) dictated to and written by his wife, to his Commanding Officer, Major W A Vinycomb MC, thanking him and letting him know how he was getting on, an introduction to the memoir by Major Vinycomb's son (1p, 2012), and a photocopy from the Eastern Evening News (1p, September 1947) covering the unveiling of the war memorial.
Content description
A detailed ts memoir (39pp) entitled 'No Dawn Tomorrow' by a sapper in 260 Field Company, Royal Engineers, 43rd Wessex Division, covering the period from spring 1944 to July 1945, with preparations for the Normandy Landings, hearing of D-Day, travelling through London to great reception, crossing to France a week after D-Day but having to stay off the coast for days due to a gale, being attached to infantry units to deal with mines and obstacles, witnessing heavy front line fighting, taking prisoners, three weeks building river crossings (July 1944), marking minefields and witnessing the capture of Mount Pincon (August 1944), joining an armoured column, building a raft to ferry armoured vehicles across the River Seine, crossing through Belgium and Holland, taking part in Operation Market Garden, advancing on Nijmegen and stopping just short of Arnhem, details of helping the 1st Airborne Division back over the Rhine from Arnhem by boat while under enemy fire (25/26 September 1944), taking over as a Corporal, adopting a stray dog, enemy bombing, befriending a Dutch family, crossing into Germany, an accident involving the unloading of mines which killed many, burying the dead, being billeted in deserted houses in Gangelt, Germany, on leave in Brussels, being selected to go on a course at the School of Military Engineering near Ripon and the journey back to England (December 1944), seeing the change in mood in England from the early days of the war, spending Christmas with his family, rejoining his section in Goch, Germany (February 1945), preparations for crossing the German Rhine, seeing the Canadian attack on Xanten, the attack on the Siegfried Line and his job removing concrete tank traps and obstacles (March 1945), crossing the Rhine on Buffaloes (Landing Vehicle Tracked), advancing towards Hamburg, being badly wounded by a mine while constructing a bridge (April 1945), his evacuation by plane to a hospital in England, his terrible injuries and losing his right leg and his sight, attending a specialist RAF eye hospital in Yatesbury, Wiltshire, under the care of a Wing Commander Smith, his gratitude to the doctors and nurses who took care of him, hearing that his sight would never return and being referred to St Dunstan's as a patient at the hospital in Stoke Mandeville, and the account ending with his unveiling a war memorial in his home town in September 1947, and throughout giving details of his emotions, impressions, fatigue, and nerve strain, his movements, rations, and the impact of the death of friends. Together with a ms letter (2pp, July 1945) dictated to and written by his wife, to his Commanding Officer, Major W A Vinycomb MC, thanking him and letting him know how he was getting on, an introduction to the memoir by Major Vinycomb's son (1p, 2012), and a photocopy from the Eastern Evening News (1p, September 1947) covering the unveiling of the war memorial.
History note
Cataloguer SJO