panda1gen
Major
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2005
- Messages
- 6,102
VIII Corps held ground to the east of the highway and with the Grenadier Guards operating to the west of it, the road was never again cut in significant strength.
Nevertheless, the Germans had not gone away and still took every opportunity to raid and disrupt Allied traffic on the road.
Private Rex Wingfield of 1/6 Queens wrote of one of these raids:
‘The rest of us mounted on Cromwells turned back to clear the roads.
We soon found the targets of last night’s firing - ten gutted RASC lorries, one blasted to fragments. That had been the ammo truck. Two hundred yards further down the road was a roadblock of logs.
… A clatter of tracer bounced and sang off the tank as a spandau opened fire from the roadblock.
Cordite fumes blasted from our tank gun into our faces. A six-pounder shell hit right in the middle of the logs. The beams sailed upwards. A fieldgrey rag doll jerked high into the air.
We burst through, firing Stens and heaving grenades into the smoking roadblock …
Each morning we had to clear the roads in front and behind before we could move on.’
Nevertheless, the Germans had not gone away and still took every opportunity to raid and disrupt Allied traffic on the road.
Private Rex Wingfield of 1/6 Queens wrote of one of these raids:
‘The rest of us mounted on Cromwells turned back to clear the roads.
We soon found the targets of last night’s firing - ten gutted RASC lorries, one blasted to fragments. That had been the ammo truck. Two hundred yards further down the road was a roadblock of logs.
… A clatter of tracer bounced and sang off the tank as a spandau opened fire from the roadblock.
Cordite fumes blasted from our tank gun into our faces. A six-pounder shell hit right in the middle of the logs. The beams sailed upwards. A fieldgrey rag doll jerked high into the air.
We burst through, firing Stens and heaving grenades into the smoking roadblock …
Each morning we had to clear the roads in front and behind before we could move on.’
