Sandy Handley and Tony Rampling both vividly remembered how cold they were in the Ardennes:
“When it turned really freezing by January ’45 my knees to my feet were like frozen meat sometimes. I was always glad to get out of the car and stamp my feet. I used to feel sorry for the Russians on the Eastern front.”
(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
“When we were in the Ardennes it was very cold, snow and frost, disaster, sleeping rough, terrible.
There was masses of forest, snow and ice, very cold and if you had to sleep in an armoured car it was like sleeping in a fridge. It was a terrible, terrible time for the cold and the weather.
I never was so cold in my life as in the Ardennes.”
Tony got so fed up he almost ended up on a charge:
“When we were in the Ardennes myself and another chap were sent to collect the rum ration. We got a rum ration when we were on the front line which was very thick, black stuff.”
We were given one or two spoonfuls each night.
“On the way back we were sipping this rum and by the time we got back we were getting fairly high and we were sleeping in a barn, a very rough barn and, I’m sorry I said this but I swore at Lieutenant Williams: “When are you going to get us out of this blanket-blank place?
He didn’t put me on a charge. He didn’t say much…well, he couldn’t say much.”
Tony still sounds shocked that he swore at an officer. They were young soldiers and they just did as they were told.
(From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61st Recce - pers comm.)
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