Chapter 1
I JOIN THE ARMY
On 1st September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. German tanks crossed the frontier and German dive bombers attacked Polish cities. Britain was pledged by treaty to go to Poland's assistance. Neville Chamberlain, Britain's Prime Minister, wavered for two days while Hitler considered an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of his troops. The ultimatum expired at 11 a.m. on 3rd September. In the absence of any response, Chamberlain broadcast to the nation that we were at war with Germany.
A few minutes later, the wailing of the air raid sirens warned Londoners that German bombers were on their way. It proved to be a false alarm. Later that morning I walked to the red pillar box on the corner of our road, and posted a letter to the Cambridge University Recruiting Board, volunteering to join the Army. I was an undergraduate about to begin my second year. We had been told that the Recruiting Board would see to it that we would be suitably deployed in the struggle to which our country was now committed. Undergraduates were assumed to be 'officer material' unless there was evidence to the contrary. In the early stages of the war, they were sent straight from civilian life to an OCTU (officer-cadet training unit) to learn their trade.
A week later I was summoned to Cambridge and interviewed by the Board. They established that I was a mathematician, and therefore recommended me for a commission in the Artillery. However, they told me that as I was not yet nineteen, it might be some time before I was called up. There was no shortage of gunner officers. Meanwhile, I should resume my studies.
At some stage during the interview I was asked to swear an oath of loyalty, and was handed a Bible to lend conviction to the proceedings. I was an atheist (and have so remained) but felt that this was no time to make an issue of it when my country needed me - even if not very urgently. So I swore on the Bible. Afterwards this worried me, and I wrote an apology to the Board explaining that I shouldn’t have done it, as the Bible had for me only historical and literary significance. I do not know how I expected the Board to salve my conscience. In the event, a man of the church replied that I had nothing to worry about: I could change my mind about joining the Army if I wished. The correspondence was obviously leading nowhere, and I allowed it to lapse.
There followed a period of six months known as the ‘phoney war’, when activity on the front was restricted to patrols on both sides. The front, in Europe, was the Maginot line, the reputedly impregnable line of fortifications built by French engineers to repel a German attack. It seemed reasonable to continue my studies at Cambridge as the Recruiting Board had suggested. I joined the University OTC (Officer Training Corps) and spent a couple of afternoons a week learning how to use a theodolite and other instruments employed by Artillery Survey Regiments. There was nothing very military about it.
The academic year progressed. On the surface, life at Cambridge went on very much as usual. I found it difficult to concentrate on my studies — what was the point? What future would there be for us? Meanwhile, Britain re-armed, and Germany re-armed rather faster, regrouping the forces that had demolished the Polish Army in a few days at the beginning of September. In the spring, the Wehrmacht invaded and conquered Denmark with its tiny army, and Norway with the aid of a betrayal that left the port of Oslo undefended. I had known Copenhagen when I visited family friends there as a schoolboy. It was intolerable to think of Nazi stormtroopers parading that peaceful and civilized city.
A British force went to Norway's rescue, gallantly and ineffectively. After that fiasco, Chamberlain resigned and Churchill became Prime Minister. Misguidedly, I thought that surely my country needed me now. I reminded the Recruiting Board that I was still awaiting the call. They assured me that my time would come, possibly when I reached the age of twenty.
In May Hitler invaded Belgium, a neutral country that had not been included in the Allies’ defences. It appeared that the French had carelessly omitted to extend the Maginot line to their frontier with Belgium. Within days the Belgian Army was routed. German troops poured across the frontier into France. The British Expeditionary Force was thrown into action, forced to retreat, cut off from the French Army, and evacuated from Dunkirk with the loss of all their heavy equipment. The evacuation, assisted by hundreds of small ships from around the British coast, was hailed as a miracle of courage and ingenuity. But it was a defeat.
At the beginning of June, as I sat by the peaceful banks of the Cam, revising for my Tripos exams, the Germans broke through the French defences and reached Abbeville on the way to Paris. While Europe was crumbling, I sat my exams and obtained a First in Part 2 of the Mathematical Tripos. It seemed supremely irrelevant.
Term ended. The French Army surrendered. Britain stood alone against the might of Hitler's armies, now joined by those of Mussolini. Churchill rallied the nation with his imperishable eloquence. I pestered the Recruiting Board without success. In desperation, on a fine morning in June 1940, I cycled from my home in northwest London to the War Office, left my bicycle outside, and addressed myself to a commissionaire at the front door.
‘I want to join the Army, please. Can you tell me how to do it?’
He looked puzzled. I explained my problems with the Recruiting Board. Was there any way through the red tape? He consulted someone at a desk.
‘You could try AG6. Fifth floor.’
On the fifth floor, I found a door marked AG6. I knocked and went in. There were two desks. A major sat at one, a captain at the other. Neither seemed particularly busy.
‘I want to join the Army please.’
Again I explained the background. The major looked bemused. The captain took his pipe out of his mouth. ‘Sorry, you won’t be able to join the Artillery until you’re twenty. But if you cared to join the infantry, we could get you in straight away.’
‘Fine.’
‘How about the Essex Regiment?’
‘CertainIy'
We went through a few formalities (fortunately not involving the Bible). I cycled home, to tune in to the latest news of the disintegration of France. Two weeks later I got my call-up papers to join the Essex Regiment as a private in the infantry.