Jim Condie

Jim Condie from Hamilton didn't have to join up to fight in the war but the 19-year-old felt like he had to do his bit.

"I was a boiler man in the abattoir which was a reserved occupation," he explains, "but my brother and my pal had joined the air force and I felt like I had to join up too."

At just over five feet tall Jim was too short for the navy, his first choice, so he signed up as aircrew with the Royal Air Force. After three days of tests a paper in trigonometry let him down so it was back to Hamilton for a rethink.

"They said they would accept me as ground staff but when I got back home there was a call-up letter waiting for me from the army," recalls Jim.

"I had to go to Brandsworth-Castle in County Durham to the Infantry Training Corps.

We didn't know what we were in for but we spent the first days just square bashing. "When we went for our uniforms we had to shout our height and they just slid the uniform along the counter like in a Wild West saloon but when I got to the top of the queue the place came to a complete standstill. They didn't have one to fit me so I had to get my uniform and my boots specially made."

Jim's army pay was seven shillings a week but army rules stipulated that if a soldier wanted his family to receive any pension if he were killed he had to pay a contribution from his pay. Jim paid from your wages. I contributed half a crown a week, leaving four shillings and sixpence (21p)."

The young recruits were offered trades courses and Jim chose pipe fitting and motor mechanics, receiving a pay increase when he passed.

234 Field Company

After his initial training Jim joined the 234 Field Company of the Royal Engineers doing courses all over the country in Bailey and pontoon bridging.

"We trained at Tighnabruaich with live ammunition and some of the lads were actually killed there," says Jim. "We trained with the navy at Avoch in the depths of winter and it was our first experience of a wet landing in landing craft.

"One night we were standing on a craft in single file waiting to go ashore. When we were told to go the big chap in front of me took out his cigarette packet and shoved it in his tin helmet so I did the same. He went in with his gun above his head and the water was up to his chest. When I dropped in I'd have been drowned if there hadn't been a swell. It carried me straight onto the beach and the shag from my Woodbine was all over my face!

"At the time we had no idea we were training for D-Day."

The 234 Company was then sent to Southend. After the war Jim was issued with a company diary and this is where it starts.

"Life was serene until Sunday night, 22nd May when again movement was in the air. All quiet at 2am after a frantic loading of stores."

"We were taken to concentration areas - I've never seen so many troops in my life, says Jim. "We weren't allowed any correspondence with our families and we suspected something big was about to happen because they gave us French money.

The troops were then taken to Tilbury Docks, placed aboard two ships and issued with live maps and seasickness tablets.

"We thought we were just training again," explains Jim, "but we set sail and halfway across the Channel we were briefed by Field Marshal Montgomery.

"I can't describe how I felt at that point but we probably all felt it was a case of self-preservation. It was all made more exciting because our ships were shelling the shoreline so we knew we were in for the real McCoy.

"The landing craft came alongside the ship and scrambling nets were lowered. Even although we were being shelled and all hell was being let loose all I was worried about was drowning in the deep water. I made it on and then the ramps went down and I just tried to get on to the shore as quick as possible."

Jim's platoon got ashore intact and regrouped to be given their orders. Their first objective was to clear the roads of mines for the boys coming ashore but they had to fight to gain each inch of ground.

"We dug in for our first night and then I really knew I was in the war," says Jim. "The artillery was firing over our heads and all we could hear was the whistling back and forth all night."

The platoon then moved on to the River Orne where the men carried out repairs to the Pegasus Bridge which the 6th Airborne had captured a few days previously.

"In that area the British and German frontlines were so close together that we could actually watch each other's operations," explains Jim. "We had to lay tracks to prevent our tanks sending up dust clouds that would give them away. And it was while I was doing this that I was wounded. A shell burst close by and, although I wasn't hit by any shrapnel, I was blinded."

Jim was treated in a field hospital and returned to his unit six days later.

Friday, 7th July, 1944

A 450 bomber raid near Caen, just as the sun was setting. A hail of fire and screaming missiles which was both magnificent and terrifying to watch.

"We were dug in just a few hundred feet from the raid," recalls Jim. "I crawled out of the dugout just to have a look and I've never seen a sight like it. I thought nothing would survive it and there wouldn't be a Gerry left alive but they were still there the following day and still every bit as strong."

The Company moved on and took over three bridges in one evening. They were told to dig a trench when the decision was taken to move on another bridge. They tossed for it and Jim's platoon was dispatched.

"It turned out to be lucky for me," he says. "I'd started digging my trench and Corporal Buckell asked if he could take it over. I went off to the bridge but during the night there was a strafing raid and Buckell took a direct hit. If I'd have lost the toss it would have been me."

Monday, 21st August, 1944

Cpl. Buckell's funeral and burial took place at Ranville.

Friday, 1st September, 1944

The Company moved down to the banks of the Seine at Berville-sur-Seine. The home bank was a shambles of charred wagons and rotting German bodies.

"From there we moved up to Le Havre," continues Jim. "Our job there was to diffuse tank traps and clear the roads before moving out in convoy to Belgium."

Saturday, 23rd September, 1944

The Officer in Command talked to the men on the Demob Plan - the first official news. We then moved up through the Somme Valley, past St Valery to Oignes, near Lens, and did not arrive till dark. A filthy wet night. All the Dispatch Riders took a detour via Bouvigny. We received a terrific welcome from the population - as we passed through Bethune many cigarettes were flung to the surging, cheering crowds.

The Royal Engineers built a lot of bridges as they pushed through France, Belgium and Holland and many are still marked today.

"Every bridge we built had to be given a name," explains Jim. "We had to name them according the circumstances in which they were built. For example we called one Nightmare Bridge because it was a nightmare building it! Mining, bridging and demolition were our main activities."

Jim and his Company worked their way up through Holland, the Battle of Arnhem raging just ahead of them, and over the German border to Emmerich.

Once at the Rhine they built one of three bridges and carried out essential maintenance.

Pontoon bridge

"We put booms on the bridges," explains Jim. "The idea was that they'd be booby trapped in case of German sabotage. The problem was that with all the activity on the Rhine there were a lot of dead bodies carried downstream and they'd get jammed between the pontoons - we had the unpleasant job of clearing them."

Lorry crossing pontoon bridge

Monday, 7th May, 1944

Rumours of VE Day were rife. Admiral Doenitz recalled all his submarines to base.

Tuesday, 8th May, 1944

VE Day. A holiday for all who were able. The Prime Minister spoke and told the world that the war with Germany finished at midnight on 7th May.

It may have been the end of the war in Europe and the end of the Company diary but Jim's war was far from over. Two days after VE Day 234 Field Company was disbanded and Jim and his comrades were told to Ghent to join up with 253 Company.

"I was really disappointed," recalls Jim. "I'd spent all my active service with 234 and it had been constant action from D-Day onwards - I don't even remember taking my clothes off.

"There were a lot of humorous moments and we had to have that spirit or we wouldn't have coped. I've never come across comradeship like it - they were the finest men I've met in my life and they would have given me their last ounce of blood. In Civvy Street I get remarks about my height but it was never made fun of in the army. I was treated as an equal right through the war with the greatest of respect."

Jim didn't get to celebrate the end of the war and still feels bitter about it.

"I thought we deserved it after what we'd been through but we didn't even get leave. When we got to Ghent we were given more orders. I'd planned to go back to Holland to see a Dutch girl I'd become very friendly with but the army had different ideas. Although the war was over there was still a lot of engineering work needing done - bridges to be built, mines to be lifted and concentration camps to be cleaned out.

After all that I was sent straight to Egypt and spent my time on guard duty and polishing my boots in Port Said before being demobbed in 1947."

So how easy was it for Jim to come back to Blighty after two years in the Middle East?

Jim driving lorry

"I remember coming home from North Africa and arriving to snow in Southampton," says Jim. "I went to the demob centre and there was no welcome, no flags flying. They gave me a pin-striped suit, a soft hat and an overcoat and then I went for the train at St Pancras.

"I couldn't settle back into normal life at all. I went back to my job because they'd kept it for me but I was only two days there when my gaffer gave me orders and I couldn't take it - I walked out the door.

"Shortly afterwards I received my post-war credits - all my accumulated army pay. I tried to give the money to my mum but she wouldn't take it so I bought an ex-army lorry and set up a business selling firewood."

And how does Jim think the war changed him?

"It changed me a lot," he says. "I learned a lot about life, I learned to respect others and I thank my lucky stars I'm here to tell my story. I don't think today's generation realises how bad or how important the war was.

"I would have liked to have continued the comradeship that I built up with the other lads but it just didn't happen and I regret that. I would loved to have had a reunion for the Company and for us all to have grown old together and share our experiences but I've never heard from any of them and it's probably too late now."