Day 8 - Horse Meat and a Pompous Spectre!

"After this we quickly crossed the bridge and noticed my grandmother appearing like a banshee from under a previously burned and shelled skeleton of an army car.  She was swearing and cursing and waving her arms in anger after the disappearing "flying machines", she should have had a machine gun!


To stay here any longer was asking for a repeat performance so we gathered our wits together and took a last look at the monument of King Albert which had been slightly touched by shrapnel and had been part of the shelter. It turned out to be have been a good shelter after all but you never know after listening to the droning and feeling the vibrations all around us.


We also saw the sluices opened by the brave sluice guard that had let the waters through. The fishing hangers seemed to have had a good few bombs, also the sheds and boats. Now it was time to proceed on our march back now following close to the ditches along the highway. Soon we came to Westende and Middelkerke and were on homeground. From here we saw German Dorniers deliberately bombing a convent with the red crosses clearly visible for miles around. What a cruel thing to do! What was Goering and his henchmen up to. We were tired and fed up with these silly war games and didn't know what to expect in Ostend. The war was not even over!


We decided to call in on my mum's sister, Elisa, in Middlekerk, which not too far off  - her placed was a bit inland and veered off towards the polder. As it turned out later it was just as well that we did go there We turned off at St. Willibrod's Church, still called after him in Middlekerk and arrived in no time at my Aunt Elisa's safe house. Everybody glad to see each other. What a surprise!.


Of course, they had never left - wise people that they were, unless you wished to be blasted away it was best to stay. Everything seemed to be on its last legs now and they said we might as well stay until the end - who knew what was still in store for us now, with such an unscrupulous adversary to cope with.  Hun, German, what was the difference. 


Anyway, our welcome was warm and cordial and that was the main thing -, everybody was glad to see each other intact. In the fields and a good distance from the house, my Uncle Odiel had made a little shelter.  As evening was setting in we could see Ostend in the distance, straight over the openess of the wind swept prairies - that's what it looked like.


Similar to Dunkirk it was covered in smoke, burning all over with fires We could hear the pounding of incessant bombing, planes flying away and coming back relentlessly with another load. Nothing was over yet.  We sensed and knew that so many souls were expiring during this useless slaughter so  we thought it better to get to the shelter in time.


The mother of my uncle sat with her Alsation dog; which was very nervous, sensing the atmosphere.  The lady religiously declaring that this was the anti-Christ at work and we ourselves felt that we had had a belly full of it!


We were in the grips of the last moments.  It was intense and you could feel the tension also but we were all together. A consolation, somehow, against the terror of what might be in store for us together with a feeling of utter desolation pressing down on us. This was the intention of the enemy to take the last spiritual resistance away for his own cruel inner sadistic satisfaction.


The heaviest of his punishment was poured out on the so called Jewish quarters, the nice Chapel Street, and the huge hotels on the dike full up with wounded soldiers as well as the docks and workers quarters.  What a kiss of death, the Casino went too.


The fires on the wood docks were tremendous and lit up the evening sky, they illuminated their targets perfectly. A couple of planes dropped their loads near us at an old German shelter called the "dronkenspit," named because of the way it was tilted by a delayed explosive - giving one the impression of feeling drunk while walking down the spiralling stairway.


The dike near us had also received bombs and a Belgian horse team had been decapitated. The following morning, as all the shops were closed, saw my dad and uncle deciding to use the opportunity to stock up the larder against more shortages.  As nobody objected both went out and cut steaks from the fresh killed horses.  It didn't take them long before they returned like hunters with their dripping slabs of fresh meat.


The big news was brought back that the British Fleet, mostly destroyers, was laying in front of the coast at a close distance watching and any minute a fierce dual between the advancing German forces and the fleet was expected - with us in between! After distributing the meat, we quickly went back into the shelter with no hanky panky! The confrontation would be terrible, just imagine the size of those guns, keep on praying!


After a while of unusual quietness nothing seemed to be happening ... the real fighting was over. Secret agreement, stalemate, whatsoever, we were safe. A silent non-aggression pact .....  Not long after this we reappeared like groundhogs from the flimsy hole.  We will never know how close it all was, thank goodness.  Subconsciously, one likes his country, his city, his people and when something tantamount to a catastrophe of certain and horrible proportions happens than it stays imprinted on your mind forever - there is not much left to ones imagination.


Under cover of the trees towards the sea the German grey coated columns kept moving along behind us, keeping to the canal of Passchendaele.  Endless columns just like 1914-18 when some people remarked that,"they must be going in circles to produce such lengthy amounts of robot-like soldiers keeping on continuously".


An Artillery of articulated guns had taken up position next to us, starting to give regular salvo's?? at the soldiers at Nieuwport. I suppose our King thought it better to give up than risk complete annhilation....  We were still in our little shelter, expecting the worse to happen at any time.  In a way, it was a relief on hearing the news of capitulation and at the same time we were apprehensive as to this situation would entail.....


Running to the house we saw Germans passing by on their vehicles.  It had started to drizzle now, the sunshine was gone and gaiety with it - somber, grinning faces passing by, especially one on his motor bike looking at us pompous with victory. What a spectre to envisage for the coming years......"

To be continued ...

Day 7 - Well Done Granny!

"Once in Belgium, the place was still pretty full of German hordes and other foreign troops for that matter. Thank goodness for that breathing space and babbling brooks in which to dangle our tired and blistered feet and plenty of food and water.  A small, British garrison was left behind on a farm and a friendly soldier now offered us some bully-beef. Before any of us could answer, my grandmother gave an absolute "No". He probably wondered what it was all about!


The feeling from the previous bad confrontation would take some time to go away - considering that we were anglophiles! If a bigger nation like France had to be placated by British politicians, then we certainly thought that they had to put up with their own chicanery - don't expect us to do the dirty work unless we are respected and part of the same set-up, freely, and we would then prove our worth.


Anyway, the farmer looked after us very well, we ate at the same table as in days gone by - Belgians had always been known for this kind of hospitality, it had been an honour to accommodate the stranger in your home and land!  This was about the end of that custom because at the end of the war there was no such thing anymore. The rat race had begun - anything else was tantamount to softness! No more code of honour or hospitality to keep up.


The first long and sound sleep soon engulfed our tired minds and bodies.
After a good breakfast of eggs and boerspek, "Gammon", instead of the weak bowl of coffee with crusts in France that had been introduced, we felt ourselves more rejuvenated again. Some of the soldiers we were now watching near the wagon train and waiting for food were very young.


Suddenly, out of nowhere, over the treetops again, a low flying Dornier came on the scene making them run and jump like rabbits among the cabbages. Luckily, it was too sudden for the pilot and he hadn't observed any of them or had not been ready, maybe he just let them be! Their rifles were standing like tripods, when they came back embarrassment was showing on their faces. Probably, they felt the very same way I had felt near Bredune from the De Panne trip - the day my dad had told me off. They weren't told off!


Everybody goes through the same frustrations and trials, baptism by fire, soldiers and civilians alike. This was more like that than any other war as civilians became more vulnerable from the beginning of the hostilities due to intimidation and psychological warfare...


Leaving this last development behind us we headed surefooted for the coast again at an angle towards the North Sea and reaching the white sand dunes across the nearby fertile polder ground!  We were away from the bulk of the incoming enemy army which was assembling for the final push or rather walk over, we may say so now!


The dunes which were in a straight line formed better protection against bombs as a good deal of the blast got muffled up. We could hide better and look out over the flat land for the approaching enemy coming either by land, air or even sea - the enemy was expected at any minute now!


There was shelter everywhere with occasional visits to farms.  For the time being we felt very free in this last, open strip and corner. If nobody had the foresight to use it - we at least did!  Eventually, we had to leave our dunes to swerve around the town to reach the harbor.  By now, the tram stations along the coastal strip had all been destroyed. Our first real hold up was in front of Nieuwport.


In the evening we arrived at a big farm. Belgian soldiers were already installed and in defensive positions.  They made room for us sharing their meager rations and telling us that, according to the news, this was likely to be their last stand as both our allies had fled. 


As we tried to sleep we could hear the soldiers talking in subdued voices. They were describing the intense battles and skirmishes they had passed through from the beginning and during their retreat - so many comrades wounded and lost without much purpose to it all.  The wages of war I suppose. We fell asleep to the murmer of their voices.


In the morning, after a short breakfast, we gathered ourselves to brace the last kilometers. Not without the soldiers warning us that the Stuka bombers came regularly at 7 O'Clock in the morning to bomb the bridge at the other side of Nieuwport, near the harbour. With this message we thanked them and left, we got through the town safely - very much deserted like everywhere.


When we reached the bridge we noticed everything around was very much in ruins and destroyed except the bridge itself.  There was a Belgian soldier in front of the bridge with a small shelter.  One soldier with a rifle to protect and defend the whole bridge, the town, the harbour and sluices on the west side.  The Germans would reach this point from the north and east.


As predicted, we could hear the Stuka's droning in the distance. "That's them", said the Belgian soldier, now making ready to get in his shelter, "you had better do the same", he said. The dreaded sound was steadily approaching and in the sunlight, the small specks started taking shape in the sky and were heading straight for us! From high above they started spreading out and picking out their respective targets like eagles ready for their dives.


For a moment, I thought we were a bit too visible to make a run for it. It was time to take evasive action and scatter but where? There was not enough room in the shelter! My grandmother was already half way across the bridge but we didn't think it very wise to follow. My mother and I ran back towards the ruins and lay flat behind a wall from where we saw the first plane do its low trial run. My Dad screaming at us, to come back: to what?


Too late anyway and he was now jumping into the shelter as the first bombs started to come down. In between the bombings my mother and I jumped up and made for the first cellar we saw facing us - it was already full with the inhabitants.  Extra room was made for us.


Now the shrieking of the Stuka's and screaming bombs started in earnest, our little shelter shuddering and wobbling like a jelly. Possibly, it only lasted for ten minutes but for us it felt like a life time. Meanwhile, everybody was wondering what was happening to the others who weren't there. 
When it was all over and we heard the planes gradually fading away we climbed out dazed by the smoke and dust.  Now observing the sun through the thick screen of smoke - to me it looked like a scene from the end of the world.


As their air gradually cleared and thanking God and the people in the shelter  we proceeded towards the bridge.   My Dad and the soldier were rising out of the compact hole which had a cover on top and with sides made of sandbags which were piled on top and around the hole.  They were still rubbing their eyes, not believing their luck and again the bridge was intact. Honestly, they couldn't possibly have missed it if they wanted to.


No trace of my grandmother, we thought the worst now, what might have happened to her!  My father said that some shrapnel from a brisant bomb had just missed him while he was shouting at us and then diving for cover, head over tail into the shelter. Everything seemed to be there, the same as before.  I noticed the soldier had a machine gun, maybe that's where the short burst of fire I had heard had come from!  I  hoped that my grandmother was safe, he couldn't have shot her by mistake, surely......"


To be continued ...

Day 6 - The Red Swastika! Right in it!

"It was finally just The Skipper, his family and us waiting for the following day and what might come with it.  I think The Skipper was rather glad to have us as company.  The barge was our second home now.  Without the other people around we were feeling lost and were in the depth of the hold and checking our luggage.  We climbed back onto the deck  and we indulged in a quiet talk, the calm waters gently lapping against the sides of the bulk of the flat nose of the boat, making us dwell on our own bewildered thinking.


Suddenly, as in a nightmarish dream and in magnitude only to be compared with the spectacle of Hyronimus,  Bosch's reknown painting of infamity @ death's allergory. Now a display of the most unlikely planes in history passed us by on different highs and low altitudes, hardly flying more like fluttering along in the sky, southward bound.  "The fly-past of decadence and corruption"...


This was the French Air Force in all strength.  It was more like an apparition or maybe a mirage. No, indeed shaking our heads in disbelief it was for real!  Where was the Luftwaffe to catch the kites with a big net? Depressed we went to our bunks, there was no more hope for anything.  "The Flight of Incompetance," I called it.


Gloom and despair overcame us.  Suddenly, we heard that the Belgian King was the likely culprit and by preference his "Flemish People", a remark well taken, after all weren't we considered to be "Boches du Nord".   What were we supposed to do now, turn chicken like them ...


Now we knew too definitely where the road lay, straight back home, with the lions.  Meanwhile, The B.E.F. were busy trying to cut off the beaches ... in a tactical retreat.  Blowing up a bridge up full with refugees, without any Germans being anywhere near.  Considering, British stiff upper lip policy, they seemed just as panicky under strain as the rest of humanity.


Little did they know that Hitler had let them leave the beaches with their little boats so that they could tell how he had beaten them.  This was said to be to the full amazement of Hitler's generals who already had their guns in place for the final assault and encirclement.  The planes only kept pinpricking them, most of the bombs getting muffled in the sand.


The straffing was the worst on the long columns standing or wading in queues like sitting ducks.  Surely the whole Luftwaffe was not used on these points otherwise it would have been a total massacre.  Hitler seemed to have a knack for doing things that way, which eventually made him our best lunatic at large and for the Germans their worst enemy.


We now had to find a way to cope with the situation we found ourselves in ...
In the early morning we explored the other bank where there were high, thick trees that gave some protection from the air.  The Skipper helped us to take our cases to the side in his little boat, ä skipperschiuite and tears in our eyes,we said farewell to the nice fellow and waved goodbye to the family.  Before we left my father warned the skipper that he should not stay on the boat!


We had just placed our cases down when a dogfight started above us.  Planes diving after each other, the big bullets cascading and ricocheting amongst us, we kept the trees between them and us as a shield.  Our yellow blankets were on again, ideal targets, looking like French soldiers.


We had not gone two paces further after the dogfight when suddenly as from nowhere but really from the direction of St. Omaire appeared a low flying spotter plane above the treetops.  It was clearly visible to us the instant we looked up, grey green fuselage with black crosses on the wings and the red swastika at an angle on the rudder. Well there we were, right in it, it couldn't have been more plain.


More refugees coming in haste and hysterical panic with grim stories of shootings, bayoneting and with tales of victims hanging on barbed wire fences hacked to pieces.  The only thing left for us to do was to make for the open fields in front of us.  If we kept to the road, following the canal, the troopers would be after us quicker - as there was no resistance anywhere.


With a ditch between us we now tried to get as much distance, in the shortest possible time between the last point near the barge and the length of the field,  We had just covered a couple of kilometeres when we heard the short, sharp, speedy droning of two low flying Dorniers coming from the direction of St. Omair.  They were skimming the canal between the lane of trees and the place where we had left the barge, ... it went up in broken and splintered planks, boards flying in all directions.!!!!!We hoped the skipper had heeded the warning for him and  his family. There was no time to turn back or wonder what could have been done as suddenly we came under fire ...


The German Artillery had us in its sights and shells began falling short of us only twenty yards away.  Before we could hear more of the distant deep sounding bangs of the guns and the whistling shells following us we quickly dove into the ditch.  Then at a rapid pace, we then continued to follow the ditch until we were safely behind a big farm wall.  No doubt, they had taken us for soldiers and once out of sight they had lost us and didn't waste any more ammunition.  How close it had been!


A toothless old crow appeared before the old farmstead mumbling, it was an English exercise and not to worry about it!  The old lady looked more like a witch and we thought should have looked better in her crystal ball!We left her where she stood as we all turned around and saw a few more craters opening up on her land... The old lady went back inside in some doubt!


As we didn't fancy being stuck there we hurried along until we reached the bend in the winding,curving road facing the other way again taking our steps north again, coming to another canal behind a little village called Bergues, derived from the Flemish Bergen for mountains, more like little hills, as that is what they appeared to be.


A British platoon was busy behind Bergues working to enlarge the canal and digging their trenches very close to the bridge.  They were all nice chaps, we all had the same adverse thoughts after what we had experienced before arriving in Bergues which was tell the chaps not to go over the bridge with The Hun so near! So we started a nice conversation, calmly telling what we had seen with the Germans on the back of us, too close for comfort, from where we had come.


A scout was sent straight away on a motor bike in that direction and it didn't take long for him to return and verify the statement.  The only course left for them was to leave the trenches and retreat swiftly before being cut off.  We hoped for their success in a tactical retreat as it came so often to be called.


As the platoon was soon out of sight we continued our march towards Hondschote and the border where we crossed into Belgium - we felt just like victorious warriors from the, "The Battle of the Golden Spurs".  We were so glad to back on home ground.


We had been insulted, not given bread or water anymore since those silly remarks by irresponsible statesmen, even by our distance cousins in those territories that were French now.


At that moment, we couldn't forgive any of them either! The hurt had cut too deep; cowardice and subservance were not our weaknesses at any time: lest we forget.  Once wrongly challenged our wrath would have to be reckoned with...".


To be continued ....

Day 5 - Arriving at Dunkirk!

"There was Dunkirk, in front of us, all of it's old glory ready for total destruction.  Some bombs had fallen here and there and people of all races were still roaming around the streets and sitting about looking at the passing refugees waiting for their ships to leave.  The first B.E.F. troops were beginning to arrive.

My Dad was always struggling and queuing for provisions to keep us on the go and all of us couldn't have agreed more than to get out of this trap as quickly as possible - even if that meant before the evening.  With our load still growing lighter we hurried off to the countryside on the back, that would be the front facing the Germans...

By night fall we reached an old village called Chappele-Saint-Pierrre and found shelter in an open school, looked after by French soldiers.  They were keeping order and were accepting money bribes for inside boarding in the classrooms, so we slept outside.  A Jewish family choosing and being given the inside.  It would have been better if those soldiers had been at the front, maybe they were stragglers!

The battle of Dunkirk now started to unfold in front of our eyes.  We were like spectators in an amphi-theatre, sitting on our blankets. At night, Goering was now sending his planes non-stop.   We saw them swooping and diving in the searchlights.  The continuous pounding of bombs and explosions from anti-aircraft guns all turning continuously up in the sky as well as over the city. 

The city had become a blazing inferno of fires and lightning flashes, with short outbursts of gunfire and thick, bellowing engulfing smoke.  Sometimes, we wondered about the planes coming too close for our comfort but all glad we weren't there now and that we had followed our hunch.

The rumbling went on still further into the night but so tired had we become that we just fell asleep where we were.  In haste, after our uneasy sleep and a quick bite we were packing up once again.  The further away we could get, in the shortest possible time, from this doomed city the better.

Looking back in the morning sun we saw nothing but huge columns of smoke rising up in the sky.  "Think it all over"; I told myself, "they might as well have given us all guns and rifles to fight back, we could be just as good as the soldiers".

Paris was becoming more and more remote for us now but we relentlessly  struggled towards it.  Of course, in this phony war we didn't know anything about Rommel busy cutting us off.  Mind you it wouldn't take long before the phony war would be on us again - it looked like we were the only army trying to get somewhere.

Eventually, reaching for what I believed to be the old Pachendaele Canal we found an empty barge which was able to take us, at a price, further.  It had no motor but a horse was ready to pull -  at least we were going to save our poor feet.  Those plumb barges looked and moved like a long black dragon at a snail's pace.  They passed through the still flat and cultivated countryside be speckled with well kept and bigger farms than ours.

Our farms had never kept pace with the increasing population and loss of space.  Everything was in luster and bloom smelling of a good harvest.  Sometimes we walked alongside the horse who came to know us very well.  Keeping the same pace between the coast by day we could distantly see the long smoke funnels from Dunkirk...

In previous years this very same countryside had been frequented by our pickers. Once upon a time these Small holders had come to harvest  beets. They were a special breed of hardy country people, not without humour and their swagbags.  Working hard from early morning until late in the evening fulfilling their sweethearts desires to set a home up.

They smoked their own tobacco, grown by themselves, bringing also a bit of life to the villages here.  The beer was cheap, girls plentiful and all of the old music of Breughel's feasting embodied in their dances and merrymaking with a gorging of the best farmer's food.  Our mouths were watering thinking of it.  We were still not short of food and water in as much as they were supplying it.

When we called at the farms they asked jokingly if we had come to bring in the harvest.  As before, the general atmosphere was still friendly and the theatre of war somewhat removed from us - cordiality and innocence of the same events was shared between us.

The different characters who had taken the barge as their temporary floating home consisted of a variety of people.  One of these was a lonely monk who didn't seem to belong to any particular group.  The monk was, of course, suspected of being a fifth columnist.  This time they could have been right!

He had a military contenance and could hardly converse with any of us.  He looked tall, thin and pale and almost embodied the spirit fo the epidemic which had overtaken Europe in the Dark Ages.  Even his attire took the shape of  it.  One night, he suddenly disappeared - the German vanguards were now be much nearer than we had thought.  It looked like the ghost-figure had preceded them and forewarned us.

It was now very calm -  the quiet before the storm.  It seemed all too much like a bad omen.  Indeed, people were dying en mass all around us now - at least that was the prevailing feeling we had. In St. Omair, the crossroads were heavily bombed and bombarded - with reluctance, that was the place to which we were headed.   Dunkirk was in flames and the drama on the beaches was unfolding itself behind us.  

Boulogne and up to Calais were just the same -  Rommel was busy hacking his way through and closing the gap, with the main body proceeding in France, advancing relentlessly.  Rumors were filtering through to us, that later proved to be true, of a Scottish regiment that had been hacked to pieces by S.S. troopers near a little place called Paradis.

Right now, just over the tree tops, we were in the process of watching an agile German spotter plane and it's pilot trying to dodge a British fighter by playing the fallen leaf and getting away with it - that was more than a sign and omen.  They were all around us, now for sure!

The horse driver stopped, got paid off and packed up there and then to return as quickly as he could.  Thus we were stuck and now most people were leaving the barge and going in all directions. The horse gave us a last farewell look in a despairing kind of way, that only a horse can do, and disappeared with it's driver - soon out of sight, to become just a small dot in the distance..."

To be continued ...