September 19th, 2016

9/20/2016

“E” Squadron Is Rigged Up in Gala Dress
Incident at Cleve; First Experience With the Buzz-Bombs

By Major R.W. Rankin, M.B.E.
Commanding “E” Squadron, Elgin Regiment

Gala Dress

I left the Elgins in France to go with the British Army and Major Stewart Thomson, now in Toronto, took over command of “E” Squadron. It was in April a year ago that I learned the Squadron was over the border in Germany in a town called Cleve. I happened to be in that vicinity and decided to pay them a call. I arrived in the midst of one of the most amusing demonstrations I have ever witnessed.

The town of Cleve was badly bombed. Virtually all the buildings were demolished or damaged, including business places. Two of the stores that were hard hit by bombs were a clothing store where there was a large stock of dress suits and top hats and a store where musical instruments were sold.

The boys of “E” Squadron really hopped on to that merchandise, organizing a very formal orchestra – every member in a dress suit and a topper.

I can still see several of those Elgins; George Hunter was perched on top of a horse, in all his formal regalia. He really made an impressive sight. Bill Morgan of Port Stanley had on a dress suite and top hat that partially fitted him and was playing an accordion. Two or three other boys were blowing lustily on saxophones and trumpets and trying to keep their toppers from falling off.

No Dish Washing

That stay in Cleves was easy for Corporal Neaves, the cook, and his assistants. The Elgins were billeted in the wrecks of buildings – in basements, any place they could find quarters. There were all kinds of dishes in the wrecked buildings – whole dishes and broken dishes. The Elgins made free use of them in serving up their food. And nobody bothering washing the dishes when they finished eating; they simply tossed the dirty dishes out of the windows and took others that were clean or fairly clean, for the next meal. Kitchen duties were light during that stay in Cleve.

Buzz Bomb Worries

In June, 1944, “E” Squadron was situated on the English coast near Folkestone, waiting to proceed to Normandy with 2 Canadian Corps. It was a time of much activity since all the tanks and wheeled vehicles had to be waterproofed for the trip across the Channel. One day there suddenly appeared a strange sounding plane giving out a noise something like a one-cylinder motorcycle, and travelling at a speed of about three hundred and fifty miles per hour. When the machine failed to answer recognition signals all the anti-aircraft guns along the coast opened fire with everything they had. Puffs of smoke from the exploding shells appeared around the plane but it kept on coming, without changing course. Suddenly the motor stopped and it nose-dived right into the area where the Elgins were. Everybody thought the gunners had brought down a German plane, but when the machine hit the ground there was a terrific explosion, which caused the earth to tremor. Some of the Elgin boys working on a tank, Bill McMurchie, Bill Turner, of Talbotville, and Bill Doan, of St. Thomas, at the sound of the explosion all made a dive underneath the tank and found themselves all tangled up in a space about eighteen inches square.

This strange machine later became known as a buzz-bomb, a German pilotless plane invention which carried a large amount of explosives. The squadron soon came to know them well, because they passed over day and night from then on. The men of “E” Squadron were glad to get to France where things were somewhat quieter.

lives lived