Neville Edwards' memories of advancing through Europe after D-Day
My father, Neville Edwards, was a Signaller (RAF) with 38 Group Combined Operations and he travelled across Europe connecting the army land lines to enable communication. He went over on D-Day+4 and then headed for Le Fresne Camilly where the first airstrip (G5) was built. He remembers that they had to wait for the next airstrip to be built in order to allow the Typhoons to land, before they could move forward. Then they aimed for Lille whilst the Americans went to Paris. In this manner, he moved through France, into Belgium, Holland then eventually Germany. The first place in Germany that he crossed into was Goch and he remembers that there was nothing left of it. The following are a selection of memories I was able to record before his death in 2017.
They moved across land in a wireless truck which meant they had to stick to roads, not as flexible as travelling in a tank. The German patrols payed out a white tape as they advanced so that they could find their way back. On one occasion, Neville came across a white tape and so had to cut the engine and push the truck back for 1/2 mile before they dared re-start it and drive back.
He was once shot at by a German sniper whilst he was out mending a telephone wire, so dropped to the ground, crawled away and then tapped his field telephone into the wire and rang back to his comrade who came and got him in the truck.
At Theon he remembers there was a functioning bakery. His crew were stationery, waiting for the airstrip to be prepared so he went to get freshly baked bread. The next morning the baker was blown up by a German self-propelled gun.
Neville's crew followed the army through to the Falais Gap and Neville himself decoded the signal from Montgomery's office that there would be troop movements in the night and that the rest of the British were to stay put. As Neville passed through the Falais Gap afterwards, there were so many dead German bodies that the area stank. At one point he stopped at a hedgerow to pick some blackberries but just in time noticed that they were swarming with flies (from the nearby dead bodies).
