Date Posted:13:16:22 06/12/06 Mon Author:Ken Midwood. Subject: World War 11 Military vehicles.
I was browsing the Internet, and I came across your site, and I read your message board. The little story I have about the jeep, and many other assorted vehicles, goes back to three mornings, sometime in May, 1944. I'm afraid I did nothing adventurous in a jeep, as I was merely a by -stander: I was seven years old. I lived in a town called Mirfield, in The West Riding of Yorkshire, England. To get to school, we had to cross a reasonably busy road, which, in itself, was a feeder road to the Great North Road (A1)to London (200 miles).
On the morning of each of these three days, our crossing was blocked by the passage of a seemingly endless convoy of tank transporters, artillery pieces, troop carriers, bren carriers, et al. The convoy was always lead by a couple of jeeps flying penants, and carring important looking men and military policemen. Every other vehicle, and pedestrian alike, without exception, had to give way to these convoys, a practice enforced by M.P. motorcyclists riding alongside the convoy. Each convoy took some two hours to pass. We young lads stood on the side of the road, only a few feet away from, to us, this magnificent spectacle, and I don't think we once closed our mouths. It beat the pictures(flicks) by miles.
We had the added bonus of being two hours late for school with a cast-iron alibi! As a rare excuse for being late for school, I reckon this still takes some beating.
On a more sober note; I later realised that this was part of the D-Day build up, and I can't really imaging the feelings of the chaps travelling in the convoy.
Without these men, and millions like them, I would have had nothing like the life I have had, if a life at all, and I would, quietly, like to offer them my thanks. Oh, and thanks for the chocolate(candy).
