Inspired by a Facebook post - A little tale of my Grandfathers

 

I was born in 1962, just seventeen years after the end of World War Two. That was barely a generation away and was indeed still in the memories of my grandparent's generation.

My paternal Grandfather, Donald, was a Shepherd and Farmworker and was considered a preserved status for conscription, although I do believe that he was in the local Home Guard (he didn't appear in Dad's Army).

My maternal Grandfather, Les, was a T/Sgt Churchill Tank Commander during the battle for Normandy. He didn't talk much about the war; after reading about it, I can understand why. But there were two incidents that he did very occasionally.

It is worth writing about Grandfather's background and the Churchill tank to understand what happened then.

Grandfather was a Yorkshireman and was married to Beatrice Mary (my Grandmother). By the time of conscription, they had a family of two daughters: Cicely, my mother, was born in late 1940, followed a couple of years later by Sister Lois. Like many South Yorkshiremen, Grandfather had gone 'down the pit' in their younger days. He had been a policeman in his time, too. I'm a bit vague on the dates; I have a family history, but it is currently in the loft.

The Churchill Tank was hailed as a saviour at the battle of Normandy, but it had a difficult start to its operational life in the rest of the campaign. It was heavily involved in the ill-fated Dieppe Raid. Although it had been designed with conditions similar to World War One in mind, the shingle beach and overwhelming firepower of the Germans at Dieppe led to a less successful operation outcome. 

The Churchill was a Medium/Heavy Infantry Tank. Nearly six thousand were produced for the war effort. Their primary purpose was to support infantry advances. Initially hampered by being fitted with a two-pound gun, but later variants, Mk 3's and 4's, were improved with a six-pound gun. Other variants, named Crocodiles, were equipped with flame throwers and towed a tanker of thickened gasoline for the flame thrower. The Germans feared these.

Grandfather's regiment/battalion landed on D-Day plus three and was pitched straight into the battle. By the end of the battle in August 1944, Grandfather's battalion was decimated to the extent that it was amalgamated with another. 

My Grandfather told the story of being in a field when a German Tiger Tank came down the road, passing the gateway into the field. If you were unaware, Normandy, covered by the brocade, similar to the Devon Banks we see here, could have been better tank terrain. 

Grandfather continued by pulling his tank out onto the road behind the Tiger, knowing that things would not end well if the Tiger turned on them. They had one shot, quite literally.

An aimed shot from Churchill's main gun hit the Tiger on the joint between the turret and the hull, removing the turret cleanly.

This story impressed me as a young man. Years later, I was reading a book about the Churchill Tank in the same battle, and it was written that there was an account that was precisely what my Grandfather told me. It was the only recorded action where a Churchill disabled a Tiger Tank. Coincidence?

The other tale Grandfather used to tell was when we were watching the film A Bridge Too Far about General Montgomery's Operation Market Garden. In the movie, there is a scene where an aeroplane flies over trains full of tanks. By now, Grandfather was part of 30 Corps and was due to battle down towards Arnhem to relieve the Airborne Forces. Strangely enough, I watched that film again this week.

I was lucky to have a Grandfather who had served during the war. There were many whose Grandfathers never made it back.

The current war in Ukraine serves to remind us of these dark hours in Europe. These are troubled times; let's trust we can keep the lid on another Europe-wide conflict.

    I was spurred to write this after a Facebook post by a friend who is taking a trip in a Tiger Tank at Bovington.

Time to mark a little milestone - Let's celebrate

Sorry to bug you with a blog piece in the middle of the week. I have to celebrate the 101st blog post I have written. Last Saturday's post was the 100th. I totally missed that milestone.

    When I started this Blogger site, it was twelve or thirteen years ago, and I was trying to find employment after being made redundant from BAE Systems in Dartmouth.

    I wanted to create an online CV, and I quickly found this wasn't the best platform to do this. It remained dormant for several years until we were living in East Devon. It was living in East Devon that reignited my desire to write. I had started a writing course while we were living in South Devon, and although my work for that slowed and petered out, being in East Devon and the pandemic spurred me to pitch to magazine editors. Having had some success, I joined Ottery Writers, and this was to see the start of regular blogging alongside writing my first novel. 

    I now have the first draft of the novel finished and 101 blog pieces under my belt. Add to the mix my pieces for Substack; my writing career is certainly getting busy.

    This is a short piece to mark these milestones. We should be back to normal for the weekend.

    Thanks for reading these pieces and for your continued words of encouragement and support.

Coffee and Writing - What Could be Better? It could be Tea?

 Now, I know that I've written about my love of coffee before, but I won't make any excuses because I'm writing about it again.

Coffee drinking is not an insular experience—far from it. It brings people together. In any coffee shop in the land, you will find people, strangers, chatting over a cup of coffee.

The coffee chains have brought a lot of different products to the market to tempt both the pallet and the wallet. They have bought us the Latte, flavoured or not, and the infamous flat white.

Coffee has also created personalities from its Baristas and Roasters. One notable is James Hoffman, who became famous after winning the 2007 World Barista Championship. Now an entrepreneur and business consultant of some standing, his YouTube channel has 2.07 million subscribers. He founded Square Mile Roasters in 2008. 

Here in East Devon, we have several independent roasters. The one that I mainly use is RoastWorks, which is down the road from me in Willand. I take the opportunity to pick up my order; the aroma is lovely when you open the door. 

Likewise, in Exeter, there are Exe Roasters. They have a couple of coffee shops in the city, but the best for me is just off Fore Street. This is where they roast the beans. You can sit and watch the roasting process whilst sipping on a cup of their finest. It is fascinating to witness the roasting process. Very technology-based. Also in East Devon is Buzz Coffee. Based in Sidmouth, I have tried a couple of their roasts. Lovely coffee and funky bright packaging

But to get back to the social side of coffee, three of us are coffee geeks in the office where I work. We share our different coffees, which attract the attention of others who have since started their coffee journeys. 

I have an Aeropress and grind my beans, much to the ire of one person in the office. I may have become a bit of a coffee personality in the kitchen. This weekend, I made one of my coffee buddies' day by leaving him a particularly nice Ethiopian Guji bean roast for his French Press as he works this weekend.

The other evening, I was checking my social media accounts, and one suggested some 'friends' with whom I may like to connect. You know how it works, a long list of friends of friends, friends, the vast majority I have no idea who they are. Except this time, there was someone that I did know. I checked to see if this was a genuine account, which I always do, and to my surprise, he was a coffee roaster. I ordered a couple of different beans from his site and received a message from him. He and his wife have set the coffee business as a retirement proposition. We both served in Portsmouth Band in the 80s, and I'm happy to be able to support them in their new venture. The company? Darwin Coffee. I will post a link with the others at the end of this piece.

This week has been a productive writing week. For the first part of the week, I was at home and could spend a few hours in my new writing den. I have primarily been working on the rewrite/redraft of 'Beastin Dartmoor. It is taking a bit longer than I had imagined. I have rewritten a few scenes in the first three chapters so far. I like the deadline that I set myself for writing this blog and my Substack for Monday mornings. I can be found on a Zoom writing hour with William's Patreon Group on Sunday afternoons, which is great fun. William is a Tea lover and loves nothing better than being busy writing with Tea and a couple of biscuits and if it's a more tangible problem, it will be tea with three biscuits. His three biscuit guides on YouTube are legendary.

Last Sunday, I attempted to write the second half of a 3000-word short story for an anthology to be published later in the year. I got the idea for the story from an exercise at another writing workshop I attended. For the first 1500 words, I was fortunate to be critiqued and edited by Jenny, who runs the workshops. From the short pieces that I read in the workshop, this could be my third novel, which I laughed at, to be honest. However, when the writing hour ended, I could confirm that this story would exceed 3000 words. 2025 is looking to be an exciting year, and I will have to re-think the short story now.

Have a great week, everybody.

Links:

https://www.roastworks.co.uk/

https://execoffeeroasters.co.uk/

https://www.buzzcoffee.co.uk/

https://www.slowfood.org.uk/supporters/darwin-coffee

What's this? The Sun's out and the Master's Golf is on the TV - Easter was last week?

 

You can tell it's spring. The sun is in the sky—yes, that's what it is—and The Masters of Golf is on the TV. That usually indicates that it is Easter, but Easter is a bit earlier this year and seems a week late.

It has been nearly fifteen years since I last played a round of golf, most likely with my late brother, Andrew. He was a golf fanatic and played numerous times a week. He had the vision to set himself up as a customised golf club maker and had all the equipment in a shed in the back garden. Sadly, he was never able to achieve his wish, as MND changed all that.

I still have a set of clubs Andrew made for me in the loft. I'm loathed to get rid of them. He even supplied me with a bright yellow golf bag. He made these clubs a little longer for me and with a little more flex in the shaft. This enabled me to continue to play after my back operation some thirty years ago.

When I was serving at Dartmouth, the Dartmouth Golf and Country Club had recently opened. We could play on the courses for £10 all day. The Naval College had contributed some funds to get it off the ground, so we had a few years at that bargain price.

We played the course almost daily. We used to come down off the parade ground after Colours or Divisions, get changed, and shoot off out there. I used to go with a good friend and fellow inlier (living onboard/barracks), Trev D'Arcy. Sadly, Trev passed away a few years ago, but we spent many happy hours playing golf and getting paid for it. It was not a bad life.

When I retired from the RMs, I continued to play, albeit less often. The guys where I worked used to organise a couple of golf days, which was an excellent way to get to know everybody.

I can't say that I really miss playing. I could have a round with a couple of my brother-in-laws, but sadly, I no longer have the interest, sadly.

My new website is not yet ready for publication, but I am getting closer to it. I promise you will be the first to know when it's in cyberspace.

I shall try a different way of planning my writing week this week. I may have more time to write than anticipated when I first made the plan, but we will have to see how I feel on Monday morning.

Hopefully, you will also see my Substack posts on my social media. Please pop over and have a read. I make them very different on that platform. This week, I shall be discussing networking to promote my upcoming novels. 

Have a great writing week. If you haven't considered writing before, give it a go. Don't worry; only you will read it unless you're happy to share.

April Showers and erratic driving - more news of writing too

 

"Though April showers may come your way, They bring the flowers that bloom in May." 

April Showers, composed by Louis Silvers with lyrics by B.G. De Sylva, was first sung by Al Jolson in the Broadway Musical "Bombo" in 1921.

The words conjure up gentle April showers, giving rise to beautiful May flowers. A quick look into the fields on the way to work recently shows that we're not having April showers but have had a deluge of rainwater since last autumn. The temperatures forecast for the weekend are the highest since October last year, which is six and a half months.

It's been a pretty dank and dreary winter. We haven't had any extreme cold weather in the South West of England to be of notice. There was a flurry of snow a few weeks ago, but here in East Devon, it was just rain. I can only remember a few occasions where I have had to scrape frost or ice from my car before work.

On Friday morning, I was travelling to work at about 0730 and starting work at 0800. Work is only 20 minutes or so up the A30. I travel at different times during the week, depending on my shift. Friday was an early shift, but I also have shifts that start at 0900 and the late one starting at 1000. The journeys at these times are very different. 

When I drive to work at 0800, the A30 turns into a race track. The lorries had been on the move early after being laid up overnight, especially as the clocks went forward an hour last week. These lorries cause the inside lane, where we should all be if we use the road correctly, to be quite busy. Travelling at 70 miles per hour is OK, as by using both lanes properly, you can maintain distance and speed. Therein lies the problem. As people see that the inside lane is full of heavy goods vehicles, they put their collective feet down, and the outside lane turns into a speed track. Couple this with our not-so-gentle April showers, and it becomes quite a journey to work. Vans are the worst offenders. The same vans are limited to 60 miles per hour for the national speed limit, even on dual carriageways and motorways.

I have struggled to find what to write about this week; I must admit there is nothing new there. I started thinking about the weather, but it morphed into my journey to work this morning, which was particularly challenging due to the weather and driving styles. Anyway, we're here, and it has worked.

This week's writing update is that I remain trying to get most of the rewrite of 'Beasting Dartmoor' before next month's holiday. I have had the start of a short story I'm writing edited this week, and I can progress with that for the Ottery Writers' upcoming anthology later in the year. By the time that goes to print and provided my story is accepted, I hope to have 'Beasting' ready for professional editing or submission to publishers. There is a lot of work to do then. My second novel, 'Mince Pie Murders, ' will progress at a slightly slower pace for a few months, with the target of publication ready for Christmas 2025 still very much the aim. By then, I expect to have my third novel on the go, and who knows, I may have a fourth on the back burner.

I'm pleased to say I'm back on my website after trouble with usernames and passwords. I need to settle down over the weekend, watch how to set it up and prepare it for publication. I can't promise that next week's blog will be in a new place, but we will be very close to it.

Have a great writing week ahead. On Sunday evening, I will review my weekly calendar and organise the writing week ahead. Let's hope it won't be too long before the weather changes from "Drip Drip Drop Little April Showers" to "Sunny Days."