A promise to write home saved Jim's life
(Story date: Thursday, May 12, 2005)

Events were held throughout Europe last weekend to mark the 60th anniversary of VE Day, when German forces surrendered to the Allies, and Orkney was no exception. Lorraine Shearer talks to veteran Jim Shearer about his time in the later stages of the war, and how he heard of its end.

Looking back - Jim Shearer recalls his days as a young soldier sent to Europe in the Second World War. (Picture: 59¡North/Frank Bradford)

Young soldier Jim Shearer was torn between writing home to his beloved mother, or going to see a film in recently liberated Antwerp.

Despite being badgered by his fellow comrades, the Kirkwall lad had promised he would keep in touch with home as often as he could.

“There was a cinema there and we hadn’t seen a film in months but I didn’t know when I would be able to write again,” he said.

The consequences of his decision to put pen to paper would only become apparent hours later.

“They never came back. This was at the time Hitler was using V2 rockets. They were launched from German occupied territory and went faster than the speed of sound,” he said.

The rockets were designed to devastate London, but Antwerp was a valuable port to the combined forces for getting supplies.

“Hundreds of servicemen were in the cinema at the time it was hit and everybody inside was killed. I lost two pals.

“Our platoon officer went in the next afternoon to try to identify the bodies and get their dog tags.

“My mother’s insistence I write home, whenever I could, saved my life on this occasion.”

Jim, 79, of Old Scapa Road, Kirkwall, was reliving his memories of his role in the Second World War, as the world commemorated the 60th anniversary of VE Day.

Etched in his mind are horrific images of what had gone before and no more so than during the Nuremberg trials of 24 Nazi war criminals.

Soldiers’ names were pulled from a hat to decide who would be allowed to spectate during the trials.

Jim was “lucky” enough to be chosen.

“The Jews and political prisoners who went into the gas chambers were calmed by saying ‘you are going in for a shower and a change of clothes’. They were made to strip naked, their heads were shaved.”

All jewellery, even false teeth, were taken from them and transported back to Germany to be used again, he said.

“I thank God I did not have to go into any concentration camp but I saw Belsen burn.”

Born on August 24, 1925, to James and Elsie, Jim was a precious only child and it was hoped that he would take over the running of his grandfather, William Shearer’s, long established family business on Victoria Street in Kirkwall.

But he received his call-up papers in October, 1943, at the age of 18.

“At that time I had the choice of being a Bevan boy (going into the coal mines) which was a reserved occupation or joining the army. I remember telling my dad that I would like to take my chances above ground.”

After passing a medical, he joined 61 Primary Training Wing, in Elgin, on November 18, 1943.

After six weeks Jim, who has been married to Mildred, née Leslie, since September, 1953, was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps and posted to No 6 Training Battalion (Drivers) at Bluecoat School, in Sheffield.

It was here that he learned to drive and in three months gained his licence and his first leave home to Orkney.

The long journey on board the Jericho (the forces’ train, which ran from London to Thurso) ate into their leave and led to Jim’s father, himself a lieutenant during the First World War, to complain bitterly.

“A week’s leave meant only five days at home, less if you lived in the outer isles, and my father took umbrage to this. He went up to the transport officer who stayed in the Stromness Hotel on my behalf and on behalf of all the other boys in Orkney. Unfortunately, he could not influence him.”

It was far from comfortable travelling with eight men crushed together in a carriage, Jim recalled.

Because of his very slight build, he would manoeuvre himself into the luggage rack above, so the stockier guys below could stretch their legs.

Their unit was redesignated 923 Company (Anti-Aircraft Command Mixed Transport) on April 4, 1944.

“I do not have the exact date that I crossed over to Normandy but it would’ve been about three and a half weeks after D-Day (June 6, 1944),” Jim said.

“I enlisted in active service from Newhaven on a landing ship tank and landed at Gold beach, Arromanches. The fighting was going on all the time, from June 6 until victory in Europe.”

The way he was. Jim is pictured with a fellow driver having come across a German plane which had been shot down.

The landing ship was operated by American soldiers, who benefitted from having better weaponry and food.

“This Yank came down and asked if we would like some soup, handing us all a tin. There was no facility for serving soup on the ship as you would normally do. He told us to open the lid and light the fuse. We said: ‘are you joking? is this a bomb?’ He just laughed.”

And sure enough, the British soldiers could feel the tins warming up in their hands. It was a bit of light relief before what lay ahead.

With the 380 Company attached to the 33rd Armoured Brigade, Jim and his unit remained in Normandy for some time, camped at Bayeux.

“My first sight of civilians in Normandy was an elderly couple scratching the soil with a little single furrow plough.

“His wife was in where the horse should have been and he was walking behind her,” Jim explained. “The Germans had evacuated and taken everything on wheels and any horses with them.”

But far from being welcomed with open arms by the French, some were less than friendly.

“You must remember the German forces had been there for four years and because they thought they were going to be there forever, some had married into French families.”

Life at that time was no more than survival, but it was to get worse before it got better.

The unit was moved up to the River Orne.

“We were instructed to dig holes in the ground to lie in when we were not on duty. But there was ammunition all around us on pallets and shellfire from both the Germans and the British above us.

“One or two shells landed uncomfortably close and you began to wonder when hugging the ground what was going to happen. You were really scared.”

In December, 1944, the unit was on the move again, this time to a civilian village in Holland, called Roosendaal.

“I had promised my mother I would write three times a week, but I couldn’t always do that because I had details to perform.”

But Jim had a way round this by way of pre-written postcards with “sorry, can’t write, on detail, love Jim”, so she would at least get some correspondence.

Christmas was fast approaching and with the area liberated, the locals were in high spirits.

“We attended weddings and were entertained with wine which they had saved up.

“Many civilian lives were saved because a lot of the continental and French houses had cellars where they lived.

“Had they not, then they would have been killed by the collapsing houses.”

The British soldiers planned a Christmas party for the local children, but it was cancelled due to a last-ditch attempt by the Germans, through the Ardennes, with the aim to recapture Antwerp.

“The 7th Armoured Brigade was involved in the defence. We had to drive right up into the Ardennes. I was never so tired in all my life,” Jim continued.

“You just had a small light on the back of the lorry in front of you to follow, called the ‘dif’.

“It was very cold and you had to go out on patrol at nights as there was a danger of paratroopers being landed by the Germans. Fortunately for us, we did not meet any face to face.”

Jim said: “That went on for some time and we eventually went over the Rhine as forces were defeated.

“The end of the war came on May 4, 1945. I was up in Luneburg Heath at that time when the treaty was signed.”

It was here in Lower Saxony, Germany, between the Elbe and Aller rivers that more than a million German soldiers surrendered to the British General Montgomery on May 4, 1945.

Jim was able to take a photograph of a stone erected at the time. Inscribed on it are the words: “18.30 hours 4 May, 1945. A declaration from the German High Command surrendered unconditionally to Field Marshall Montgomery all land, sea and air forces in north west Germany, Denmark and Holland and signed a declaration to that effect.”

Jim revealed that his mother sent him The Orcadian every week so he was able to keep up to date with home, she also kept hold of every letter she received from him.

Jim, who went on to run the business and have a family of four, said: “I was demobilised in Yorkshire in 1947 and my parents came down to meet me. We had business connections down there. It was a marvellous, emotional meeting.

“I knew it was all over and I had survived the war.”