Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect XXIII.
(June 2010)

Bill Sykes looks back in retrospect at material which has been published in previous editions of "View from America", in an attempt to determine whether the subject matter written then is still applicable in today’s world.

Article #23A.

Reminiscing. (A very different type of story from my usual well researched articles)
OK, This is a very short edition and I may be going to bore the hell out of you but as I have nothing else to do this afternoon except watch television, I picked up a TV program that was showing a group of American soldiers, (each heavily camouflaged and burdened down with enough equipment to service a whole platoon), who were staggering through the very rough terrain in Afghanistan, even though I personally think that it’s way past the time when all the American troops should be brought home from this terrible country and the unwinnable war which they should not have been involved in the first place.

Watching the heavily burdened American soldiers struggling across the terrible landscape took me back many years to a two year tour of duty that I did in Palestine with the British Parachute Regiment during 1945/1947. The terrain in Palestine of course was certainly not as rugged as the terrain in Afghanistan by any means, but the tactics of the Israeli antagonists were certainly just as dangerous, if not more so, especially when we were out on night patrol and came under fire from the too close for comfort machine guns which the Israeli terrorist forces had very cleverly located in ditches on the side of the road in order to cover the area that we were traveling through in three ton trucks. The terrorists also had a group of mines strung across the road, with the idea that if we managed to see the mines before they had blown us up, we would stop the truck and then they could riddle us with machine gun fire.

Whilst not wishing to bore you, I believe that I wrote a previous article on this subject that described how a friend of mine, Ernie Lambert, got caught in a similar situation in Palestine and was killed by machine gun fire.
I was Main Gate Guard Commander at a local camp on the night that Ernie got killed and they brought his lifeless body into the guard room and we buried him in the Ramallah Cemetery a few days later. (To view the complete article, please go to the April 2002 Edition, "The Israeli Situation #2".)

Memories of the past. The burial of Sergeant Ernie Lamberts. (Ramallah--Palestine 1947).

Ernie Lambert, a Sergeant with the British Third Parachute Battalion, was killed whilst leading a British army patrol in the area of Peta Tiqua in 1947 when he and his men came under machine gun fire from an Israeli terrorist group.
To the best of my recollection, Ernie, whilst sitting up front with the driver of a three ton truck noticed a row of land mines located on the road in front of them. He immediately stopped the vehicle and ordered his men to evacuate the truck. He then stepped out of the cab to reconnoiter the obstacle, or detonate the mines which were linked by a wire, a method used by the Israelis was to pull the mines across the road in order to either stop, or blow up British army trucks. In this particular case, the stationary truck became the target of an Israeli terrorist group ambush and Ernie was mowed down by machine gun fire.
The photographs show the burial party at the Ramallah cemetery, as I and five other Sergeants of the Company acted as pall bearers.
Ernie was buried with full military honors.

Looking back in retrospect.
What was it like to be a sergeant in command of a platoon of British soldiers?
I know that you the reader are not really interested in the subject, but as I do not have anything else to offer at the moment, except perhaps the terrible BP oil leakage/seepage problem which is still unrestrained, and perhaps the eruptions from the Icelandic volcano which disrupted and grounded practically every commercial airliner that tried to take off or land in Ireland, Scotland, England, Spain, Portugal, and most other eastern European aerodromes - so whether you like it or not - I just don’t have any other subjects at the moment to fill in the empty pages.

 So, not wanting to dig up other past subjects I have chosen a simple personal subject which can be read, or not read, depending upon the mood of the reader.
If you have read past editions of "Newsletter from America", or, "Bill Sykes in Retrospect", you will have the following information:
I was a member of His Majesties forces for seven years, 1942 /1949,   
I parachuted into Normandy on the night of the 5th /6th of June 1944, and spent a year as a guest of the German government on a weight reduction exercise.
I then spent two years in Palestine, 1946/1947, 
And finally I spent the last two years of my seven year service contract, 1948/1949, in of all places Germany.

Now to get back to the story:
I don’t recall the date when I was promoted to Sergeant. I believe that when I reported back to Bulford Camp after surviving the German POW incident I was given the rank of Corporal, and I was either promoted to Sergeant before we embarked upon the ship that was taking us to Palestine, or shortly after arriving in Palestine. So if I was to make a guess I would suggest that perhaps I was promoted to Sergeant shortly after arriving in Palestine, your guess is as good as mine.
Apart from a short time that I was demoted to Corporal for an incident that I truly was not involved in and was quickly reinstated to full Sergeant, I retained that rank for the rest of my military service.
Although there was one time, whilst in Palestine, that I was considered for promotion to the position of CQMS. (Company Quarter Master Sergeant).
The story that I’m gong to tell you entails three members of my platoon, and to be honest I really do not remember if my connection with them was in Palestine, or later in Germany, or even both countries?
It’s amazing, but after all this time I still remember them and their names - well I should - as they gave me enough problems during the time that I was their Platoon Sergeant, but in all honesty I must admit that they were always the first to come forward to my aid, or defense, if any serious problem arose.

The Three Musketeers. (Puckey, Dalton, and Brady).
Sorry about this - please forgive me - but my memory fails me as I don’t know if my acquaintance with the terrible threesome took place in Palestine, Germany, or even both.
I wonder if any of the three are still alive today - but even if they are still alive, - I don’t believe that they would even remember me even though I remember them as if it was only yesterday!
Puckey, was a large brawny pugilistic sort of guardian angel type, who looked after the well being of his  two friends when they got themselves into trouble, which if I remember rightly was quite often,
Dalton, was in my memory, a man of infinite wisdom who fascinated me with his knowledge and also his respect for the British royal family. For instance, he was the only one that I can remember who stood up in silence when the national anthem was played at the end of a film whilst everyone else was heading for the door. Funny the things that one remembers about people.
Brady, what on earth can I say about Brady - well let me put it this way, at the morning roll call, I would call out, "Is Brady present?", and if the answer was "Yes Sergeant" then I knew that it was safe for me to march off the platoon to wherever we were supposed to be going, and to be quite honest there were times that I was not really sure about that.

Seeing that the 5th/6th of June 1944 was a very important day in my life I felt that I had to come up with a June 2010 edition of. "Bill Sykes In Retrospect", even though perhaps it is not up to my usual standard.

Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this news letter has been gleaned from American and international media sources, (including the internet), and as such is quoted as accurately as possible.
I try to obtain confirmation on each subject from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite items and personal comments and therefore the reader must make his/her own judgment as to the reliability and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.

Eric (Bill) Sykes, (Southern California).
June 2010.

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