You can't blame Doug Mayman and his fellow crew members of a British
Cruiser tank for wanting to keep out of the way of enemy German Tiger
tanks in World War II.
A shot from a Tiger's 88mm gun could penetrate the front armor of a
Cruiser 2,000 metres away, but a Cruiser's 57mm gun couldn't penetrate the
front armor of a Tiger one metre away. (This fact has been revealed
only recently. Was it known in 1944?).
Mayman, a member of the tank regiment, the 15th /19th King's Royal
Hussars, kept secret wartime diaries recounting his Army life from
November 5, 1943 until his return home from Germany on leave on April 21,
1945.
These diaries provide a living account of Mayman's conscription, induction
and training, leading up to his experiences under fire as his regiment
fought its way through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany.
Doug
Mayman, aged 83, in 2006
The diaries are being posted 65 years after the events they describe, just
as Harry
Lamin's letters from the Western Front in the first World War have
thrilled a worldwide audience 90 years after they were written.
Mayman, now 85, unearthed his forgotten diaries two years ago, while
rummaging in the loft of his home in Aughton, West Lancashire, UK. He
thought no-one would be interested in them but gave them to his two
daughters, Merron Mitchell and Joy Murphy, to look at.
"As soon as I started to read them, I was enthralled," Joy told
Gemma Jaleel, a feature writer of a local newspaper, the Ormskirk
Advertiser. "My dad was only 19 when he started to keep a diary
of his war experiences. Every day he would make an entry, however
difficult it was. Sometimes he would be writing under a tank after days
fighting, always with a fountain pen(*) and whenever he could with
illustrations."
"Given the high mortality rate of his regiment, I think it was a way
of trying to leave something behind in case of his death. Fortunately he
survived, as did the diaries."
Mayman left school at the age of 15, and began work as a wages clerk for
Rycroft and Hartley Ltd, a local textiles company. He then found a
better-paying job in a Royal Ordnance Factory which manufactured aircraft
shells in nearby Steeton.
He met his future wife Dorothy at the Methodist Youth Club when they were
both 17. Two years later, on Sept. 3, 1942, he was conscripted into the
Army.
Doug and Dorothy married on April 23, 1945. They have four grandchildren
and five great-grandchildren.
These days, at 85, Doug
describes himself as "a retired finance director - very much EX
financial consultant. All jobs too big. Available for social
occasions."
Harking back to the first World War: at least one soldier celebrated
Christmas 1917 in the trenches in style. Here's an extract from a blog
posted by Dumdad,
an English journalist living in Paris:
Private William Jackman was a servant to Captain Morrison who was a
multi-millionaire. Morrison arranged for hampers of food from Fortnum
and Mason's to be delivered to the trenches regularly and for a bottle
of 1900 port from Berry's to be sent out every three days plus cases of
whisky and brandy. These were in boxes marked Red Cross.
By the time Jackman's Battalion went to the Somme, Captain Morrison had
left but he never cancelled the order and the stuff kept on coming.
Private William wrote in his diary: "It used to arrive in batches
and sometimes we'd have as many as a dozen boxes arriving from Fortnum
and Mason's at the same time. There were boxes of tinned stuff, mostly,
like galantine of chicken, soups, puddings, tins of fruit, tins of
grouse and pheasant, ham - everything you could think of for the
Officers' Mess."
Imagine, sitting in a trench with fetid water lapping at your boots and
rats scurrying hither and thither and thousands of lice crawling all
over your body and shells exploding above your head yet dining out on a
tin of grouse washed down with fine port.
What a crazy world!
(*) Doug Mayman
wrote all his diaries with an ink-filled fountain pen. Ballpoint
pens were unknown until after the war ended.
... on an October morning in 1945 when a crowd of over 5,000
people jammed the entrance of New York's Gimbels Department
Store. The day before, Gimbels had taken out a full-page ad in
the New York Times promoting the first sale of ballpoints in the
United States. The ad described the new pen as a
"fantastic... miraculous fountain pen ... guaranteed to
write for two years without refilling!" On that first day
of sales, Gimbels sold out its entire stock of 10,000 pens-at
$12.50 each! - From Wordfinder.com
Anyone wanting a copy of Doug Mayman's book should email
book.sales@authorsonline.co.uk OR amazon.co.uk OR telephone (UK)
01633 676629.
Harry Lamin's book, based on his blog, is complete and has been
sent to the publishers, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. It will go on
sale on April 2, 2009 and major booksellers are accepting
pre-orders at a discount.
You can see letters and a Christmas card Harry sent home in 1917
in this story in the London
Daily Mail.
Eric Shackle says he's been a compulsive writer ever since gaining
his first job as a cadet/cub reporter in 1937. Now 89, he is
OMNI's oldest reporter. Published 2008-12-24 15:00 (KST)
Click on author's byline for bio and list of other
works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
Doug
Mayman, aged 21, in Brussels, 1944
