Ron Fotheringham RMP 1941-44

1920-2007

I joined up in 1938 as part of the militia scheme. I was sent with 500 other Yorkshire lads to re-inforce the Scottish Territorials. We did our basic training at Maryhill barracks in Hamilton. I was then posted to the HLI, stationed on Hamilton racecourse, and went through Infantry training. I was with the regiment for nearly three years. I actually had a cushy number for the most of my time there as I was put in charge of the Sergeants mess. Running the bar was quite an easy life. It could also be quite profitable but unlike some of the previous mess stewards I used the profits to run dances with a free bar (Honest). I ended up sleeping in the mess hall with my own private bed. It was funny after being in the stables with the other lads. A funny thing was that I used to have to get up early and got to bed late, meaning that I never saw my room mate. He did in fact leave me a note when he got posted thanking me for never waking him up.

After everybody got posted I got bored so when they asked for volunteers to apply for traffic control duties with the Military Police I applied. The recruits were selected from among the taller of the men which I was. I volunteered mainly from the boredom and because it was known that if you got accepted you got an immediate stripe (Lance Corporal). The pay rate was exactly the same as the Infantry. In order to qualify for training I had to pass an exam. There were ten questions to answer and to qualify you had to get at least half marks. I managed to answer only five questions in the time allowed but I got forty six percent on those alone. I was told I had passed. I did actually query this but was told that my score on the five questions was easily good enough. It seemed that the exam was difficult to fail.

We went through three months of training on acceptance but unlike the RMP proper our training concentrated on traffic. We all had to learn to ride a motorbike and drive practically any type of military vehicle. The purpose of this was to enable us to move any type of vehicle in order to keep the traffic moving, this, it was emphasised, was our main job.

On qualifying we got white caps and about 100 extra items of equipment that were deemed essential to the MP. I was posted to 6th Armoured Division and almost immediately we were transferred to North Africa as reinforcements. We were organised as a section of 12 motorcyclists with a corporal and a sergeant in charge. Each section had a cook attached. There were three sections in the 6th Armoured. We were under the official command of an officer who was usually a Captain or Lieutenant who had transferred from another regiment, often they were medically downgraded, they were never from the RMP. The exercised very little operational control but were needed for disciplinary reasons and for handling things such as pay. We had a 3 ton truck and a jeep.

We had a variety of motorbikes including Triumphs, Ariels Matchless and BSA. The least liked were the Triumphs as these tended to ground on the rough roads. I think my favourite was the BSA. The Matchless did have telescopic forks but while being very good on the roads these tended to give an uncomfortable ride over the rough as the hydraulic forks tended to lock up suddenly. We normally carried our personal kit with us on the bike. The only special equipment was a map scroll bar attached to the handlebars. We were armed with a Webley pistol. We wore cork crash helmets as a rule but were issued with orthodox steel helmets a beret and a cap. Our normal uniform was riding breeches and long boots.

We went out to North Africa on the Orient, a French troop ship. My only real recollection of the voyage was the gambling and how one man managed to clean out the ship on route. We landed at Algiers and were posted to Constantine. While here some of us were given the opportunity to transfer to the Redcaps proper. This meant six weeks more training which seemed to be on the apprenticeship system. On qualifying I finally got my stripe. This was known as your 'protection'.

We did not have to do a lot of duty as the fighting was over and so we were occasionally assigned to patrolling. I do not remember having much to do, we did however have to do things such as warning off the occasional Arab trying to rob a drunken Scot. We could only chase them off with the occasional clout but we noticed that the American MPs were not so nice. It they came on the same sort of scene it was out with the pistol and worry about explaining the wound or body later.

After a while in Constantine we were transferred to Italy We were embarked at Bone and landed at Naples about the same time as the attack on Salerno and just in time to see Vesuvius erupting. In Naples we got attached to the Americans as MPs for a few weeks. This was great. The rations were fantastic and of course we had access to the PX which was much better than the NAAFI. I got on all right with the Americans especially the coloured ones who were always joking.

Our major tactical job was to guide the tanks of the division up to their start line. We would get our orders directly from tacHQ and, working in pairs we would lead the tanks to a map reference. Map reading skills were our major requirement. I very rarely came under fire, the start lines were nearly always out of range. My closest shave on this duty was when I was leading a section of Shermans of the Derbyshire Yeomanry up to the line and a sniper fired at the commander of the leading tank. He missed but he must have had me as a potential target for some time. He didn't get a second shot as the Gurkas were moving up parallel to the column and they cleaned him up. Another time I was leading a section of tanks along a road flanked by a high bank. We just passed a gap in the bank when the Germans opened up with an artillery barrage. The shells were passing overhead and through the gap. The tanks turned their turrets left and fired as they passed the gap. This suppressed the artillery fire for long enough for me to pass the gap safely.

The only time I think I was really close was when I was on point duty, directing a very slow moving convoy through a difficult ford. One of the RASC drivers got out to chat, I think his name was Jack. We were chatting, standing abreast in the road when we heard a Jerry plane approaching. Jack reacted by pushing me into the ditch on one side of the road, him diving for cover on the other. A few other people dived on top of me as a bomb dropped bang in the centre of the junction, just near where we had been standing. After the dust had settled we all picked ourselves up, checking that no-one had been hurt. We were all safe. We crossed over to the other side of the road to check Jack. He was'nt safe, he was dead, killed by the blast, no shrapnel or anything just the blast. Why it had got him and not us was a real mystery but that was the way it was. We were all a bit numb but I managed to get myself back together enough to go down the line of vehicles looking for another driver to move his lorry. Fortunately I found a truck with two drivers and got the convoy moving again.

The only time I actually saw the Germans in the flesh, rather than as prisoners of war, was when there were four of us in a jeep driving to a map reference where we intended to bed down for the night. We missed the map reference and drove into a field exactly at the same time as a patrol of Germans in one of their jeeps. An immediate panic turn by both parties prevented any confrontation. We later found our billets about three miles further back.

Actually my most frightening moment came when an officer once ordered me to arrest six drunken guardsmen who were attached to our division. He told me not to be scared as the tape on my arm would protect me. For some reason I didn't actually believe him and was just starting to think about what I would say at my court martial for refusing an order when, to my relief, the riot squad arrived, obviously alerted by someone else. It is easy to see why we preferred conducting and traffic duties.

I did suffer one injury and that was when I was riding in shorts and shirtsleeve order when a lorry pulled out in front of me. I tumbled and only remember waking up with a few dozen Indian soldiers kneeling over me. I was missing all the skin on my legs and arms, nothing seemed to be broken but I was in agony. The took me in a truck to an American dressing station where they dosed me liberally with Iodine, not the most soothing thing they could have used. When I had calmed down I was made to walk to the British HQ.. This I was told was to prevent the wounded areas stiffening. It was not pleasant.

When not conducting tanks our major effort was put into point duty. This involved keeping the traffic moving and directing the various units to their destinations. This meant recognising the divisional signs and flashes and memorising their routing. This was not especially difficult except where different vehicles had to travel different routes. For instance some fords were only suitable for tracked vehicles and others had to be prevented from using the route. On occasion an officer in a jeep would tell his driver to pass a restricted ford against my direction. Of course we could not countermand an order from an officer but we could ensure that he drove himself and signed a book we kept on us to say that he accepted responsibility in the case of failing to make the ford and blocking the route. Traffic duty was always more interesting if there were drivers from the Indian division around. I had several close shaves with wing mirrors and occasionally had to jump back smartly as they always crossed in front rather than behind.


Another control duty was regulating the traffic over the Bailey bridges.These were one of our secret weapons in the war. Even the Americans used them rather than their own. The skill was to keep the queues down to a minimum by allowing passage either way in the most efficient manner as the bridges could only support a limited number of vehicles vehicle at a time each way. Occasionally we would have to act as despatch rider for HQ, we took this in turns but actually I only had to do this duty about three times.

Once or twice we were detailed to provide an outrider escort to General Alexander and I was introduced to him, he had a reputation as a much more approachable commander than Montgommery and this was my experience.

With the ending of hostilities in Italy I was transferred with my section to 13 Corps in Florence. Our duties were still mainly troop movement but there were now two additional groups in the MPs. There was a group who were devoted to the role of town patrol, wearing white cap top and the guards for the POW camps, wearing blue hat bands. Sometimes we had to do duty with the Field Security people, not a job we liked!

On one occasion I, a friend and a corporal were told to accompany a convoy going to Calais for LIAP (local leave). Why we were attached to it I don't know, we had no specific duties and certainly no specific orders. We travelled via Austria and Mainz in Germany, stopping at a transit camp every night. On arrival in Calais we were allocated billets by ourselves in a large camp. We were assigned some light duties, mainly patrolling the wire.

We fell on our feet because an officer, who was the owner of a rather posh staff car, was going on home leave and asked us, as favour, to keep his car running. We could draw petrol from the base and we even managed to get the services of a rather nice young lady as interpreter, she was the daughter of an English caretaker for one of the local World War One cemeteries. We used the car to full advantage, keeping it running all over the countryside and using the prestige it gave us.

Patrolling was occasionally interesting when, for instance, a large box of cigarettes just happened to suddenly jump out of the back of a NAAFI lorry. Surprisingly there was a French civilian waiting around, doing nothing exactly at that same point. On finding the box I felt it was my duty to prevent the cigarettes falling into civilian hands and confiscated the box. The French civilian got a bit annoyed but I simply told him to hop it or else. I don't think he was very pleased but I was.

After the officer reclaimed his car I managed to sneak across the channel and made my way to Hamilton for a bit of home leave. I did get into a bit of trouble when I returned but nothing serious. When we finally got orders to return to Italy. I just about reached there when my demob papers came through. I made my back the same way eventually reaching Aldershot where I got my demob suit and all sorts of civvi gear. We were allowed to keep a good proportion of our kit but not our dispatch rider boots which were very good quality.

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