Apples

July 7, 1944 – Arromanches, France

Albert’s memories of his first few days on the European continent weren’t about the trauma of the recent crossing, the proximity of the enemy, or the ceaseless shelling, they were about apples.

Al told me that his first assignment in France was to clear an apple orchard to make a runway for 39^th Reconnaissance Wing’s airplanes. He and a dozen other soldiers were sent to a field south of Arromanches and ordered to cut down trees in a wide swath.

“The apples weren’t fully ripe in July, but we ate quite a few anyway. We were all dancing the “Green-Apple Two-Step” by the time we finished.”

– Albert Allsop

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“Mulberry” harbours was a concept put forward by Winston Churchill. There were no natural ports along the coast of Normandy, so Churchill suggested that the Allies build them. He pitched the idea of manufactured, floating, modular harbours to President Roosevelt, who told his secretary after the meeting…

“You know that was Churchill’s idea.  He has a hundred a day and about four of them are good.”

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One of Al’s squad mates proved he could make bad decisions where apples were concerned…

“We had a dugout with sandbags across the top, so when the guns got closer, we got down in the underground until they had gone. And this one night, we were sitting in France, and we were underneath, in an orchard; and there were some apples there and there was a tent next to ours. So, I was out of my tent, and I threw a couple apples and hit the tent next to us [laughs], and four guys came high tailing out of their underground. [laughs] I’m not going to tell you what they called me.”

– Lloyd George (Ike) Robertson

Lobbing apples at someone’s tent in an air raid zone might have stretched the limits of good humour, but practical jokes are how soldiers kept themselves entertained in wartime.

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Al told me another story which he asked me not to repeat.  More than 20 years have passed, and I feel that the statute of limitations has run out, so here goes….

When the hostilities were in a lull, officers would assign tasks, many of them needless, just to keep energetic soldiers occupied.  During one such break in the fighting, Al’s CO ordered him and a few others to paint a Quonset building.  The corrugated metal structure didn’t require paint, but that is the task they were given. 

One of the guys found a case of French wine and brought it with him to the jobsite. Rather than paint the building, the men sat behind it and got royally drunk. One soldier drank so much he passed out, and the others seized the opportunity to play a unique practical joke.  They stripped the drunken soldier’s pants off, dipped his rear end in paint, and dobbed ass-prints all over the building.

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Bear and I wandered around Arromanches today. There is not much evidence that it was the most active harbour in the world for several months in 1944.

The town, and the airfield Al and the others carved out of an orchard have reverted to their peaceful purpose, producing …

… Apples.

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Remnants of Churchill’s Mulberry Harbours are still rusting on the beach. Sunken barges dot the perimeter of the bay, while idle German bunkers are aimed in their direction.

There is also a museum at Arromanches, dedicated to the heroes, and practical jokers, of that time.  

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This is the sixth in a series of posts following Albert Allsop’s trek through Europe in 1944-45. The series begins September 28, 2025.

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