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Sydney Butters lived and worked as a farm labourer, prior to the war, in the village of Mickle Trafford, just outside Chester.
Sydney joined-up with his Brother George, in 1939 and was posted to France with the BEF. After a relatively quiet period, Sydney was in Northern France, when the storm broke and the German Armoured Divisions advanced on Dunkirk. After a period of time on the beaches, under fire, Sydney was evacuated from the port on 29TH May 1940 on a British Battleship.
After a period at different camps and locations, preparations were being made for the D-DAY landings.
Sydney was part of the invasion fleet, crossing the channel and landing at 7.35am at Graye-sur-mer on 6th June 1944, as part of the 3rd Canadian Division, which although under heavy fire had secured the beach by 11am. "The Canadians lost a lot of men in this action" said Sydney. Sydney then took part in the battle for Caen and remembers "the sky being dark with Bombers", as the battle for the city intensified. From there the allies swept forward and over-ran the V2 launching sites in the Pas-de-Calais and liberated Brussels.
The war effectively ended for Sydney during the offensive in the Ardennes, when he was driving a field ambulance, when shrapnel from an exploding German shell, "burst through the windscreen and severed the tendons in my right arm". Sydney survived the war and worked as a Postman, in Chester, until his retirement. Sydney recently attended the D-Day celebrations, organised by the Normandy Association (Liverpool Branch) at St Georges Hall,Liverpool and is now 84.

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