大象传媒

My cousin Albert Ford was called into the army early in 1940 at the age of 23. He served with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment and went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. When the Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, Albert spent three days and nights on the beach that was constantly bombed and shelled by the German Forces. He didn鈥檛 tell us much about that time, but he did say that on one occasion he fell asleep and dreamt that he was at home and what it was like to awake and find that they were still on the beach. Being unable to swim, he could not swim out to the bigger boats, but fortunately, he was able eventually to board a shallow draught boat at a pier. On returning to England, he was drafted into the mines. Mining being a most important job at that time, some service personnel were moved into the industry for a short period.

After the Allies landed in Italy, he was recalled into the army and served with the King鈥檚 Own Yorkshire Light Infantry when they took part in the Anzio operations. On several occasions, men were hit by random fire, but no one could discover where the shots were coming from until one morning Albert noticed that a haystack had moved over-night and he spoke to the Sergeant about this. On investigation, it was found that a German machine gun nest was concealed in the haystack, which was then destroyed. Later on a mortar shell exploded near him and his comrades thought he was lost, but he came through and walked out through the dust and smoke. Unfortunately, the blast had perforated one eardrum that rendered him deaf in that ear for the rest of his life. He continued to serve with the King鈥檚 Own Yorkshire Light Infantry as they progressed through Italy and into Germany.

On demobilisation in 1946, he married and he and his wife happily had five children, who now tell me that he hardly ever spoke about his war experiences. Albert died in 1994 aged 77 years.

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