大象传媒

I was fourteen when the war started.

There were lots of raids on Bristol.
Do you remember Lord Haw Haw?
He announced on the radio that the Germans were going to flatten Castle Street, it took two months before they actually did it.

By that time I was in France, and on to Hamburg I was there when the war finished.
That was where I joined up with the East Lancashire Regiment where I was for the Battle Of The Bulge.

My pals and I joined the regiment as re-enforcements and went on through Germany. I was there until 1947. After the war finished it was quite pleasant.

One thing we noticed that a lot of the people were against the war.

My main recollection was of confusion, the Germans didn't know what they were doing, and neither did we, but I did become a corporal. We did what we were told and went where we were told, and that was it. We came across some bad times but after the war they didn't seem so bad, but the civilians really had a bad time.

When the war finished they had nothing, no houses, food, in fact very little indeed. I did feel sorry for them. Hanover was in such a mess, people had to sleep outside, as it was too dangerous for them to go home. Damaged buildings were collapsing all around, and for a long time after the war, before the authorities had the chance to demolish the unsafe sections. There were walls missing and things like that.

I wasn't back in Britain until much later, but I suppose the British people went through much the same

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