大象传媒

My father, Joe Loften, served first as an infantryman in the Dorsetshire regiment.In 1942 he broke his leg whilst training and was sent home to recuperate. He returned after a few months to find his regiment had been sent out to the far east and later learnt that none of his friends had survived. Having returned to barracks and seeing lots of new faces, he heard that there was a requirement for signals personnel and knowing the Morse code from his days in the Jewish lads brigade volunteered to become a signalman . After two years intensive training at the Royal Signals School in Blandford he became proficient at high speed Morse code and was posted to SHAEF ( Supreme Headquarters Alied Expeditionary Forces). He was sent to Southampton to prepare for D Day and spent a week confined on a ship in the docks with HQ staff. He sailed to Normandy a few days after the first landings and arrived at Arramanches beach . He took part in the Battle of Caen which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war,.. Not many people today will realise that signalmen were the prime targets of German snipers and they had a very high casualty rate in the British army. He had many close scrapes and told me about the terrifying sounds of the German Neblewerfers screaming above his head in the fields outside Caen. He saw the carnage of the Falaise gap and said it was one of the worst things he had ever seen with bodies crushed into the earth and completely flattened by tanks, the soldiers had to march over the flattened bodies . He gradually moved forward in the advance with 30 Corps and went into Belgium. He was particularly interested in finding SS troops and one day came across a young Belgian boy who said he knew where some SS were hiding after giving him some chocolate he led my father and a friend to a barn . My father stood outside the barn and shouted 鈥淜omen sie aus .Hander hugh鈥� He was confronted by a huge, very arrogant , SS Colonel and another German soldier both with their hands in the air. They were marched into camp at the end of a rifle much to the astonishment of the British troops. The sight must have been something, as my father was only 5鈥�5鈥�. I remember asking him 鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 you kill him on the spot鈥� My fathers reply was 鈥� That would have made me the same as them, although I was tempted鈥�. His prize was a very fine pearl handled Luger pistol which he wore in a holster on his belly for the rest of the war which was 鈥渓iberated鈥� from the captured SS colonel. He then became known in camp as 鈥淟uger Joe鈥�
He took part in the liberation of Brussels and in the victory parade through the streets. He then moved into Eindhoven with 30 corps and was part of the force waiting to relieve the troops at Arnhem which unfortunately never happened. In the final stage of the war a hastily formed independent infantry brigade was constituted and my father had to take off his Royal Signals insignia and sew on the markings of a hastily formed Indepenent Infantry brigade for the crossing of the River Wessel into Germany. He took part in the night crossing of the river in a landing craft and was one of the first British soldiers onto German soil . The brigade was up against Hitler youth regiments and some of them were just mere boys of 15 or 16.
At the end of the war my father was with Mongomerys鈥檚 HQ at Lunenberg Heath. He saw Himlers body lying on the floor a few minutes after he commited suicide. In May 1945 he was signalman on duty when the German forces surrendered to Montgomery. and the instruction was passed to him to send the message to all news agencies that the war in Europe was finally over. The final irony was that Hitler鈥檚 downfall was announced to the world though a Jewish hand.
My father, Joe Loften died in 1981 aged 65 . He was a quiet, sometimes humorous , and modest man, that worked in telecommunications for 30 years after the war. He will always be my hero.

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