大象传媒

I was not around during WWII - I was born in Glasgow in 1960. However I have a deep respect for those who fought and endured. These are my recollections of other's stories told to me. Errors are mine - not theirs.

William Wood was my father-in-law for a period in the 1990's. In 1994 during the 50th anniversary of D-Day events he found himself able to tell family about his wartime experiences for the first time - though he found himself unable to take part in the organized events and went over to the continent in October on a private visit to pay his respects.

In 1944 he went ashore in the second wave of landing craft at Juno Beach one of a number of British troops put in amongst the Canadians - as he put it - in case the memories of Dieppe proved too difficult. I don't believe he mean't any disrespect to the Canadians by this statement - it was just a job he and his 5 other friends were given to do and as he put it - "The first wave woke the Germans and we felt the weight of them in the second wave".

While fighting their way through Holland he and his friend "Nobby" were wounded and after initial recovery were billeted with a Dutch family to make a full recovery.

Later he and Nobby were rotated back into the line in a different unit and fought on towards the German border. One night while he and Nobby were proceeding up a road with their platoon they were ambushed by Germans who had lain in the road waiting for them. As he and Nobby went down firing he hit his own friend in the back and killed him in error.

A day later the Sergeant of the platoon came back checking for casualties and found Bill sitting under a tree trying to come to terms with what had happened. As Bill put it - the Sergeant did what any good Sergeant would do - he went over to Nobby's body and came back and told him not to worry - that the German's had got him - not Bill. But as Bill told it - he knew because a basic survival instinct was to determine where shot had come from by the way someone fell so you could return fire in the right direction and he had no doubt that he had killed Nobby.

In the two years leading up to 1994 Bill learned Dutch and made a point of revisiting the Dutch family who had billeted them while wounded in order to thank them in their own language. Over the years they had kept in touch and Bill was a little surprised to discover no one in the house spoke English - though over the years letters from Holland always came back in English. The family smiled and admitted that Bill's letters in English had gone to the village butcher for translation into Dutch and their replies in Dutch went to the butcher for translation into English before mailing back. The family asked after Nobby who had been expecting a child when billeted with them and Bill had the difficult job of telling them that Nobby never made it home.

Bill's October 1994 visit also included a call at 5 graves between Juno Beach and the German Border, tended by the Commonwealth Graves Commission, to leave poppies at each of his friends' graves - he being the only one who made it home at war's end. He recollected that the last grave yard was the hardest. The first cross he came to was his friend's and he laid his poppy and paid his respects but on raising his eyes he said he knew every name in the plot and realised that many more people he thought made it home after the war had not. Only being wonded and detached from his original unit saved him from a major fight at the German border.

Bill had a large collection of "souvenirs" that he handed in during the 1995 amnesty for veteran's to turn in weapons brought back from the war. A Luger pistol, SS Officer's dagger, A German stick grenade all tucked away in the attic. However over the years one item had stood testament to his wartime service sitting on the mantleshelf and polished every week. A single round from a German machine pistol. "I took that off the German who had just killed one of my friends" is how he put it. "The German didn't have any choice......"

After the war he lived in the NE of England near Durham and for the rest of his life Bill was lucky if he could get four hours sleep a night before his memories woke him and he had to while away the rest of the night reading. He raised a family and had a highly respected career as a teacher.

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