大象传媒

Lucky End.
By denglish
See newsreel at www.movietone.com [free registration] story number 45684 My father is seen shaking hands with a Coldsteam Guardsman and then [Left side ]closeup shot.

My dad was 15 years old at the outbreak of war and living with his mother and sister in a quiet village in the West of Ireland. His father had died five years earlier. At age 19,unemployed and penniless he joined the Irish Guards and sometime following D Day entered the war in a tank division . They advanced through France and Belgium and took part in the liberation of Brussels. The story begins in the winter of 1944. In Tilburg , Holland they halted in the heavy snow. A moments pause. Then onward to Enschede , He remembered the town badly damaged and abandoned by the retreating Germans. Land mines placed at the sides of roads had been rigged to deter; however they didn't explode- lines cut by the Dutch resistance? About this time he sent a simple "Printed in Holland" Christmas card to his mother which reads "GDSN. S Morris 2nd ARM'D IRISH GUARDS . Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Holland. with love from Jim xxxxxx." He was just 20.

The real horrors lay ahead. The stench of blood of men and animals . Dead carcasses everywhere without human dignity stretched out along tree lined roads. Particlarly fleeing Germans caught by air attack. On the Dutch/German border at a place called Gildehaus their tank was hit. Some were killed whilst he and others escaped the stricken tank[names remembered included [Tottenham , Saxby, and Cuffe] several were killed and the survivors cowered in a roadside ditch . Capture quickly followed and a long march lasting several days Eastwards into Germany. They were 6 prisoners, now in poor condition and were handed over to the "Volksturm"? a type of dads army. Unbeknown to them their luck was about to change for the better. The journey ended in a Convent in a small German village called Thuine. The convent there had been taken over as a hospital by the German authorities. The Nuns took them in and they were placed under guard in cellar rooms. The battle front was approaching fast and there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be killed by the advancing allied troops. From the small windows at ground level in the cellars they could see an open sided German Army truck with operating table dealing with mainly German casualties, giving first aid . Busses were arriving and taking the patched up away. The nuns did their best to care for them ,taking great risk with some of the more zealous guards, to give them care and food. Despite near misses from shells the Convent survived intact and the 6 prisoners were liberated by the Coldstream Guards and filmed for the newsreel by Movitone. A friend of my father saw the newsreel "In the Wake of the Hun" in a cinema and was astonished to recognise his pal "Jimmy" alive on screen . My father had been registered as a POW and was told his war was over but hours later through a mistake he was ordered to fight again. Protesting but continuing again in another tank he was placed under open arrest . Despite his uncertainty of his situation, his case was examined and indeed he had been registered as a POW by the Red Cross. Finally , days later he was taken out of combat. Later he and the others were flown back to Belgium . The Dakota made a hard landing on a temporary steel runway and the undercarriage collapsed. Luckily no one was killed! Flying back over the channel he finally heard that the European war was over. He had survived.
To this day he never freely talks about these things. What is written above is what I have estblished by actively asking. He never expressed any dislike or animosity towards Germans. They were all innocent people caught up in something terrifying.

In 2002 I visited the convent at Thuine and met the Nuns to thank them, using my limited German language skills, for their part in his survival. I saw the small cellar room where my father had been cared for . None of the nuns from that time were available although some might still survive elsewhere. One of the nuns had been a schoolgirl in the adjoining school and confirmed some of the detail. Another had lost two young brothers in the war. The kindness shown to my father in 1945 was repeated to me in the hospitality of their welcome . I was able to pass on my father's story all these years later.
My father now resides in a BUPA care home in Wimbledon. Unfortunately following several minor strokes he has lost some of the memories he told me about but he still gets emotional and remembers the nuns and their help. I also obtained a copy of the newsreel and showed it to my father . A bygone time of youth remembered.

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Written by:
denglish
Created: 17 November 2003
Article ID: 2057537

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