大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Brea and Ed Herron at the Newry Town Hall, and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
====

[Brea Herron, nee Wiltshire?]
My father was in the Welsh regiment, and they were stationed in Newry. And they got married to local girls, and most of them were killed in the, after D-Day. You know, the Normandy landings.
He was in the 1st/5th Welsh regiment. They were all over. He came to Newry in the end of 1940, and they were stationed here. My mother and he got married in 1941, and just after they were married he was sent over to England, and he was all over England doing training, different training courses. He was there until he went to Kent, finally, to Herne bay. And from Herne bay they went over to Normandy, to the landings.

[Ed Herron]
My father, I was born in Montreal and my father was from Toronto of course, and he was in the Canadian army. And he was sent over to England, and he was stationed in Herne bay along with Brea鈥檚 father. Without knowing each other, of course. And then they both went over to France 鈥� I think it was the same day, more or less the same day, without knowing each other, again. And within the next 鈥� that鈥檚 June the 18th or something like that. And by the 20th of July or thereabouts they were both in the same place, Hill 112 in Normandy. Which is just south of Caen, isn鈥檛 it?
A bit south-west of Caen. And on this hill 112, which is a very low rise of ground, really, Brea鈥檚 father was here, let鈥檚 say on this side.
The little crossroads was there. And my father was on the other side of Hill 112, which is where the Canadians were. And so, they were both fighting for the same hill at the same time on the same day, and eventually years and years later we鈥檇 be married and we didn鈥檛 know all this.

It鈥檚 unbelievable. And we met in England, him from Canada. To meet! And he鈥檚 a French teacher, so he can go there to talk.

[Ed鈥檚 father never talked about his experiences.]
Eventually we wrote and said, 鈥淲here were you?鈥�

He said he knew no names, because they were all colour-coded, 鈥渂ut if you mention Hill 112 I know exactly where it was鈥�. And that鈥檚 exactly where my father was killed. And they were fighting at exactly the same time.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.