大象传媒

My name is Mairi and I`m 9 years old. My Grandad was in the Black Watch Regiment and served in the 1st, 4th and 5th battalions during the war.

My Grandad landed at Arromanches in France 2 days after the D-Day landings, on his 19th birthday. D-Day was the day that British troops, and everyone else on their side, landed on the beaches in France so that they could give the European countries their freedom back.

He marched for 10 miles from the beach then they took over a town called Bayeux. They marched again and dug-in (this means they made camp). They were attacked by German soldiers and Grandad was wounded. They took him to a field hospital (that`s made of tents). Grandad got the shrapnel removed from his leg. Shrapnel is a piece of metal from a shell (like a small bomb because it explodes). When he woke up he discovered a piece of plaster on his chest and he wondered why because it was his leg that had been injured. Then he discovered that the shrapnel was placed inside the plaster as a souvenir!

After the field hospital he was taken by aeroplane to a hospital in Hartlepool (in England). Then he got put on a train and sent back to Ireland for retraining. After that he was sent home for a while. By the time my Grandad got back to his regiment, all his friends were dead for all his regiment had been wiped out. He felt very upset.

Soon he was sent back to France, then Belgium and Holland. In Holland Grandad met his brother, Tony, who was an engineer. It was really hard to see his brother because he was in a different regiment, so my Uncle Tony borrowed a motor bike, without asking, and went down to see him! Grandad said Uncle Tony could have been in big trouble, but it was worth it to see each other.

Grandad was in the second wave into Arnhem. The first wave was American paratroopers. Paratroopers are soldiers who parachute from aeroplanes. Grandad helped to rescue some American paratroopers. We went to Holland with Granny and Grandad. Grandad could remember a lot of the places we went to. When we went to Arnhem, Grandad remembered how all the houses had been flattened and the bridge had been blown up. He remembered marching into Arnhem. We visited the memorial for WW2.

Grandad got three medals for being in the war. They are the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star and the War Medal 1939-1945. I think of my Grandad as the one survivor of his regiment. I`m really glad that Grandad survived the war - he`s my war hero.
By Mairi Fugaccia
Age 9

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