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Gordon Arthur Woodward 1923 - 2000

In 1941 Gordon Woodward from Burton on Trent, Staffordshire was apprenticed to his uncle working as a Cooper at Bass's brewery making beer barrels, but hated the work. To escape the job he joined the Army despite coopering being a reserved occupation.

Gordon's brother joined the Navy but his ship was torpedoed a few weeks later and he spent the war in a prison camp. Gordon didn’t like water or boats and joined the Royal Ordnance Corps at Old Dalby, Leicestershire, where he learnt how to run a stores' system. Because of his Grammar School education he was selected for Officer Training but ruined his chances by being too arrogant and spouting that the communists would win the war. He was only showing off by displaying his debating skills, but he misjudged the mood of his superiors and was removed from the programme as ‘unsuitable material’.

After a short spell at Hinckley, Leicestershire, he transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers at Ashford, Kent where he soon reached the rank of Corporal. By this time he'd learnt a number of ways to line his pockets by trading army goods on the black market, and he once said that he hardly ever drew his army pay during the war, but saved the money in the bank and lived of the proceeds of his ill- gotten gains.

On manoeuvers in Devon, he left a convoy to have a drink in a pub, and thought he could catch up again by taking his tank transporter over Porlock Hill, a one-in-three hill! On the way down his air brakes failed but he missed the sides of the bridge by only an inch. He was fined a weeks pay, but was lucky to be alive.

His first taste of active service came on D-Day in June 1944 when he crossed the Channel in a landing craft. The boat broke down and he didn't arrive in France until three days later. While waiting for the boat to be repaired he sold his ear plugs to another soldier, only to regret it afterwards when battleships in the Channel fired on the French coast and nearly deafened him. He also showed his contempt for authority when he refused to drive a tank off the landing craft because he said the water was too deep. He said the water was over the 6 feet the tank could cope with; his sergeant disagreed. By the time his sergeant threatened a court marshal the boat was nearer the coast and within a safe depth. The water by now was five feet deep. Near miss no.2.

After landing in France, he moved into Belgium, and was shocked by what he saw on the battlefield. He watched the Americans obliterate everything in sight, French or German, and felt horrified at what he saw. On top of this he had to recover damaged tanks with the remains of the crew splattered all over the inside, and together theses events took their toll on his state of mind. During a German attack he took refuge in the attic of a house owned by a Belgian family and struck up a friendship with the owner’s daughter, Angele. After the fighting died down he decided to stay where he was for as long as he could and he must have been there for nearly six months until he eventually emerged from hiding. He managed to explain away his absence, but was ordered to move towards Berlin, Germany.

He and another soldier repaired an American army truck and set off for Berlin. Near the German border while taking a rest three German soldiers appeared from nowhere carrying guns. He thought his day had come, but they surrendered and lay down their arms. near miss no.3.

Crossing the Rhine he came under fire and jumped into the river, despite being unable to swim. he was washed up on the other side and rescued by an American soldier who dragged him out of the water. Near miss no.4.

Three days later, and along the road, near an Army camp at the town of Bielefeld, Germany, a motorcycle dispatch rider came the other way shouting that the Germans had surrendered and the war was over. He was naturally pleased to hear the news and the first thing he did was remove his tin helmet. He pushed it backwards off the top of his head so that it hung down his back, between him and the seat. This action was, ironically, soon to save his life.

As he drove along waving to other soldiers on the road, an army tank transporter, carrying a crippled tank, came towards him on the other side of the road. He was just about to wave to the other driver when suddenly the transporter hit a pothole in the road. The gun turret of the cripled tank swung out over the road and smashed into the cab of his truck. It took the roof off the cab like a knife through butter and a a metal bar pierced his forehead just above his left eye. The impact forced him right back into his seat, but because his tin helmet was behind him instead of being pushed right back against the back of the cab only his head went back and the metal bar was deflected upwards. Had it not been for the fact that he'd earlier removed his helmet then the metal bar would have penetrated deep into his brain and killed him. Nevertheless it took a large chunk of bone out of the front of his skull and it was a miracle that he survived. His passenger was killed instantly. Near miss no 5.

An ambulance crew took him to a field hospital where he had an emergency operation. Despite a heavy dose of anaesthetic they couldn't put him to sleep and he lay on the operating table, wide-awake, while the surgeon fought to remove bone fragments from the front of his brain. It was only the skill of the surgeon in the field hospital that saved his life and later the doctor told him that the bar had bruised the outer casing of his brain, but miraculously had not damaged any of the cells. After the operation they flew him to Oxford, England, in a Dakota (DC3) for more surgery and later he moved to a convalescent home where he stayed until his release in late October 1945.

He was earmarked to have a metal plate fastened to his skull to replace the lost bone, but somehow never got around to having the operation. Later a surgeon friend told him that the early attempts to patch damaged skulls with steel plates had been a disaster and said that he was better off without the operation. Consequently, he was left with a dent in his forehead.

His wife, Vera, always said that if he fell in a bucket of s..t he'd come out smelling of roses. In his case it just wasn't his day to die.

He lived to the age of 77 years and died in 2000.

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