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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Small Horrors of Great Significance.

by Simon Bishop

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Archive List > World > France

Contributed by听
Simon Bishop
People in story:听
Kenneth Victor Douglas Bishop
Location of story:听
North France near Dunkirk
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A1169129
Contributed on:听
07 September 2003

This is a short rememberence of an incident that happened to my Grandfather, Ken Bishop who sadly died in June. As it is a story relaid to me by my Grandfather some months before he died there are certain points, historical points of which I am ignorant though the events are real.
It happened a week or two before the great Dunkirk retreat, my Grandfather was part of the British force in north France near Dunkirk. They were to move south away from the coast and push inland, in truth Grandfather said they advanced no further than about 10 miles.
It was while they were moving inland that his company met with French refugees fleeing the German advance. He said one woman had a pram with a broken wheel which of course was impeding her progress. Granddad, in what little French he knew and with much gesticulation bade her to wait while he ran back down the road in the direction he had come for he had seen another pram in a barn a short distance away.
He soon brought her the replacement and he said she was filled with gratitude for his help. He said "She was so pleased and thanked me kindly" before he was off again heading towards the German line.
Later that day they came upon a village, unfortunatly I forgot what it was called though I remember him saying it had a short name, and it was here that was as far as they could advance. The German forces were the other side of the village and Granddad's company had to dig in to stop the advance.
The next day he was given messages to be relaid to officers back towards Dunkirk, his errand took him back the way he had come the day before.
As he was traveling back he came upon some bodies lying in and by the side of the road. He said they had been shot with a large calibre round, the size carried in fighter planes and so must have been attacked from the air.
In amongst the bodies he recognized the pram from the previous day, and next to it lay the body of the lady he had helped.

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These messages were added to this story by site members between June 2003 and January 2006. It is no longer possible to leave messages here. Find out more about the site contributors.

Message 1 - Your story edited and categorised

Posted on: 26 November 2003 by Helen

Dear Simon Bishop

Thank you for your wonderful submission to the site, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

It has now been edited and categorised (apologies for the delay), and you will find it linked from the following pages:
C1200
C1283

It will also be featured on the front page as a 'top story' in weeks to come.

Congratulations and best wishes,

Helen, WW2 Team

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