大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bernie Hawkins and has been added to the website on behalf of John Sadler with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When the War began I was twelve years old and living in Birmingham. Like many boys, I was itching to join up to do my bit and as soon as possible, at the age of 15, I joined the Home Guard Royal Artillery. We were sent to Brighton for training and then back to Birmingham, manning the anti aircraft guns trying to bring down German bombers.

At sixteen I tried to join the Army. When they asked how old I was, I told them I was seventeen. I was told I had to show a birth certificate, so I had to wait another year. As soon as I was seventeen I enlisted with the Coldstream Guards. By this time, D-Day has been and gone and by the time I had finished my 6 months training the War in Europe was over.

The War in the east continued and we were all kitted up, waiting to sail for Burma, but six days before we were due to leave the Americans dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and that was that.

We were however sent to Germany, where there were still pockets of Nazis causing trouble, but our main job was in Nuremburg and at Spandau Prison, guarding the Nazi war criminals on their way to and from their trial, helping to make sure the guilty who had been responsible for the gas chambers and who had put the World through six years of War were punished.

Our next tour of duty was Palestine, as it was well known that Jewish people from all over the world were coming to Palestine to claim their rights to some parts of the said land. We ere sent there to keep the peace between the two factions. Who was right or who was wrong, that I don鈥檛 know.

It was quite a worry for me to hear about my brother Frank Sadler, who was also serving in Palestine with the Royal Artillery at the same time as me. I was told that he was the driver of a vehicle carrying troops which had overturned. He was seriously injured and was in the British military hospital, Haifa.

We left Palestine at the end of the Mandate in 1948. From there we went by ship to Libya, and from there I returned to Blighty in September 1949 and was demobbed from the Army at Windsor Castle.

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