大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the Peoples War website by GMR Action Desk on behalf of Margaret & Norman Westhead and has been added to the site with their permission

Our brother in law Clifford Brownlow was captured at Arnhem- he was in the second landing on the second day and the germans were waiting for them. 30 of his men were killed outright- he was shot in his arm and captured. He was in a pow camp in Germany but right at the end of the war he escaped. Before that he served in Egypt and italy- he joined up at 16- he lied about his age - he was determined to serve.
He married my sister after the war and he died only a few weeks ago in early May 2005. He had a full military funeral and he wanted his ashes scattered at Arnhem but in the end they were scatted at the churchyard where his wife is buriedin Wigan. I was upset at the funeral but at the same time I was impressed by the military funeral and the way the service impressed upon younger people the sacrifice the older generation had made for their freedom.
One story he told us was about a friend of his who was also at Arnehm- he was captured but soon after he escaped. He hid in a farm but was re-captured and taken to a German army camp. But then they were taken to a corner of a field and they thought they were going to be shot. They were told to line up in front of german soldiers with machine guns. One of the English soldiers had a hidden revolver and he shot the nearest German, then grabbed the machine gun and turned it on the other guards killing all of them. Amazingly they then surrended to the other germans who came out to see what had happened and they got away with it and ended up pows till the end of the war.

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