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My father, Bernard McCarthy, was born and brought up in Lower Broughton, part of Salford, next door to Manchester. He was a Painter and Decorator by trade, as were his father and older brother.

This story is mainly based on my recollections of stories my father told the family about his war service when I was a boy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is factually supported by his surviving Army papers. He died in 1990 at the age of 75.

When the war broke out he was 25 and he expected to be called up quite soon. However before the papers came he, and some of his friends, decided they could not wait so they volunteered instead. They went along to an Army recruiting station where they were told that there were vacancies for recruits to become explosives experts in the Royal Engineers. This sounded pretty interesting to them. As a result they were enrolled in the Territorial Army in Salford on 4th January 1940.

When Bernard went home he had to tell his widowed mother who was absolutely furious because he had not discussed it with her before joining up.

So he was in the Royal Engineers with the Rank of Sapper and his Army Number was 1912202. He always said he part of the Black Watch regiment.

He saw service with the British Expeditionary Force from 23rd January 1940 to 2nd July 1940 according to his Army discharge papers.

He obviously did his initial Army training over the coming weeks in England, but it was not clear how long this lasted. I assume his training was longer than the 3 weeks between joining up and being part of the BEF.

It was not clear when he actually got to France but he always maintained they had quite a shock when they did get there. Apparently the biggest problem they found on arrival was that the food was awful. In particular the tinned ‘bully beef’, a major part of the diet, was left over from World War 1 and was largely inedible. Things were so bad that the men were in revolt and one night their unit’s cook was found hanged. This was obviously a terrible event but the culprits were never discovered.

I am not sure exactly where Bernard got to in France. As is well known the main evacuation from Dunkirk was between 26 May and 4 June 1940. Bernard always said he arrived at Dunkirk many weeks after the main evacuation because he was in the rearguard responsible for blowing up bridges as the BEF retreated before the German army advance. He said he was with a small group of men who at one time were behind enemy lines and cut-off from their unit. They had to live and hide in the French countryside living rough and surviving on whatever they could find for many weeks. At this time (perhaps in June 1940) his family were informed that he was missing and presumed dead.

When he and his comrades arrived at Dunkirk (presumably at the end of June or beginning of July) they were rescued by a British naval vessel that was patrolling the coast looking for stragglers. I understand these patrols went on for many weeks after the main evacuation.

The boat was hit by German shell fire when they were on board. I think his mate and possibly himself were injured by it. On the boat Bernard described the terrible state they were in having lost a lot of weight and not having washed or changed their clothes for many weeks. With one of his mates there was an awful problem with his feet. Apparently the guy had never removed his boots all the while they had been in France. When they tried to remove his boots they wouldn’t come off. Literally the leather sole of the boot had 'welded' itself to the soles of his feet. Eventually they had to cut the boots away from the soles of his feet taking large amounts of the skin away in the process.

On arriving back in England Bernard was not at all healthy and had to spend many weeks recuperating. In order to rejoin his unit he had to have an Army medical which he failed and as a result he was discharged on medical grounds on 22nd October 1940. His stated disability was 'Valvular disease of the heart mitral'.

Overall Bernard had 293 days service in total in the Army.

He was refused a war disability pension in November 1940. However later he must have appealed because in April 1943 he was awarded a disability pension due to Mitral Stenosis (narrowing of the outflow path from the left ventricle of the heart, often caused by a bout of rheumatic fever in childhood).

Bernard married my mother Jean on 15th February 1947 and in March 1947 he had another war pensions medical where he was assessed as 20% disabled and his diagnosis was changed to 'Effort Syndrome' (A clinical syndrome characterised by palpitation, shortness of breath, labored breathing, subjective complaints of effort and discomfort, all following slight exertion - at the time often called ‘soldier’s heart’). He was awarded a Pension of 9/- per week.

In September/October 1947 Bernard asked for another medical review because his health had got worse due to him having a severe Peptic Ulcer which in those days was often life threatening. However no change was allowed in his assessment or his pension level.

In April 1948, he had a further assessment confirming Effort Syndrome, but only at 1-5% disability level. As a result his pension was terminated in May 1949 with a final gratuity of £20.

That was the final end of his war service and its aftermath.

Like many men who went to war, Bernard was proud of what he had done but was generally reluctant to talk about it. He had clearly seen some terrible sights and had been severely affected by them. I always got the impression that the old soldiers who loved to talk about their military service had generally not experienced any deep trauma themselves.

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