大象传媒

The article has been written by Joseph Ritson, a volunteer for the 大象传媒 Radio Cumbria CSV Action Desk at the Maritime Festival held at Whitehaven on 25 鈥� 26 June 2005. The Festival also incorporated the official county of Cumbria 60th Anniversary 鈥榁ictory Parade鈥� commemorating the end of World War Two. It has been submitted with the permission of Leo Smith who has kindly shared a few of his wartime memories. The author understands the terms of the 大象传媒 鈥淧eople鈥檚 War鈥� website.

Leo is from Great Clifton, a small village near Workington in West Cumbria. Leo attended the official Cumbria County 鈥榁ictory Parade鈥� at Whitehaven on Sunday 26 June 2005 with his wife Mary. Leo marched in the Parade with some of his fellow comrades from the Normandy Veterans Association.

Leo and Mary have attended a number of commemorations in recent times to remember the events of World War Two. They were in Normandy in June 2004 for the 60th Anniversary of the Normandy Landings. On 6 June 2005, Leo was one of the members of the West Cumbria Branch of the Normandy Veterans Association who laid a poppy cross in remembrance of fallen comrades at the NVA Memorial Plaque in St Nicholas鈥� Church Gardens, Lowther Street, Whitehaven.

Leo was born on 24 January 1923. He was called up to the Armed Forces two days before his 18th birthday. At that time, Leo lived in the village of Seaton near Workington in Cumbria and he went along with two other lads from the village. All three of them were assigned to different regiments, and he never saw the other two again until after the war.

Leo was assigned to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Leo thinks one reason the three friends were split up was to avoid a situation like they had in World War One where often all the lads from one place were killed on the same day because they were all in the same Battalion.

Leo took part in the Normandy Landings, and moved on to the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) and then into Germany. Towards the end of the war, Leo was granted two weeks leave and was then sent out to Burma to serve out his time in the army until he was discharged (27 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery). As things worked out, Leo missed getting another campaign medal by only a few weeks.

As Leo was still on the 鈥楻eserve List鈥� for the army, a few years later, he was called up again, although this was subsequently cancelled. He didn鈥檛 know why until a little later on when someone told him this was around the time of the problems in Korea.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.