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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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A Private in the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders 51st Highland Division

by 大象传媒 @ The Living Museum

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Contributed by听
大象传媒 @ The Living Museum
People in story:听
Private Leonard Jeans
Location of story:听
France, Holland, Germany
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A4379754
Contributed on:听
06 July 2005

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer on behalf of Leonard Jeans and has been added to the site with his permission. Leonard fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Leonard crossed the English Channel on the 'Lady of Man' ship on 15th and 16th June 1944. They had to wait 3 hours before landing as delivering supplies were deemed more important. They 20kms inland to a field outside the village of Tilly, where they found three marquees. These were for catering, ablutions and a clothing store. They were filthy and needed a complete wash and change- some had been sea sick.
At this stage, Leonard was told that he was no longer in the West Kent regiment and was now in the Seaforth Highlanders. He was deeply moved to see the temporary graves of British and German soldiers side by side. He was in Normandy until September when the Highlanders captured Le Havre. They pushed on to the Dutch border and he took part in Operation Market Garden.
In October, his regiment met the Canadians and togehter they liberated the whole of the south of Holland. They then went to Hotten Melreux to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. As they had been fighting over Christmas, 'Monty' gave them all a week's holiday in late January.
During the battle the weather had been terrible. The regiment were in deep forest and the only way the Germans could get at them was to shell the trees. The falling trees and branches caused a lot of casualties.
At one stage Leonard had to shelter in bales of hay when the Germans flooded the area by breaching the dams. Water was rushing in, carrying with it remains of the gliders, parachutes and even dead cattle.
Their last task was to take medical supplies into Bergen Belsen.

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