大象传媒

As a child I grew up in Bethnal Green, London and in 1942 at the age of 17 I joined the Home Guard 10th Battalion. We trained with the Hampshire regiment in the art of street fighting in the bombed areas of Bow.
In 1943 at the age of 18 I joined the army doing 6 weeks training at Warley Barracks Brentwood. I was then selected to join the reconnaissance Corps training dept in Yorkshire. The Reece Corps was one of four special service units set up by Winston Churchill in 1941. They consisted of Paratroops, Commandos, S.A.S. and Reconnaissance Corps.
Training completed, I was posted to the 52nd Lowland Division, Reece Regiment. This division was trained in mountain warfare with the intention of invading Norway, which included ski training.
At the mouth of the River Scheldte were the islands of Walcheren, N. Beverland and Schoewenn, held by the Germans. We were unable to use the port of Antwerp to ease our supply problems, supplies which at that time had to come across land from Normandy.
The task of clearing the island of Walcheren was given to the Canadian Army with the 52nd Lowland Division under their command. Following the heavy loss of life by the Canadians in trying to cross the causeway onto the island (which had many guns blocking the entrance of shipping to Antwerp), the RAF bombed the dykes, flooding the island and we invaded by barges. After heavy fighting, the island surrendered.
My regiment was given to the task of occupying the island of N.Beverland where we watched the V.2s, launched from the neighboring island of Schouwen, to bomb London. RAF Typhoons attacked the site successfully.
We next moved by night on a long trek to the Dutch German border. I first encountered a jet fighter of the Luftwaffe, which came swooping over us. Winter conditions delayed us until spring. We crossed the river Rhine advancing to the port of Bremen during which time I had one or two narrow escapes. Many of my comrades were killed or injured. On one occasion when taking up a position in a trench with my Bren Gun I was permitted to go to a farmhouse 100 yards to breakfast. While I was there, our position was heavily shelled and mortared and when I returned to my trench I found my Bren Gun had been blown to bits, many of my comrades were injured and I went to get Stretcher bearers. While attending to the wounded, one bearer, named Tommy Murphy, was wounded himself and subsequently received the Military Medal for his brave action.
We advanced to Bremen and captured the city, including many submarines, which were in the docks. We heard on the radio that Adolph Hitler had died and the war had ended.
I was in the war for 5 years.
This May, 2004 we returned to Holland and Germany to visit 11 cemeteries where our comrades were buried. We were impressed by the excellent standard of these cemeteries upheld by the War Graves Commission and the Dutch people.

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