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Staffs County Council libraries, on behalf of the author, have submitted this story. The author fully understands the rules and regulations of the People’s War website.

After two years working as a butcher in my home of Newcastle under Lyme, I signed up for the Army.
I was nineteen at the time and went to Preston before going onto Northern Ireland. We then went onto Scotland in 1943, just outside Edinburgh and then to Yorkshire. This was all building up to the invasion.
I can recall the D-Day landing. I landed on Gold Beach by Landing Ships Tanks (LST) with the purpose of putting a bridge across The Horn of Caen. But things went wrong and the Americans did a daylight bomber raid and killed a large number of Canadians.
We then moved on to Lardeliverand, then to Lafrian Camily. This was near the Falaise Gap which was bombed with the loss of German lives.
We then moved into Belgium and Brussels with the Guards Armed Division. After this we went to the borders of Holland and into Eindhoven, to reform, but the Americans let the Germans get through at The Ardennes which caused the Battle of the Bulge.
After this we moved on through Nijmegen to Arnhem and then to Lohbeck. This is when we knew more or less the war was over. But in Lubeck we found a large building full of naked male and female dead bodies. They were put in a mass grave and then we moved on and came across Belsen Concentration Camp where 450,000 lost their lives. The bodies were piled high and the Pioneer Corps had to dig mass graves for them.
I then finished up in Lunaburg in the officers’ mess of General Horricks of 30 Corps.
I left the army in 1946 and returned to my old place of work at the Dairy Co-op in Sneyd Green. Four years later I went to Michelin Tyre Company where I worked on the shop floor as an assistant. In 1952 I was asked to work in France for the tyre company before taking early retirement at the age of 60.
I have been married for 62 years after tying the knot on St Valentine’s Day, to Mary and we still live at Newcastle.
In the army you had to be aware of everything and you could not take anything for granted. It’s history and it should be remembered because if it was not for myself and thousands more people, we would not be here now.

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