大象传媒

I had five brothers - three of them were in the Army during the war and one was in the Navy. My brother Richard joined up nine months before the war. He was in the DLI and was rescued from Boulogne and stationed at Brancepeth. Later on he was in North Africa and Sicily and the Middle East and went over in the 2nd wave on D. Day. He was killed in September 1944.
My second brother, Bill, volunteered as soon as he was old enough. He joined the Border regiment - our father had been in that regiment in the First World War and had received several decorations. Bill had hoped to join up abroad with Richard but was sent to Burma instead. He was killed on 23rd February 1945. We didn鈥檛 get a telegram - when you saw a telegram you knew it was bad news and that they were killed or missing. But we got an airmail, with Burma on. It was from his padre to say he'd been killed in action and they bury them the some day because of the heat. He was reburied in Rangoon.
Jim was in the Navy on Minesweepers and survived the war. He died only last May. A long time after the war ended. Alfred, the youngest, went to see Bill鈥檚 grave in Rangoon. He was in a small tourist aircraft that crashed and he was killed. My other brother was also in the Army and he鈥檚 still alive.

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