大象传媒

Thomas Emyr Davies - Memories of Service in WW2 (North Africa, Sicily and Arnhem)

My husband, Thomas Emyr (Tom) Davies, came from Neath in South Wales. He volunteered to join the Parachute Regiment in January 1941 after joining up with the South Wales Borderers in October 1939 at the age of 20.

After training, he served first in North Africa and then took part in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (although mechanical failure of his transport plane forced him back to North Africa).

On 14th September 1944, Tom parachuted into Arhhem during Operation Market Garden. After fierce fighting through the town which was aimed at securing the bridge over the Maas for the forward advance of Allied troops, many paras were captured. Tom was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner.

After being held in Stalag IV B in Muhlberg-on-Elbe, he escaped with other prisoners in April 1945, after it became clear that their camp would be liberated by Russian troops rather than the Americans. Making for Brussels in Belgium he and his companions were eventually picked up by American troops and taken to their base at Kassel. He reached Brussels on 8th May 1945 - VE Day - and joined the celebrations of the end of the war in Europe.

Back in Wales, Tom worked for most of his life at the steel works in Port Talbot. We married in 1946 and had two children, Pamela and Stephen.

In the early eighties, he decided to record his memories of his time in the forces during the war and wrote them down in the form of a narrative from 1939-1945. My husband died in 1986, aged 68, after a long illness caused by hepatitis contracted when in prisoner-of-war camp.

My son had this memoir bound into a book and has added them to the 大象传媒 website so that they can be shared with others.

Doris Davies (n茅e Scourfield)

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