大象传媒

The article has been written by Joseph Ritson, a volunteer for the 大象传媒 Radio Cumbria CSV Action Desk at the Maritime Festival held at Whitehaven on 25 鈥� 26 June 2005. The Festival also incorporated the official county of Cumbria 60th Anniversary 鈥榁ictory Parade鈥� commemorating the end of World War Two. It has been submitted with the permission of Louis Williams who has kindly shared a few of his wartime memories. The author understands the terms of the 鈥淧eople鈥檚 War鈥� website.

Louis is from the Kells district of Whitehaven, Cumbria, a town on the West Cumbria coast. Louis attended the official Cumbria County 鈥榁ictory Parade鈥� at Whitehaven on Sunday 26 June 2005 and took part in the march with his fellow comrades from the Kells British Legion and the Normandy Veterans Association.

Before World War Two, Louis worked for a short time at Haig Colliery, Kells. Louis鈥� father was originally a Merchant Seaman from Belgium called Alfonso van der Vyver. Early in World War One, the Germans occupied most of Belgium, so Alfonso came to Whitehaven as a refugee and worked as a seaman. While in Whitehaven, Alfonso met and married a local girl called Mary Jane Williams and they lived near Sandwith village, between Kells and St Bees. It became easier for the family to use the surname Williams rather than Alfonso鈥檚 Belgian surname.

In the early part of World War Two, Louis was working at the Military Gun Range at Drigg / Ravenglass a little to the south of Whitehaven, between Seascale and Millom. Louis was then called up to the army and served with the Royal Army service Corps (RASC).

Louis took part in the Normandy Landings and they then moved on to the Low Countries (Belgium and Netherlands). While he was in Belgium, Louis met up with some of his Belgian relatives at Antwerp. Although Louis didn鈥檛 speak Flemish or French, most of his Belgian relatives could speak a little English. Between them, they understood each other.

While Louis was in Antwerp, the Germans were bombing the town by using V1 and V2 Rockets. According to Louis, you could hear a V1 鈥楧oodlebug鈥� but you couldn鈥檛 hear a V2 Rocket. On one occasion in Antwerp, a V2 landed on a house and it was in flames. Louis went inside the house to rescue a lady who was inside. When he got her outside, she said her daughter was still inside the building. Louis went back into the burning building and got the daughter out as well.

After leaving the army when the war was over, Louis went to work at Haig Pit, Kells again. He joined the Kells Royal British Legion shortly after leaving the army. Louis has also been a member of the Normandy Veterans Association since about 1995.

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