大象传媒

My husband was a transport driver in the RASC (Royal Army Service Corps) Called up in 1939 and served right up until the end of the war in 1945. In June 1941 he was on the beach in Dunkirk waiting for evacuation and was asked by an officer of a different regiment to drive a truck for him as his own driver had been killed. So Henry was separated from his own officer and regiment. By the time he returned they were all gone. Everybody waiting for evacuation had to queue with an officer. As Henry no longer had one, he wasn鈥檛 allowed to get into a queue. In the end he and a couple of other soldiers dug into the sand to hide, and assumed they couldn鈥檛 get off the beach. He was woken by a kick in the ribs from a sailor shouting 鈥淒on鈥檛 you want to go home mate?鈥� All the small boats had left and the beach was empty. Henry was one of the last to leave Dunkirk. By the time he came home several days later, he was still wearing the same clothes as he had lost everything. On the train back home, he was given a pie and a mug of tea by a little old lady in the Salvation Army. It was the first he had eaten for days and Henry always remembered that to the day he died. Henry always gave to every Salvation Army collection, and his wife still does to this day. Henry died in 1983 and leaves a wife and three daughters.

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