大象传媒

My name is Eric Patience and I was born on 14.12.22.
I was born in Romford Essex and was 1 of 10 children. I left school at the age of 14 and started work as a apprentice carpenter. Tne war began in 1939 and I received my call-up papers just after my 19th birthday. I had to report to barracks in Winchster, home of the Rifle Bridgade, and so I became Rifleman E.A.Patience 6923784, a number you never forget. We moved on to training at Tidworth and joined the 8th Battalion, Rifle Bridgade in Brighton which was part of the 11th Armoured Division.
June 1944 saw us involved in the Normandy landings and then we went on to see action across France, Belgium, Holland, the Ardennes and into Germany where we liberated the awful Belsen concentration camp.
I hope you find interesting the stories of what we encountered during this time and spare a thought for those who died and survived.
I was demobbed in 1946.