My Dad, who sadly died 12 years ago tomorrow (8th May 1993) was a tank driver in the 7th Hussars. He seldom spoke about Belsen, but I am sure he was there as I found photographs, barely two inches square in an album when I was a teenager. I was shocked and deeply affected by those snapshots of a world no human being should ever have endured. However, when Dad died I found the album but the photographs had been removed. Perhaps he felt they were too dreadful to pass on to the next generation.
I would love to get in touch with anyone who remembers my Dad, Charles Arthur Brooke, who landed on the shores of France on the 7th June 1944 aged 18 years and 6 weeks, having enlisted in Edinburgh as soon as he was able.
He always told us that he had been put into tanks as he was able to assemble a dynamo on a bike!
Dad was born just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, a minute before Queen Elizabeth 2 on 21st April 1926, and was the second eldest of nine children. Sadly only seven reached adulthood. Dad came from a very poor background and told us some really terrible stories of soup kitchens and that had it not been for the Sally Ann (Salvation Army) he would surely have starved on many an occasion. His first bed was when he joined the army. As a teenager he had slept in a chair, as there were none in a room and kitchen in an Edinburgh Tenement. He also told us of boots with five holes punched in them, which he said stood for "do not pawn these boots". Apparently they were several sizes too big, but it was certainly better than going barefoot.
Dad was plagued with ill health from his early forties and was only 67 when he passed away having spent his last year in a wheelchair, after suffering a major stroke, which we were told he should not have survived.
If you knew my Dad, or can tell me how I could learn more about his war days, please get in touch.
Regards
Cath
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