ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

I was born in Swansea. As both of my parents came from Yorkshire I don’t regard my self as properly Welsh.

I joined up in 1942. I was a driver in the Royal Ordnance Corps. I was first sent to Glasgow where I was called a Sassenach until I pointed out that I am Welsh. My brother was in the Royal Navy. He was lost in the English Channel when his ship was sunk by E-boats.

In early 1945 I was in North Germany. We were keeping the front line troops supplied with food, fuel and ammunition. Driving in convoys, following the lorry in front. Because the forward troops advanced so quickly it was difficult to keep up. Everything was on the move. The German army was collapsing, but pockets of soldiers left behind kept fighting. They had not surrendered and fired at us as we drove by.

In April 1945, I think it was the 13th; I was with the troops that went into Bergen- Belsen. I stayed there for the next few weeks.

Belsen was terrible. There were thousands of dead and dying people. Disease was rife, especially in the women’s camp. Luckily I had been inoculated, and I did not become unwell. I remember a lady Labour MP visited and I am sure she became unwell after her visit and died. They said she caught her illness there.

When we arrived Belsen had no water. The Germans had cut off the supplies. We brought in water in tankers. The inmates were so desperate for water that before we got properly organized they rushed the tankers and pushed them over.

We soon started getting conditions better. The dead were buried. The former prisoners were fed and given medical help. Conditions improved. The medical officers ordered us to be careful and not give anyone too much food. They had been so starved that if they had been given too much food it would have killed them.

Early on we rounded up the people who had run the camp, Germans and also Rumanian guards. We made them show respect to the inmates and then handed them over to be dealt with. They thought we were going to shoot them. We spoke about doing it, but we would not act like them.

I wish we had got to Belsen earlier. If we had we would have saved more lives. I think Anne Frank was there and died about two weeks before we arrived.

I remember seeing few officers while we were at Belsen; it was us ordinary soldiers, and the medics, who worked in the camp to start to get things right.

Just before the war ended we moved on. I was at Luneburg Heath when the war ended, close to where Montgomery accepted the German surrender. On VE Day a Colonel came round. He gave out some stripes and gave us all a drink to celebrate. The drink wasn’t special; it was just like coloured water. We didn’t stop work that day; there was too much to do.

I married a Beverley girl in 1945 and stayed in the Army. I was sent back to Germany and remained there until 1947. I was stationed, over the next two years, all over Northern Germany. I got to know the Germans well. I have no hatred for the ordinary Germans, they were alright. They were just lead by evil people. As for the people we saved and helped I wish, as I say, we had got there earlier and saved more; but I was still in the Army when some of our lads got killed in Palestine and I still cannot understand that.

I often remember Belsen. I can’t forget it. I remember the smell most of all. We never got any thanks for what we did. The one extra ration they gave us, while we were there, was extra cigarettes; we thought they gave us them to try to take away the smell; but it didn’t work.

When I left the Army in 1947 we settled in Beverley and I have live here ever since.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.