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My dad who died early last year spoke very little about what he did during the war. A few years ago however, one of my nephew's asked him to write down his story for an essay he was doing for school. He wrote the following:

How old was I when the war started. What was I doing.

I was 17 years and 8 months old when the war started on 3rd September 1939. I was a regular soldier in the British Army and had been since I was 17 years of age. My regiment was the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. By 3rd September, I had been promoted to corporal.

In those days, it was the system in the British Army to relieve the Guards in London of their duties at Buckingham Palace by a regiment of the line for a period of time each year. In 1939, that honour fell to my regiment and therefore the day the war started my regiment was based at Chelsea Barracks and the Tower of London.

At the start of war, we handed the duties in London back to the Guards and we returned to our depot at Bodmin in Cornwall. Shortly after that, I waspromoted to sergeant (I was still not 18) and was then posted with my regiment, as platoon sergeant commanding a platoon of thirty soldiers, to France with the British Expiditionary Force.

What was the most important action I took part in during the war and why?

The most important action I took during the war was to survive. Seriously however, there were a number of actions which were equally important one way or another over nearly six years of war, mostly in combat regions. Some of them are as follows:

The Beaches at Dunkirk:

At the evacuation of the British forces from the beaches at Dunkirk, my platoon was ordered to hold back the enemy long enough to allow our troops to get off the beaches and on to the boats to get back to England. I and my troop finally got off the the beaches at Nieuport on the final day. I had no platoon officer. I had no idea where he went to. I was badly blown up by a shell but survived.

Battle of Britain:

On my return to England, I was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment to train recruits at Maidstone Barracks in Kent and then took a platoon to West Malling airfield during the Battle of Britain. Our job was to defend the airfield by trying to shoot German aircraft out of the sky with just bren guns (a rather silly thing to do as we didn't even hit one).

Later:

After the Battle of Britain, I managed to transfer, as a sergeant, to the Royal Marine Commando's and then on to the SAS. Later, I helped to form the 1st Parachute Battalion after becoming a parachutist in 1941 and then helped to form the 3rd Parachute battalion.

The North Africa and Sicily Campaigns:

In 1942, I flew to Bone airfield in North Africa with my platoon and parachuted on to the airfiled to capture it before the Germans could, to be retained for our own RAF at the beginning of the North Africa campaign unde the command of Lieutenant Colonel Pine-Coffin, my battalion commander. I was wounded and lost a number of my platoon. I recovered from my wounds and then took my platoon (including new Para's from England as reinforcements)on the invasion of Sicily to capture the Phmosole Bridge. My plane was hit by our own boats and we came down in the sea. We arrived in Sicily by swimming ashore with all our kit on. I lost a few of my men who drowned but most of us managed to get ashore.

At this stage, my most important action had been to lead my platoon into battle, make sure they fought as paratroopers and make sure we did our job to assist in winning battles. We did just that.

A platoon sergeant also has an important job to do in looking after his men (who of course are also his comrades), to lead them into battle and to help keep them alive. Not always possible of course, soldiers are wounded, soldiers are killed. You just dom your best for them in all respects.

After Sicily we fought in the Italian campaign and then back to England to prepare for the second front at Normandy.

Battle of Arnhem:

Probably the worst battle for myself and my platoon was the battle for Arnhem where most of my platoon were either killed, woulded or taken prisoner. Of the 10,000 paratroopers, glider troops and glider pilots who entered Holland, only some 2,000 survived the ten days of fighting and came back to England.

I was wounded and became a prisoner of war but luckily survived the battle.

After the war ended I got back to England from the prisoner of war camp and spent four months in hospital recovering from my wounds. These finished my army career and I received a medical discharge, having obtained the rank of Warrant Officer. I was 24 years old.

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