Veteran Stories

Dennis Sear

Written by Peter Cook THEY say an army marches on its stomach and with Dennis – "Tiny" – Sear as cook, the 210 Field Company Royal Engineers 30 Corps did not go hungry. So appreciative...
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Frank Risbridger

Written by Peter Cook WHE N Frank Risbridger joined the 9th Royal Tank Regiment he thought it might be a relatively safe option. After all, in a Churchill you had four inches of steel around...
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George Cunningham

Written by Peter Cook AS THE three dinghies sped towards Normandy's dark shoreline in the small hours of June 6 1944, George Cunningham's only thought was to get the job done. The day...
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Harry Mackrell

Written by Peter Cook THEY had practiced wet landings on the Firth of Forth, with the Royal Navy firing live shells ahead of them. But as the ramps went down on Sword Beach at 7.15am on...
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John Laming

Written by Peter Cook YOU had to be careful who you put in the back of your ambulance during the Normandy invasion. "When the French Canadians landed, several were captured and later shot...
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John Marsh

Written by Peter Cook IT WASN'T until the end of June that John Marsh crossed to Normandy. But on the 5th June, which should have been D-Day, he was very much in on the action. John, from...
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Joe Hoadley

Written by Peter Cook FOR Joe Hoadley the war began in 1938 when he was just 15 and became an ARP Warden.  His first awakening to the horrors of war came in 1941 when a bomb hit the Morning...
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John Towlson

Written by Peter Cook IT WAS during the battle for the Reichswald Forest that John Towlson earned his Military Medal. The troop commander's Churchill tank Indomitable – of which he was...
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Leslie Gosling

Written by Peter Cook CAPTAIN Leslie Gosling had already been blown up by a mine and wounded by enemy aircraft fire in North Africa, by the time he boarded the ship that was to take him to...
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Peter Smoothy

Written by Peter Cook JOIN the Navy and see the world they say. Peter Smoothy, from Herne Bay, did just that, mostly aboard the tank landing ship - LST 215 - on which he shipped as writer....
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Robert Watts

Written by Peter Cook YOU could say Robert Watts was the first person to hit Juno Beach on D-Day. As wireman and second coxwain aboard a tank landing craft, it was his job to occupy the...
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Alan Rennells

Written by Peter Cook In June last year Alan Rennells visited Hill 112 for the last time. Cancer claimed him four months later. The Hill held painful memories for Alan. It was there his...
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Roy Emmington

Written by Peter Cook BY THE time D-Day arrived, Roy Emmington, from Chatham, had already seen plenty of the war at sea. Having joined up at HMS Ganges, at Shotley, in 1938, he had been...
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Albert Figg

Written by Peter Cook A POLISHED brass cylinder stands in Albert Figg's sun-lounge. "That's the charge case from the first shell I ever fired in anger," said Albert, who had joined the 112...
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Roy Grose

Written by Peter Cook AS a soldier with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Roy Grose's job was to drive any vehicle and carry anything the army needed. But whenever a few soldiers had a...
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Bill Wray

Written by Peter Cook IT WAS at the town of Cleve, near th e Dutch - German border, that Bill Wray almost came to grief. Bill, from Eastry, was a fitter with the 94th Field Regiment Royal...
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Ted Gowers

Written by Peter Cook IT WAS about 7.30 am on D-Day when the ramp went down from the landing craft carrying 3-Troop of No. 3 Commando. Their order s were clear - get to the River Orne and...
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Theodore Dalgleish

Written by Peter Cook IT WAS a family tradition for members of Theodore Dalgleish's family to serve with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. So when his call-up papers came in April 1943, he...
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Tony Gibbins

A GRIM task awaited Tony Gibbins as the landing craft headed for Gold Beach on D-Day. Tony had volunteered for the Royal Marines just two years before. Now he was stoker aboard an LCVP, which...
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