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Re: NO LBC: Veterans Day

To: "Richard D. Arnold" <richard.arnold@juno.com>
Subject: Re: NO LBC: Veterans Day
From: Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
Date: Sun, 09 Nov 1997 16:07:45 +0000
Richard D. Arnold wrote:
> 
> JUST A SIMPLE SOLDIER

A shiver ran down my spine when I read this, for my father-in-law died 
last week.

Harry had told me about the other Dunkirk.  Not the one where 250,000 
men were taken off the beaches to fight again another day, but of the 
few thousand that held up the advance of Hitler's army and allowed them 
to do so, with no hope of their own rescue or reinforcement.  Harry was 
bombadier with the Worcestershire Yeomanry on a 10 pound gun, which was 
all they had to attempt to stop armoured tanks.  Just hitting the tank 
was no good, the round just bounced off.  They had to aim at a point 
where the turret joined the body and when they were successful the 
turret flipped off.  A considerable number of tanks were stopped in this 
way, helping to slow the advance.  When the inevitable happened and they 
were overrun at Cassel, a Gestapo officer put a pistol to his head, but 
a Regular Army non-com said something that made him stop and Harry spent 
five years in prisoner of war camps in Poland and Germany.  Harry was 
one of the lucky ones.  At Wormout, the next village to Cassel, the 
Gestapo rounded up a number of men and officers, herded them into a 
barn, which they then proceeded to machine gun and burn, so angry were 
they that they had been prevented from capturing or killing a large 
part of the British Army.  There were no survivors.

Harry talked to me about this and a few other events in his war over the 
thirty years I knew him, sometimes telling me things he had never 
told his wife.  He was a member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association and 
attended their meetings regularly until he became too ill earlier this 
year, and I am sure he and his pals talked more about their experiences 
than he did with me, for only they could properly understand.  Seven of 
his fellow members are to attend his funeral on Tuesday, to lower the 
flag at his final commital.

I was with him in hospital just before the end.  One time he woke up and 
saw me, and even though he knew he was dying, he asked me if I was OK.  
I said I was, and he gave me the thumbs-up and said 'Keep the flag 
flying'.  That was just like him.

PaulH.


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