We have great pride in reaching the Golden Edition of Everyone’s War – our 50th edition.
Over the last twenty-four years the journal has showcased many treasures from the Archive, and with the impending redevelopment of our website war-experience.org we hope to be able to share many more with you in the near future.
The 50th Edition presents a mixed collection of wartime experiences, beginning with Mosquito navigator Stan Hope. Due to engine trouble, he had to bail out over enemy territory and went on the run with the help of the clandestine escape network of the Comète Line until betrayal led him to be captured and interrogated by the Gestapo. After months of solitary confinement, he was released to a prison camp. In a tale of derring-do, Britain’s second highest scoring Hurricane ace Frank Carey tells of his action on the front line in Battle of France. Despite being shot down and wounded, he escaped and arrived home in time for the Battle of Britain, only to be shot down once more after being ‘bullet-stitched’ during a dogfight. Undeterred and undefeated, he went on to fly against
the Japanese in Burma, finishing the war with a second bar to his DFC.
Interviews
In an interview for the Archive by Dr Peter Liddle in 2002, Sir Stephen Hastings of the Scots Guards recollects his service with the SAS, in particular the Benghazi and Sidi Haneish raids, extolling the ‘phenomenal’ leadership of SAS founder Sir David Stirling. In another interview, we have Holocaust survivor Leon Greenman, interviewed by David Talbot. Despite having British nationality, Leon and his family were sent to Auschwitz. Only Leon survived. After liberation, he became an active educator and campaigner for Holocaust awareness.
Another remarkable story of survival against the odds is that of William Griffiths who was captured by the Japanese in Java and consequently suffered major life-changing injuries including the loss of his sight. In his interview, he openly reveals the effect this had
on him, the coping strategies he used, and of how he overcame adversity to build a successful life helping other disabled veterans.
Memoirs
Gunner Tom Evans who served in the Singapore Royal Artillery wrote his memoir on the troopship home after his liberation. He spent three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of the Japanese on the Thai-Burma Railway, during which he laboured on the notorious Hellfire Pass cutting. In Arakan was David Cookson who served with the Gambia Regiment. In an extract from his comprehensive memoir, Pagoda Hill tells of one of D Company’s most notable engagements, describing how the company with just fifty remaining men, three quarters of whom were unarmed, was outflanked and overrun.
Platoon runner Robert White served in the ill-fated D Company of 1st Battalion Glasgow Highlanders during the clearing of the Roer in 1945. In his memoir, he describes front line action in a constantly depleted infantry company in which he was one of the few original members to make it through to the end of the war.
Twice-torpedoed Merchant Navy gunner Austin Byrne miraculously survived the war. He took part in Arctic convoys, crossing one of the world’s most dangerous sea routes – the Arctic Circle to Russia. He was serving aboard SS Induna during convoy PQ-13 in 1942, bound for Murmansk, when his ship was sunk by U-376. His memoir tells how he survived four days in the Arctic, exposed to the elements in an open boat.
In Belgium is Captain Denis Dodd of the Royal Warwicks, serving with the BEF in 1940. He sustained gunshot wounds in both legs and was therefore categorised as one of the ‘Grand Blessé’ (critically injured). His memoir gives insight into the life ofa POW amputee and reflects upon the German treatment of enemy wounded.
One of the Archive’swartime nurses, Muriel Salter, tells in her memoir of how she nursed BEF soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk at Park Prewitt Hospital. Her article QAIMNS Nurse
continues with her overseas service.
Another of the women in the Archive is Madame Valentine Roulland. She lived in Bayeux, France, throughout the war. Her letters to a family member, written between June – August 1944, give a unique insight as to what life was like for civilians caught up in the midst of the Battle of Normandy.
