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Remembering World War II
Published
Saturday 9th July 2005
Frank Russell, of the Royal Tank Regiment, who landed in Normandy on D Day +1.
Bob Randle, who recovered gliders from Normandy after the D Day Landings.
Stanley Taylor, who fought in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.
Harry Keeble, who served across Europe with the Royal Army Medical Corps. The following are a series of accounts from War Veterans visiting the Living Museum in St James’s Park this week.
Frank Russell, Royal Tank Regiment
His Story:
"I was in the Royal Tank Regiment and I landed in Normandy on D Day +1 as a tank gunner and was fortunate to go right the way through to the end of the war. I was across France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. I joined on my 18th birthday, October 1941 and I volunteered because I wanted to go into a unit of my own choice rather than be directed to one.
"It was exciting at times and frightening at others it is very difficult to explain this to people who have no knowledge of these kinds of things. We survived.
"We were under fire and when we went into Holland which was Market Garden trying to keep the corridor opened up through the various bridges. A lot of the other was up against retreating infantry. Again you were hit with 88s anti-tank fire which would knock us out at about 3000 feet and we couldn't knock out the German Tiger tanks until we got to 600 feet. I was with a British Tank called a Cromwell."
Frank on the VE/VJ Day Celebrations:
"A lot of people misunderstand, they think it's glorification and as far as we are concerned it's not. It's letting people know what it was really like. Not like a film it's a very nasty business and people need to be told. The trouble was, in the first world war the people that were in it never talked about it. When we were young we never knew what war was like. We got the opportunity to talk about it in our time and fairly recently we decided we would."
Bob Randle, finished his service as a Senior Technician
His Story:
"I was on glider recovery. Basically, the main job on D-day and we realised there was going to be gliders and equipment to be recovered. But it couldn't be done until the 2nd Tactical Air Force had cleared an orchard to put down an airstrip and it took them until August to get that done. By that time the French people had taken out all the Perspex to repair their farm windows. So we cannabalised the gliders and other aircraft that had been damaged and managed to recover 39 complete gliders and snap them back.
"They had the snap system because the airstrips weren't long enough for conventional take-off. The glider is on the end of the runway and you take the rope and put it on top of two tall sticks and the Dakota flies towards it with a hook similar to arresting gear, he flies past then veers across and the hook grabs the rope and snatches it.
"The aircraft gets rolling in about 60 yards it becomes airborne.
"We only ever recovered gliders from D-Day. Nothing came back from Arnhem or the Rhine Crossing."
Bob on the VE/VJ Celebrations:
"It's been fantastic actually, we've had so much interest. We had Prince Charles and Camilla here. They had a long chat with us. The Lord Mayor of Westminster was also here.
"Young people are very interested. Yesterday we had three large parties of school children. This has never been in the education curriculum. Despite what the Germans did to us we have always been apologising to them for bombing them and the school children don't know about the War. They have never had any education in school on the War. As opposed to Holland. When we go back to Arnhem every year they are brought up to appreciate what was done during the war. You see them there every year in the cemetery, they are told to look at the name on the tombstone and remember it. We have never had that in this country."
Stanley Taylor, Signal Corps
His Story:
"I was not at D-Day. I was called up round about June 1940 because I was of conscription age. I was called up near Norwich in the Royal Corps Of Signals and trained as a wireless operator. I suppose it's fair that it wasn't very long before I was issued with a helmet and the usual khaki and I knew I was going a long way away from home.
"I was going to North Africa into the western desert and I joined the 7th Armoured Division when I got there. I was blown out of a truck by Stuka bombers and withdrew from the frontline for roughly a few months, got back to my unit and then carried on through Sicily and Italy. I was taken out of the line soon after our arrival in Italy but carried on and finished up having fought the battle through to Monte Casino."
Stanley on the VE/VJ Day Celebrations:
"I think today is very good. It's only recently people have started talking about it. I suppose the MOD is one of the people who became interested. We met them for this project some six months ago and I said it's great that people should now be talking about it so that school children should realise that war is war and we hopefully speak to their mums and dads as well. We feel this is the time they should be learning and hearing. No one will ever understand. There is nothing to compare war with so we can't share it."
Harry Keeble, Royal Army Medical Corps
His Story:
"I was called up on the 15 January 1940 and I went to the RMC depot at Cookham and then was posted to a unit which was the 2nd Light Field Ambulance in the first armoured division, just about the only armoured div we had at the time. Churchill took office on May 10th and he sent a force which consisted of the 51st Highland Division, 52nd Lowland Division, 1st Armoured Division and a Canadian brigade to bolster the French.
"We went through Cherbourg. There was a big battle at Calais and we had to withdraw and I came back from France on the 19th of June. Just after that I was posted to the 157 Field Ambulance in the 52nd Lowland Division. We went to Scotland just before Christmas 1940 and I was there until 1943. Churchill wanted to get back into Norway so we trained as a mountain division and then after that I got posted down to Tunbridge Wells where I became part of the 20th Field Dressing station.
"In case you didn't know, there were more RMC units around formed specially for Normandy. I was in the 6th Beach Group and I landed on Sword Beach on D-day at eight o'clock and we were on the beach and around the beach until the breakout on the 20th of August. Then we followed up everybody because most of our patients were ones that couldn't be evacuated straight away and we had to keep them a few days. I went all the way up into Germany and after May the eighth I was in Germany for another month and I was posted back to this country and my paper was marked Far East One and I was ready to go to places like Burma but I actually finished up in a General Hospital in Malta."
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