Name: Howard

When did you join up?

I was in the Royal Engineers, I was 1^st corps troops RE one of Montgomery’s minnows. I was called up 1 Jan 42 and went to a number of different divisions, Panda division, Drakes Drum in Northern Ireland, spell at Aldershot. Different divisions mostly in Scotland, first corps troops RE building mock beaches in the western isles, getting the stones off,  to practise landing for D Day. I landed in France on D Day in the second wave. We had a hilarious time lying off the Isle of Wight as the first lot of wounded who, were Canadian Scottish, who, poor sods were coming back as we were going down the crawling nets.

Where were you on VE day?

Banks of the Rhine at a place called Emerlich not far from Düsseldorf. We were the first platoon to call ourselves Watch on the Rhine and we took over a particular bridge and we roughed it under tentage. We were responsible for maintaining floating Bailey bridges ¼ mile long across the Rhine. I was very lucky at that time because I was responsible with my platoon for building Bailey bridges under fire in Holland and my award came through just before VE day and I got another mention in despatches on VE day itself.

How did you hear the news that the war had ended?

Through the Rhine Army HQ and we heard the PM speaking to the world eventually. One of the interesting things was that on VE day proper Admiral Doenitz was recalled to his submarine base; I was responsible for disbanding this eventually.

I spent a lot of time at Pegasus Bridge – we were building Bailey Bridges across the Orne canal and river. I took my family back; the first time Madame Vendree the café owner, served us coffee; the next time I went back sadly she had died, but her daughter served us coffee which she never let us pay for.

Have you had any contact with German people since?

I did because I worked for Shell in Hamburg after the war and had contact with Deutsche Shell colleagues

During the war, before demob in Germany we employed German maids and cooks and lived off the fat of the land.

What do you think of Twinning?

I feel it’s a good idea but I have no personal experience of it