Gordon Smith shares an emotional account of his WWII experiences, starting with memories of the Blitz. As a Royal Engineer he was involved in the secretive construction of the Mulberry Harbours, a massive project involving over 40,000 people and 13 million cubic meters of concrete.
On D-Day, Gordon landed on Sword Beach and recalls fighting the enemy and his friends! He recalls the severe impact on Calais, which was heavily bombed by the 10th Panzer Division in May 1940, fortified by Germans, and used as a V1 Flying Bomb launch site. In February 1945, he was haunted by a British bombing mistake on Calais.
He is also posted to the Far East and describes the Changi POW camp, where the Japanese held 50,000 POWs in the British Army’s Selarang Barracks.
Gordon reflects on the war’s profound effect on him, despite feeling fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time.