Kenneth’s experience of the Second World War started at home as a boy. As a tall lad, he was often given hassle for not being enlisted when really he was too young. He did his bit as soon as he could by volunteering for the Home Guard, then volunteering for active service when he was old enough. Kenneth followed his brother Bill into the Essex Regiment where he first became an infantry signaller at Fareham on home service duties.

Kenneth recalls his arrival in France and travelling through Normandy in great detail. Despite the brutal scenes of death he encountered, Kenneth also shares more humorous memories such as being caught sunbathing when they had no idea they were only a mile behind the front line and drinking hooch for the first time. Things become terrifyingly tense for Kenneth when his company unwittingly find themselves in German territory and he is captured. As he puts it, one sort of a war was finished but another was just starting.

As a POW, Kenneth was very fearful of the rumour that the SS didn’t take prisoners. He describes a tense interrogation, being put to work filling in holes in the roads caused by allied bombs, travelling in horrific conditions to Poland where he has to work in a coal mine and then a brutal march in freezing conditions across Czechoslovakia and Germany. Despite the hardship, Kenneth is again able to recall moments of warmth and humour such as a local miner thinking Kenneth is the goalkeeper for Arsenal!

After his liberation, Kenneth remembers his emotional return home and finally being reunited with his family.