Bill
is another of our members who gave long and arduous service during the
Second World War.
He was born in St
Helens, Lancashire on 21st February 1921.
He enlisted at age
seventeen in the South Staffordshire Regiment with whom he spent his whole
service, commencing with a spell in India in 1939 on the North West
Frontier.
When the Battalion
returned to UK it was soon converted to glider-borne as part of the then
forming 1st Airborne Division.
Their first major
operation was the invasion of Sicily, which was a particularly tough one.
When like many others, Bill's glider came down in the sea many miles from the
objective, he had to spend the night clinging to a wing while under fire.
Eventually getting ashore, he was captured by the Italians, but after a few
days released by British Forces landing from the sea.
Bill then took the
surrender of his former captors and many others, as he made his way back to
the remnants of his Battalion at the Ponte Grand bridge at Syracuse.
After Sicily the
Division went to Italy, where Bill had another strenuous period of service
before they were brought back to England, to be ready for further operations
in Europe.
When the 1st Airborne
Division flew to Arnhem, Bill, then a Sergeant with the anti-tank gunners, was
already in Belgium with 'B' Echelon, so was not involved in Arnhem itself,
but heavily engaged in defending the corridor and co-operating with American
Airborne troops at Nijmegen and Eindhoven.
Bill was next
involved in the occupation of Norway to receive the German surrender.
He was finally
released in 1946 after eight years of very active service.
