... but as a member of the Ox and Bucks 43rd Light Infantry - he very soon found himself in Normandy and fought: in the Bocage Country, Caen and what is called The Falaise Gap. (Some today refer to this as The Falaise Pocket.)
He went on to fight: across Northern and Eastern France, Belgium and in Holland at the Battle of s'Hertogenbosch - a bloody afternoon encounter which left 80 companions dead.
On Christmas Day 1944, his leave in Brussels was cut short as he was sent to fight in The Ardennes - in the infamous Battle of The Bulge.
He fought in: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/28703865/7637318069959978371 - The Reichswald Forest as well as crossing The Rhine and into Germany.
This was his history by the time he was a Lance Corporal and just 19 years old.
He was never wounded but the grief he held in his heart for lost friends caused him problems throughout his entire life until his death in 2004.
I was very proud of this man who went into three life-threatening situations as an unarmed police officer and who twice arrested an armed gunman and once a close encounter with a madman carrying a butchers' knife.
