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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Stories categorised in 'Ron Redman - War Memories'. These stories may contain references to other themes.

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Chapter 1: Leaving England (a sweet story!)icon for Story with photo

But it was warm, very warm and we landed in Algiers, as I say, and I remember seeing my kit-bag on the...

Chapter 2: Cattle truck to Tunisia

When we got on the cattle trucks going to Tunisia, it was uneventful....

Chapter 3: No food, no water, no nothing!

The Stukas went, we carried on digging, the sun came up and then Major Le Patourel, the company commander,...

Chapter 4: Then came the order: ‘Fix bayonets!’

Personally I was told to take over the Bren gun of our group, my section, because the chap who was normally...

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Chapter 5: The ground became alive with German soldiers!

When the Colonel realised we'd broken through the German ranks, he ordered us to… he said...

Chapter 6: From Tunis to Naples

After a day in Tunis, we were taken to Tunis airport, put onto these German planes which had brought their...

Chapter 7: Ragged, dirty, unshaven - they were the men from the 8th Army

They had shorts, the same clothes that they were caught in — ragged, dirty, unshaven - they were the...

Chapter 8: Another camp further up the Adriatic

Because when we crossed the Austrian border, the doors were opened for different reasons, we were given...

Chapter 9: I’d never heard of it, Auschwitz!

Chapter 9: I'd never heard of it, Auschwitz. When we got there, Auschwitz, again the old cattle trucks,...

Chapter 10: The guards said: ‘That is Himmler!’icon for Story with photo

IG Farben was a mass of girders and pipework, still being constructed and, as we learned, they were making...

Chapter 11: The bombing startedicon for Story with photo

The Germans had heard one of them was a good chess champion and he heard that one of our British prisoners...

Chapter 12: Killed by our own bombsicon for Story with photo

And, quite honestly, we hated the idea — even Christmas Day came and we thought they won't bomb...

Chapter 13: I realised I couldn’t go on!

Ron: Well, yes, all this feeling, or non-feeling as you might say, because some people say when you have...

Chapter 14: Shot for pilfering!

He'd been pilfering — he said something like sugar beet or something — and they'd shot...

Chapter 15: A horse-drawn sleigh in the snow

There were Cossacks in the road and they used to have parties of the evening with the Russian girl soldiers...

Chapter 16: Another camp, another Polish home

There were no Germans there, it was run by the orderlies, British orderlies. The Russians had arranged for...

Chapter 17: The train to Czestochowa

When we came to a bigger town and the train stopped, it was near the river and we realised that there were...

Chapter 18: Waiting for this ship to come to take us away

They actually provided a ramshackle band, the only tune they knew was ‘Rosemarie’ and they...

Chapter 19: Laying in the gutter!

It was a naval ship and we went to Port Said, in Egypt. And with the British there, the NAAFI girls, well...

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