This is the story of a seemingly ordinary Wiltshire pensioner. Bruno Neusser lives in Westbury and has done so for many years. Like many 80-year-olds, his memories go back to the second world war, when he fought in Holland and Germany. It was there, on the Rhine, that he was captured in 1945. But he was captured by the British Eighth Army; for Bruno was a young German Paratrooper. Bruno's story | | Bruno in 1945 |
In 1945, trapped in a cottage and attacked by flame throwing Allied tanks, Bruno was taken prisoner and eventually brought to Westbury in Wiltshire where he stayed a prisoner until 1948. It was common practice for prisoners to be given their parole and to move about freely, on the strict understanding that they wouldn't escape. During that time, Bruno met a local family and joined them for Christmas in 1947. It was there that he met his wife to be, Jean. He's lived here ever since. Despite the fact that Bruno is German, and that the war had only just finished, he says that he never - ever - felt any resentment from people here. Bruno has been telling us the story of his time in the German Paratroops; being a prisoner of war, and marrying a local girl..... | 
