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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Alan Holyoake
British Army 4th Btn. Somerset Light Infantry
from:Enfield
My gramps, Alan Holyoake fought for the Wessex Wyverns, 4th Somerset Light Infantry. He wore a golden two legged dragon symbol on his uniform and had the Jellalabad badge. He said they were feared by the Germans who called them Churchill's Dragon men. He was one of 15 men that survived from his company of 100.
He didn't talk a lot about the war but a few of his memories included being burnt when his sergeant threw petrol on an open fire inside a house where they escaped by jumping through a window. He remembers a man they called Ginger who asked why everyone was on the floor while they were being 'shelled to blazes' and they said you'll learn after a while. Ginger later refused to go with my gramps on a mission to find stranded troops where 'the trees turned into splinters'. On another occasion Ginger ran away with a magazine of ammunition while the shells were falling he was seen being escorted by guards to a prison and said 'you were right about the shells', poor bloke. My gramps said the prisoners there were 'well drilled and done up to the nines' and had to polish rusty tins that were left out in the rain every night. They shaved in the reflections on the walls.
He said the Americans had more food for breakfast than the Brits had for a whole day and they were very laid back and confident. He once found some Americans in a house with all the lights on playing cards and one gave him a whole pack of tobacco.
One time his company moved too quickly into position and were attacked by the Dorset Regiment!
He also remembered finding Germans sleeping in their foxholes and his sergeant had the sorry task of shooting them there as it was 'us or them'. He was sad about this as he knew that the Germans were just the same as he was and so young.
Gramps never forgot how at the end of the war near Bremen all the soldiers fired their guns when they heard it was over. An old gentleman in a top hat emerged from the rubble and invited the soldiers for some coffee, an old lady said 'no more bomb bombs'. All the German soldiers got up and walked back to their villages they were from forming a long queue.
After that he ended up helping to liberate Belsen which absolutely never spoke of as it was too awful.
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