206236 Pvt William Barr Webster British Army Ayrshire Yeomanry from:Glasgow My Dad, Willie Webster was called up 1940, first stop Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow.
Dad confirmed he was a Lorry Driver in Civies but the Army, being the Army, made him a signaler.
Attached to the Ayrshire Yeomanry, he saw action in Sicily, Italy and North Africa. He was involved in blocking Jerry at the Kasserine Pass, where he always said we stopped the rout with smaller guns than the Yanks going the other way!
I always loved the stories he told, he was very matter of fact, no heroics just human stories about his life as a soldier in WW11.
After seeing the movie "To Hell and Back" with me as a kid, which was about Audie Murphy,American's most decorated soldier, Dad realised that Murphy had paralled his tour in Italy but mentioned he'd never heard of this hero!
Out pinching eggs with a Yorkshire pal one night, they came across an immaculate Jerry Officier, who pulled out his side arm. Dad, nor the Yorkie, didn't have a pea shooter between them and thought their number was up...until the Jerry offered surrender and passed over his side arm....seems he'd only landed recently with German Youth and realised the game was coming to a close...he could tell Dad was a Jock and his pal was a Bradford man as he'd spent time in the UK before the War at University. Apart from relief, Dad's immediate reaction was joy contemplating how much the side arm was worth to the next Yank!
The stories seemed endless and were repeated time and time again to my delight. I used to rib him about never seeing an angry German. As time has gone by and I've experienced more of the world and had time to think about it, who the hell did I think I was, if I could only take these words back, he was a hero and the truth is they were all heros in the every true sense of the word!!
I miss you Dad.
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