The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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100641 Gunner Charles Alfred "Lakey" Lake Army 151st Ayrshire Yeomanry Royal Artillery from:Skegness, Lincolnshire My Grandfather was a Gunner in HQ Battery, 151st Ayrshire Yeomanry, 11th Armored Division, British Army. He fought in Normandy and in Holland before pushing into Germany until the War ended when he went to India. I recall a story he told me which I haven't forgotten. He gave me permission to share his story. He and his outfit were stationed in Caen just after D-Day. The regiment was then given the word to advance to a new posistion. In the process a random shell had fallen and wounded a nearby despatch rider. My Grandfather was ordered to tend to the man, whilst the rest of his outfit moved forward. He stayed with him and used his field dressing to bandage the mans numerous wounds until medical personnel arrived. When they arrived they took over. "I'd done my bit", and he went about finding his unit. "I knew roughly where they were". He followed their tracks and after a couple of hours of walking he found them after crossing through a large field. He reported to his battery office and continued his normal duties. Overnight the Royal Engineers had been in and cordened off a field in white tape, indicating it was a minefield. When my Grandfather woke he saw the tape and the field, "I nearly had a fit when I saw it". He had realised he had walked across 5 acres of mine field to rejoin his unit. When I asked him "so after you'd walked through the field you realised it was a minefield" he replied "Yes, after my afternoon stroll through the minefield". "Thats what serving in the forces is all about, luck". After hearing this story I shall never again complain about my familys lack of luck. It was used when needed most. Chris Lake Add to this record.  Related Content: 151st Ayrshire Yeomanry Field Regiment, Royal Artillery Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.