The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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205495 Pte. William Joseph "Soapy Joe" Reid British Army 2nd Btn, D Company Yorks & Lancs from:Leeds My father Joe Reid, joined the 2nd York & Lancs Regiment in September 1932 as a regular after being in the Teritorial Army for two years. My father like most of the heroes of any campaign did not talk about his experiences. So I am putting together my account of his involvement in the second World War to the best of my knowledge. Up until the outbreak of the war, my father's regiment during the 1930's were mainly on garrison duties in Sudan and India. When the war broke out his regiment was in North Africa and by all accounts they had had it rough for twelve months. His regiment made up the 14th Infantry Brigade along with the 2nd Black Watch and the 1st Leicestershire Regiment. These three regiments, in my opinion, were very professional and tough. They were in the thick of all the action such as Crete, Palestine and the break out from Tobruk on Operation Crusader. How on earth my father survived the Tobruk breakout I don't know because these three regiments took a right pasting from the crack German forces. My father got shot in this campaign and was captured by the Germans. My father never said a bad word about the Germans because I think they patched him up good and proper before he was interned in Stalag XV111A for the rest of the war. With the benefit of hindsight I have come to the conclusion that being captured by the Germans may not have been a bad thing from my point of view, as I dont think I would have been born. This is because the three regiments went onto to form the special force know as the Chindits and it is common knowledge what those brave soldiers achieved. My father returned home after the war and worked at Kirkstall Power Station in Leeds until he retired in 1977. He enjoyed his retirement but sadly died in 1988 at the ripe old age of 73. I loved my father but I wish he had told me more, but there you go. Martin Joseph Reid Add to this record.  Related Content: 2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment Stalag 18A Prisoner of War Camp 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.