The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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212708 Pte. Thomas Wilson "Tucker" Elliott British Army 3 Commando from:Whitehaven, Cumbria My father enlisted in the Border Regiment on 2nd March 1938 at Whitehaven, Cumbria, aged 17 years, having lied about his date of birth. He saw action in Dunkirk, Norway, Dieppe and other locations marked 'special services' on his army records. He was captured at Dieppe and incarcerated in Stalag V111-B, suffering from bullet and shrapnel wounds. In 1945 he was forced onto one of the notorious death marches from which he made his escape and was eventually picked up by American forces in Czechoslovakia. Like so many others, he never spoke about his wartime experiences although there are one or two that we have picked up from others along the way. At Dieppe he was part of the 'Yellow Beach' offensive, alighting at Dieppe and scaling the cliff at Bernaval. As Dad and his comrades scaled the sheer cliff face, German gunners were in position and waiting. This is when Dad suffered his injuries and he was captured in a corn field at the top of the cliffs. Whilst in Stalag V111-B he managed to steal a baked potato and when challenged by a guard promptly hid the contraband in his clothing, the guard pinned him up against a wall severely burning his chest. He treated his own infected wounds with maggots and on repatriation to the UK he was severely malnourished. I am forever in his debt and very proud to say he was my Dad. Christine Elliott Add to this record.  Related Content: Border Regiment Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 No.3 Commando 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.