The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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245983 Gdsmn. George William Birkett British Army 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards from:Mapplewell, S Yorkshire   George Birkett was my father's older brother. He served with the Second Battalion, Grenadier Guards from April 1939 until discharged 26th June 1952. My father and his sisters, my aunts, worshipped him and we all loved him very much. He was very handsome and I have his photograph on my mantlepiece to this day. In those days, men did not talk about their war experiences, especially to their wives, mother's and sisters, but the following are the facts I was told before the passing of my parents and aunts on my father's side of the family. My uncle was evacuated from Dunkirk following the aborted first invasion of France in April 1940, having spent time on the beaches being straffed by the Germans before the rescue boats and ships arrived. In June 1944 he was part of the British Expeditionary Force that landed in NW Europe. By this time the regiment were armoured and they were told to march to Nijmegan where the Americans would be waiting for them. The Americans were not there but the Germans were. My uncle's friend tried to make a run for it and was shot dead in front of him. He was taken POW and marched into Germany. There was no food for the Dutch or the Germans and each town or village they marched through they found the people lined up at the side of the road spitting at them. He was taken to Stalag XIIA, which I understand was a distribution camp for POW's who were then transferred elsewhere. I do not know anything further other than his record shows he was repatriated on 16th May 1945. He subsequently fought in Malaysia and left the regiment in June 1952. I am so proud of him. My only regret is not knowing more about his war experiences. He died in 1963 when I was 13 years old. His mother, my grandmother and his brother and sisters as well as his wife and 3 children were devastated. He suffered greatly from nerves after the war, not surprisingly. Hazel Chapman Add to this record.  Related Content: 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Stalag 12A 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.