The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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256226 Sgt. Leonard Alec James Davis British Army 1st Btn. East Riding Yeomanry from:Hull Len Davis was evacuated from Dunkirk and in the confusion was declared missing casualty number 282. Then his parents were sent a telegram saying he was missing in action. After two days he came back home to find his memorial was being organised! As tank commander he was sent to various fronts including what the Americans call the Battle of the Bulge. He was one of the lucky ones who came through without a scratch. At the D Day landings he almost lost his life after a lct Captain ordered them out in deep water. Unable to swim, one of his comrades jumped in to rescue him as the ramp of the lct swung around and could have killed him. The first tank off the lct sank, even with the inflatable skirt. Another tracked vehicle followed which too sank. Later when the lct Captain had got himself together, he went closer to shore and the rest disembarked safely. Len and his crew later worked on the tracked vehicle and brought it back to life when the tide had gone out. Like many other service men he didn't talk much about his exploits. What did sit on his mind a lot was the friends he had lost. Until the end of his life he hated German men with a passion. He travelled throughout France, Germany, Holland and Belguim. What did he see that created such a hatred? He was my father-in-law and I could not be prouder of any man. Les Jacobs Add to this record.  Related Content: 1st Squadron, East Yorkshire Yeomanry Royal Armoured Corps Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches D Day and the Battle of Normandy Battle of the Bulge 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.