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Sgt. Thomas Henry Atkinson
British Army King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from:Whitby
Thomas Atkinson signed up in 1939, aged 17 years. He decided to join the 3 Commando Brigade in 1940 and took part in the Normandy Landings. He took out a MG42 nest by rolling a grenade over the top of the sand bags. The next day he took part in an assault on Jersey which failed miserably. Sgt Atkinson had no choice but to swim back across the channel as the landing craft had been destroyed by MG fire.
Following the murder of his sisters (who were in the Queen Alexandria's Nursing Corps) by the Nazis, he went back to Europe with 12 Commando. He fought his way through France and Belgium to the Bulge and held the lines with "some yanks" as he always said.
After working his way through to Germany, it was time to call it a day and return home. Whilst back in England, his unit was preparing to go to the Pacific, but Sgt Atkinson, being a bit of a lad, decided to go to the local pub, when, as he stepped outside, he slipped on the curb and was hit by a passing trolley bus. He woke up some six weeks later in hospital and was told that his war was over.
He spent his well earned peace days as a security guard at Loughborough University and was a very keen gardener. Unfortunately, he did not speak of his actions that make the world a safer place, until just before his death in 2005.
