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Capt. Alan "Fricks" Frickers
British Army Pioneer Corps
from:London
My Father, Alan Frickers of London, joined the Pioneer Corps soon after Dunkirk and became a private. He took part in a great amount of building work, much of it huts and fortifications on the South Coast of England. Eventually, he became a sergeant and unarmed combat instructor holding, for a while, the Army record for breaking and re assembling the Bren Gun. By the end of the war he was working in the Rhur Valley and had been promoted to Acting Major, confirmed Captain. I have paperwork that confirms much of that.
For D day he trained in Scotland and as a lieutenant lead a unit of Glaswegians mostly from the Gorbels district. Later he trained in Kent before going into The Cage for D Day. As far as I know he went ashore on D + 1 doing all the usual nasty jobs the Pioneer Corps were called upon to do during the assault on Caen.
He told me many stories mostly very specific and deliberately his, knowing the wider history would be well recorded by others. He left me a tape recording which I've had typed out, of some of his experiences immediately before, on and soon after D Day.
I also have his memories of many events after Caen when his job included sorting out civilian labour and all that entailed. He said he was 3 times behind enemy lines by accident and very proud to have twice been mentioned in dispatches. I have his medals and very little else.
