This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
218501Gnr. John Hilton Hoyle
British Army Royal Artillery
from:Shipley, Yorkshire
My late father, Jack Hoyle, served with the Royal Artillery 8th Army, and was a driver/gunner throughout the North African Desert campaign from 1940, then Sicily, then Italy, then across on the 1944 D-Day invasion, through to Berlin in 1945.His collection of four campaign stars remains testament to that service, although the medals were never exposed during his long post-war life - they are now framed in my hallway with his photograph, attracting attention and admiration from many visitors. He maintained that he was neither brave nor exceptional, spending five involuntary years mostly scared but eventually very lucky. As with many who saw such active service, he spoke little of the true horrors he had seen, tending only to reminisce with anecdotes about the many humorous incidents along the way and the colleagues with whom he served - probably a common way to deal with the harsh reality he had endured. I learnt more of his exploits by talking privately many years later to one of his fellow Desert Rats (MacDonald) than he had ever told me directly. A craftsman bookbinder by trade, he returned to that in 1946 and continued until his retirement in 1975. He died, aged 85, in May 1998.
If anyone has any information regarding his service, I would be delighted to know of it.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
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.
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:
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.