255311 Thomas Wood Arnott British Army Royal Signals My Grandad, Thomas Arnott, boarded a ship on the evening of 5th June, 1944, with his Signals Regiment. Everyone had to keep quiet so the public didn't know what was happening. The weather was not very calm and they set off for the French coast in the early hours of the morning.
They arrived along with many other ships carrying English, American and Canadian troops. Tom was seconded to the Canadian troops as a radio operator and was among the first troops to land on Gold Beach.
His job was to get to the highest point and stay as still as possible so messages could be sent between the beaches and the ships. He spent time on the beach passing messages back to the fleet.
At one point he was transferred back on board and had to station himself on the highest point of the ship to send and receive messages during hostile fire from the beach and return fire from the allied ships around and behind him. He spent over 6 months on the beach radioing the different allied troops and the fleet of ships.
After D Day he returned to the UK, before his regiment was sent to Singapore in August 1945 and whilst they were on their way Japan surrendered. They were ordered to continue and helped to release prisoners from the prisoner of war camps. He became a DJ on the local radio and organised football matches for the troops.
The camps were horrendous. The only thing he would tell us about them was they were housed in metal roofed huts and at night the cockroaches used to run up and down on the roofs and it was so loud it kept them all awake. Tom and the other soldiers threw felt from their uniforms and small amounts of super glue onto the roof to stick onto the feet of the cockroaches as they ran by, making slippers for them so they didn't make so much noise.
After freeing the POWs he was then seconded to the Navy and chased pirates on the South China Seas. He didn't get back to the UK until February 1947.
My Grandad never talked openly about his experiences during WWII. It was only when I had to do an essay in middle school that we learnt what he did in the war. My Grandad was lucky and came home but some of his friends and thousands of others didn't. My Great Grandad fought in WWI at Ypres but we don't know much about him. Our poppy from the Tower of London installation is a constant reminder of those who gave everything for our freedom today.
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