The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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252496 WO. William Blyth Barron British Army 47th Anti Aircraft Battalion Royal Engineers from:Burlington Inn, 7 Hendon Road, Sunderland My Dad, William Blyth Barro, like many of his era spoke very little of his wartime experiences until shortly before he died. Only then did he tell me of some of the lighter moments. As his daughter he may have thought some things too horrific for me to know, so the first was when they were sent to a location to await a US parachute regiment being dropped at night, while they awaited around a muddy field in cold and wet conditions with few rations between them. The Americans started to drop into the landing area with all the top of the range equipment, silk parachutes and such like, which they dumped and left on the field! My dad said once they were safely off the field the British went in and salvaged some of the stuff they had just discarded, food, cigarettes, anything they could use and then had to clear away the remnants of the landing operation. Next was when they came across a previously bombed area and in the ruins of what they thought was maybe a village hall they found some bruised and battered instruments. My Dad being a musician by trade, along with others who had also been in the DLI band, retrieved and repaired some of the instruments and when conditions allowed would entertain the troops at night. Once the war ended and they were preparing to be boarded onto the ship for home they were all told that the taking of any war trophies was not allowed and anyone caught doing so would be dealt with severely, although none of the musicians had previously looked upon their rescued instruments as trophies they now realised that perhaps they would be considered as such, so with nowhere to dispose of these discreetly the only available place was a disused well, so down they went. Dad used to say "I wonder if they were ever discovered again?" Warrant Patricia Cooke Add to this record.  Related Content: 47th (Durham Light Infantry) AA Battalion, Royal Engineers 47th Anti-Aircraft Battalion, Royal Engineers 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.