NO BEER... JUST A CUP OF TEA
HARROWING TIME Walter during the war
He says: “I volunteered at 17 because I hated my job in a Lancashire shoe factory. On D-Day we landed on Gold Beach and I saw some terrible sights. That night one of our drivers was sleeping under his tank when the Luftwaffe hit it.
“He was the first of our casualties but not the last. I lost some great colleagues as we made our way through Europe, including Geordie, who looked after me like a second father.
“We pushed on to the Rhine and I started to get the feeling we might be getting to the end – youthful optimism, perhaps.
“Then, in May 1945, we were in a wood near Luneburg Heath in Germany. There were lots of vehicles moving around – and I now know that was because the Germans were surrendering. At about midday on the 8th, our
Sergeant Major came out and said: ‘That’s it, it’s all over.’
“We were told it was VE Day and were very pleased, obviously. But we didn’t have any booze to celebrate with so I just had a cup of tea. One of my mates was fed up and made a sign saying ‘VE Day and NO BEER’ and hung it on a tank.
“So I’ve promised myself I am going to have a bottle of beer on Friday to mark this 75th anniversary. I’m going to toast all the lads who never came home.“
Walter was demobbed in 1946, returning to join the police force. He married Vera and the couple had three children. He adds: “Before the coronavirus lockdown I was meant to be coming to London to lay a wreath on the Cenotaph. “But I’m hoping I’ll be able to do that on Remembrance Sunday in November instead.”
Walter today, at 96