Married to the girl he wouldn’t see for a year

Mr Burr stayed with the Allied advance across Europe until it was temporarily halted at Arnhem – the “bridge too far”.

He said: “We went up to Lille and eventually to Arnhem. That was 1944 and I had my 21st birthday in Eindhoven.

“We were stuck there and saw hundreds of planes come over during the Battle of Arnhem.

“Some landed more than 20 vehicle was waterproof up to a point, but as soon as I got on the beach I kept revving hard to dry the engine.

“We were carrying vital operations kit – radios and phones. I had six tons of radio batteries, a charging machine and 18 cans of petrol clipped on the side of vehicle.

“I could not afford for the truck to break down.

“We were going up the beach miles off target and others were coming down on fire.

“We couldn’t get through, so we were withdrawn. It was a disaster.

“It was so cold in Holland, even the anti-freeze was freezing. The officers had us getting up all night, every two hours, to start up the vehicles to keep them going.

“I did get occasionally get and the military police were shouting ‘Come on, come on!’, but as soon as I got on the road I found I had no brakes and had to keep pumping them. I did a bit of speed and burned off the water. We drove about five miles into France and we could constantly hear fighting.

“We were the support division made up of three brigades. We each had a radio vehicle, an ambulance leave, but it took me 24 hours to get to the coast. I got married during the war to my girlfriend Audrey and then I didn’t see her for a year.

“Audrey was in the War Office and when I came home we went to the shops, a show and restaurants and just spent our money because we never knew when we would see each other again.” and supplies and we had to keep feeding the radios with batteries. It was constant.

“We had to lay phone lines to support the troops on every attack, but each time there was fighting they got torn up.

“There was a lot of hanging around and sitting in the truck. It was hard, waiting and waiting with rough stuff going on all around.

“One of the radio ops couldn’t stand the constant noise and tension. He took his own life.

“I saw some terrible things, especially when we got away from Caen. It was blown to bits. Every church had a sniper, so they always blew that off first.

“One soldier jumped in front of a truck, another caught the trigger of his sten gun by mistake. There were plenty of ways to die without fighting.”