I’m not dead yet! Old soldier ‘killed in action’ celebrates turning 100
‘Drove until he was 97’
WHEN he went missing in action at the height of the Second World War, Tom Greenwood was presumed dead by his regiment.
His parents received a telegram to say the 23-year-old had been killed while fighting for his country in the North African desert, leaving them and his young fiancee heartbroken.
But reports of Private Greenwood’s death were, as they say, exaggerated – so much so, that this week he celebrated his 100th birthday, surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
And this time, more than 76 years on, there was a telegram – well, message of congratulations – from the Queen.
In June 1942, Mr Greenwood was serving in Libya as an engineer in the Scots Guards, attached to the 22nd Armoured Brigade of Infantry. His task was to sabotage the enemy’s supply lines and ports in the run-up to the Battle of El Alamein.
But his unit became trapped behind enemy lines and his parents William and Lily received a telegram at their home in Bingley, near Bradford, breaking the news that their only child was believed dead.
However, six weeks later they received a second telegram revealing he had survived and was being held as a prisoner of war.
Mr Greenwood had been captured by German troops and was enduring horrific conditions in the Italian-run Suani Ben Adem camp, near the port of Tripoli.
Over the next three years he had several brushes with death.
At one stage he contracted malaria and traded his pocket watch for a place in hospital to receive a lifesaving blood transfusion from a Canadian soldier.
He was moved from camp to camp, to Italy, Germany and then Austria, ending up at Stalag 18A – Markt Pongau – where in 1945 prisoners took over prior to its liberation by the US army. Mr Greenwood returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart Marjorie Hartley, who had always refused to believe he was dead.
He was discharged from the Army in 1946 and worked at the family garage, Greenwood Bros, running it from 1953 until its closure in 1980.
Marjorie died in 2000 and Mr Greenwood lives in a care home in Shipley, near Bradford, where he celebrated with his family last weekend.
His son Dave, 66, said: ‘Dad spoke very little about the war when he came home, unless prompted by a TV programme. I remember he told me he and his fellow prisoners were given the job of rebuilding a dam.
‘They would load cement into one side of a train then take it out of the other side and throw it over the dam, just to delay the project.
‘At the same time, they were being bombed by Allied aircraft who were trying to further destroy the dam and the river bridges. He also mentioned that, when in one of the camps, they were adjacent to a camp containing Russian prisoners who were treated far worse than British PoWs.’
Mr Greenwood’s daughter Sheila Donaldson, 64, said: ‘I did ask him the other day about the secret to his long life, and he said it was to “keep breathing”. He has smoked a pipe all his life. Until a few years ago he would keep himself fit by walking and cutting logs for his fire. He loved his cars and drove until he was 97.’