An Old Soldier Remembers- Original Writing

An Old Soldier Remembers- Original Writing

It’s the 6th of June 2004 and its exactly 60 years since I fought in

D-day I didn’t know at the time until I was reading a newspaper while

taking a break from playing bowls when I saw an article about it this

made me think about all the death and destruction but most of all how

lucky I was to be alive.

I remember that the only reason I joined the army was because it

thought it would be good and the fact that female friends and family

pressured me into it. I lied about my age to get in I was only 17 at

the time I think that the officer knew my real age but the British

army was so desperate for men to join that they just ignored that

fact. I remembered that I was trained as a sniper I was good at it as

well which was good because I thought I could survive longer. After I

was trained I was sent to the beaches of Normandy I was told all these

stories that no-one ever came back and machine guns that rips men’s

flesh like a hot knife through butter but I didn’t believe any of it

until I got there. I was in a big metal boat with long sides there was

about 15 men in there with me all I could hear was the sound of

bullets hitting the wet metal and the cries of the wounded. A man

threw up in front of me I felt like doing it myself but I tried to

hold it in.

“30 seconds” I heard the man who was steering the boat shout. The men

were silent until there was a loud crash which shook the boat suddenly

the boat started to tip all the men started to dive in to avoid the

gunfire. I remembered my training which was to take off my heavy pack

and to only take a gun and ammo I threw my equipment away and dived

under the water to try and avoid the machine gun fire.