Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind (57 page)

Finally able to meet up with other men who had shared his experiences – men who would understand why he had stayed silent for so many years – Bill Holmes knew he had to return to the town where he had been captured. From the view of the town’s skyline, no longer swirling with flames, to the mournful sounds of the brass band playing ‘Abide with Me’, every moment was drenched in emotion. Yet while he remembered the five years he had lost after he was marched away from the beaches into captivity, a visit to the cemetery helped to put everything into perspective: ‘When I was back in Dunkirk for the sixtieth anniversary, I looked at all the graves of the soldiers who’d died there. A whole generation of men had been wiped out.’ Bill Holmes realized he was one of the lucky ones: he may have been left behind at Dunkirk, but those men had stayed behind for ever.

Formerly an apprentice toolmaker, Les Allan returned home to Slough with six months of his apprenticeship remaining. On completing his training, Allan realized he could not continue with the work since the damage sustained to his feet and ankles during the long march out of Poland meant he was unable to stand for long periods. As a result he established his own engineering and engraving firm where he worked until retirement. Initially Allan was reluctant to talk about his wartime experiences and even failed to reveal to his future wife Doris that he had been a prisoner of war. Instead he told her he had spent the war in North Africa. Eventually he began to open up about his experiences, revealing the truth that he had concealed for so long. Finally happy that he had comes to terms with the past, Allan established the National Ex-Prisoner of War Association in the late 1970s. This allows former POWs to come together to discuss their experiences, with Allan and his fellow members continuing to promote a greater understanding and awareness of the sufferings of POWs.

Gordon ‘Nobby’ Barber (on the right of the left-hand picture above) returned home from the war in such poor health that his mother failed to recognize him when she visited him in hospital. He later discovered that she had spent much of the back pay he had hoped to use to settle down post-war. Barber later went to work as a bus driver on the routes around south-east London. He remains a close friend of Ken Willats whose life he saved during the long march out of Poland in 1945.

Norman Barnett was one of the first of the POWs to return to the UK, coming home in the first repatriation scheme in late 1943. Although no longer allowed to serve overseas, he remained in the army throughout the war. He returned to live in Croydon where he settled down to marry his pre-war girlfriend and raise a family. He continues to attend reunions of the surviving members of 133 Field Ambulance and still has the collection of photographs he smuggled home from Germany hidden inside his accordion.

Fred Coster returned home to find the East End of London very different to the area he had known when he was growing up. Determined to break free of the poverty of his youth, he returned to the City of London to work as a stockbroker. He later went to work for the
Sunday Times
newspaper. Following retirement he took up part-time employment as a lunchtime assistant at the school where his daughter is head teacher. He retired from the school in 2007, having enjoyed the opportunity to encourage children to profit from education in the same way that he had.

Fred Gilbert was training to be a commercial artist when he was called up in 1939. Following his return home, now minus the fingertip he had lost in a POW camp accident, he completed his training. He then worked as a commercial artist, eventually building up a successful business in the East Midlands. Fred passed away in early 2007.

Fred Goddard had worked in a number of jobs before the war, including as a shop-boy, a cinema projectionist, a shoe repairer, a stable-yard hand and as an assistant to a surveyor. He joined the army to escape a miserable family life that had blighted his youth. After serving in France in 1940, and successfully escaping to England, he returned to his regiment and saw service in North Africa. In 1941 he was badly wounded in the leg and captured by the Italians. He received minimal treatment for his wounds – an Australian doctor used a penknife heated over a cigarette lighter to remove a bullet from his leg. Eventually Goddard was transferred to a POW camp in Italy from where he was eventually repatriated to England in 1943, since his leg wounds meant he was no longer fit for service. Goddard then faced long battles with the British authorities to receive the correct disablement pension. Post-war he trained as a plumber and set up his own business, which his son still runs as a family firm.

Bill Holmes returned home from Germany to the same East Sussex village that he had lived in as a child. He also returned to his job on his father’s small farm until, realizing that there were greater opportunities elsewhere, he took up employment raising plants for a local firm. Following the loss of both parents and his brother in the years immediately following the war, he moved into the family cottage. He and his wife remain there to this day.

David Mowatt, born and raised in the Highlands of Scotland, never returned to live in his native land. Uncomfortable in company and finding it difficult to adjust to life after five years of captivity, Mowatt ‘signed on’ as a regular soldier and remained in the army for a number of years. Eventually he found himself in Hertfordshire, working in a camp for officers who were being discharged from the army. There he met a local girl and he settled down, remaining in the area after leaving the army. Despite never returning to live in Scotland, he retains close links with his regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, returning each year to attend reunions.