The Story of CYRIL ASKEW

...At best I might get a ‘blighty’ such as blowing my hand off. With it being an enemy trench they had the exact position and targeted us with artillery and mortar fire. Oddly, they kept missing us. The shelling was consistent but just as consistently they kept falling long with everything landing in a field about 50 yards behind us. We realised after a while there was a truck there attracting all the fire. I felt sorry for the boys there, but it certainly did us a favour.

Shortly after this we got a three day rest. I was in quite a state by then; I had my share of superficial wounds but more than anything I was worn out, malnourished and just completely spent. I was sent to the field hospital where the Doctor instructed for me to be sent back. I was taken back to the beach with all the wounded; we boarded one of the Dukw vehicles and were taken out to one of the small ships anchored offshore. There was a mechanism to strap stretchers onto the side for lifting wounded on board.

Once I landed back in Portsmouth I was sent up to Scotland where I was hospitalised for a several weeks. When I was discharged I made a point of visiting my brother, Dougie, who was in RAF Bomber Command at a base in Norfolk. When I arrived I was told he was out on a raid over Essen; it was the last sortie of his last tour. I stayed there a few days and spent some time with his crew and his squadron.

Then that was it... Dougie and I had come through it all. It was over."

Having served for 4 years prior to the war starting in 1939, Cyril landed in Normandy as a highly experienced soldier. In this respect he was quite different to many younger veterans who found their first experience of war on the Normandy beaches. Now 92, Cyril looks back on his years of service with hindsight...

"When I look back now, it was of course such a long time ago. I see our lads over in Afghanistan now and I realise that not much has changed. My family was always so fiercely proud of this country and so loyal. My father fought at Mons. Some of the military unfairness was hard to bear as it didn’t seem to be fair payback for our loyalty. I know it was wartime and we were all in it together, but some things could have been done better. It was a particularly long war for me – nearly ten years."