I landed on D-Day with 130 comrades but a year later only 19 went home – my story must NEVER die with me
WHEN Richard Brock landed under fire on Gold Beach in Normandy on D-Day, his band of brothers was 130 strong.
Eleven months later, after they fought relentlessly across Europe — and World War Two was finally over — only 19 made it home.
Today, on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Richard, 100, says: “I’m the last of them left alive. Our story must never be allowed to die with me.”
That story begins on June 6, 1944, when D Company of the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment landed on Gold Beach during the biggest military invasion in history.
Through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, they fought in some of the war’s biggest battles — Normandy, Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge.
They fought in the final showdown with the Nazis near Hamburg as Germany finally surrendered on May 8, 1945.
Richard says of his 111 fallen comrades, now commemorated in military cemeteries: “I’m sad but very proud for the sacrifice they made for us all. They gave their lives for the peace we enjoy today.”
Father-of-three Richard, from Lancaster, adds: “We were the support troops in the second wave. The lads who went in first were all right because the Germans didn’t know what was happening. By the time we landed, they were throwing everything at us.
“I was driving a lorry full of ammunition. Later, a driver got injured so I had to take over a Bren gun carrier and drive it through Normandy. There were shells coming in everywhere. The Germans were trying to take our heads off.”
Later, D Company sent out a ten-man patrol to scout. They never came back. Richard says: “We came across those lads, all of them, lying dead.”
D Company did, though, take prisoners of war and, in one of their pockets, Richard found photos of Holocaust architect Heinrich Himmler.
He says: “There was also a photo of a woman. I asked who it was. He said his mother. I tore up her picture in front of his face. After, I felt sick. It had brought me down to his level. But you’re full of hatred.”
After taking the vital Hill 112 near Caen, at Falaise Gap, the Americans, Canadians and British surrounded the German 7th Army. Death and devastation stretched for miles.
Richard says: “The stench was atrocious — hundreds of bodies of German soldiers and horses littered the ground.”
By September 1944, D Company had reached Antwerp in Belgium. But during a 48-hour rest stop, Richard was nearly killed.
He says: “Four of us decided to watch Buffalo Bill at the Rex Cinema, which had been taken over by the military. But first, we went to a cafe. I was the last to leave when there was a terrific blast.
Cargo of whisky
“I was blown across the cafe and the ceiling came down. Pals pulled me out of the debris and took me to the first-aid station. I learnt later that a V2 rocket had hit the cinema and hundreds died, including a lot of our lads. It was never reported. I was very lucky. Going to the cafe had saved our lives.”
After eight days’ fighting, the British captured the Dutch city ’S-Hertogenbosch.
Richard says: “As we advanced, a German officer came up on horseback. We let him have it and the horse got killed, too.
“A few minutes later, people came out of their cellars with knives and cut up the horse. They were starving.”
Richard’s war took him to the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, where land forces joined Allied air troops to strike across the River Rhine into Germany.
The East Lancs’ first target was the bridge at Nijmegen, but they arrived late.
Germans had blown it up and captured hundreds of British airborne personnel.
So Richard’s convoy was sent instead to fight alongside the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium’s Ardennes region.
He says: “We drove from Holland and arrived on Christmas Eve. There was no Christmas dinner that year — only bully-beef sandwiches.”
After pushing the enemy back, D Company crossed into Germany and headed for Hamburg and the last battle of World War Two.
On the way, Richard saw the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a day after liberation.
He says: “That stench hit you. Hundreds were dead and dying. That sight will live with me for ever. I said to my co-driver, ‘Where is God to allow such suffering?’.”
Afterwards, the East Lancs advanced to their last engagement with the enemy, near Rothenburg.
Rumours swirled of a surrender and Richard saw the German High Command drive past with white flags flying.
Amid the rubble of Hamburg docks on VE Day, Richard found a cargo of John Haig whisky.
He says: “All the lads were gifted a bottle and it made their day.”
Despite VE Day, Richard was still armed and rounding up rogue fighters.
By the time his war was finally over, Richard, by then a 23-year-old sergeant, returned to Lancaster to marry sweetheart Patricia, who had moved from Birmingham to escape bombing.
Pat and master butcher Richard were happily married for over 75 years.
He says: “If it hadn’t been for Hitler, we’d never have met. Fate brought us together.”
He kept in touch with his 18 comrades who made it home, and they met monthly at Fulwood barracks in Preston, as one by one they died.
Richard, who on Thursday will light a beacon at Lancaster Castle to mark 80 years since VE Day, says: “War is no good to anybody, and I hope the latest generation of lads won’t have to go in again.”