About the contributor

My father served as a gunner with the Royal Horse Artillery throughout WW2. He saw action mainly in North Africa and then Sicily. He talked little of his time during the war but often corrected me on any misgivings I had. He taught me that not all German soldiers were 'animals', that most of them were the same as him, family men sent to do a job for their country. He told me an amazing story that sounded like it came right from a movie. A story in North Africa where his unit took German prisoners, during the night one of them, called Bruno, was showing my father his family photos and as the night drew on my father decided Bruno should make his way home and let him go. Shortly after this event my father was in fact captured, a german soldier offered him water...it was Bruno. Bruno told him to be more careful in future and sent him on his way. My father showed me a photograph Bruno sent him at the end of the war, he was in uniform and in German on the back was a brief letter saying he had survived and hoped my father had too. Behind the horros of war during WW2 we should not forget that humanity still broke through. I would love to hear from anyone with information on the Royal Horse Artillery in North Africa and Sicily as my father died before he deemed me old enough to learn more.