Introduction

For years grandad carefully ducked out of answering the inevitable question, "What did you do during the war?", not wanting to 'go over old ground'. Recently though, the subject came up, and now that he's got a computer and seen what all this fuss about the internet really is, I e-mailed and asked if he'd like to put his war story on the web.

Much to my surprise, he said yes, and over the course of three months, grandad wrote each part and dug up all the old photos taken at the time. I then compiled this dossier, occasionally asking for more detail, into the web page you see before you. My dad acted as courier and spell checker.

Grandad's Army days take him from the deserts of Egypt and hills of Palestine, through the snow of Norway, and into the liberation of Europe from the Nazi's, commencing with the bloody battles culminating at Falaise, Normandy. Pushing through to Brussels then north across what became known as Joe's Bridge, to finally cross into Germany. Before demob he had a hand in rebuilding Denmark's army. He said that while writing this, it dragged up memories of fallen friends and comrades.

A lot of the photographs here are from grandads own collection, some are from books about the Irish Guards, and I have gleaned others from various places on the internet. Where possible I have credited the pictures in the appendix.

All the images can be clicked on to produce a larger size, some of them also use Flash, to allow you to zoom in and see more detail. These are the group pictures taken by the regiment's photographers, you can see them in the galleries.

Sadly, Grandad died peacefully in his sleep 14th March 2017 aged 98.

K. McAuley – September 2005