Cyril Booth will turn 100 years old on 24th June. He talks to the Yorkshire Post about his role in D Day, as an engineer.
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00:00 I was employed at Green's and I was still studying after leaving school at 16.
00:07 And of course when I got to 18 and a half I could have been reserved, but like so many others I thought I ought to be doing my part.
00:18 And so I volunteered to go in and we did some infantry training type, bit drill and so on to begin with.
00:27 And then they asked what I wanted to do and I said well I was a qualified mechanical engineer but I wanted to learn something, I'd like something electrical.
00:39 And luckily I got put into the signals and we had a Morse code test which I failed dismally, fortunately.
00:49 And eventually I got appointed as a trainee electrician, radio electrician, well all electrical stuff really.
01:00 And there was a two year course, a very thorough course, they even took us down to Pies in Cambridge to see the radios being built.
01:10 And eventually I got through, I had various trade tests which gave you a bit more salary as you went up.
01:19 We were allowed to get up to grade 2 which was next to the top, but you could only get grade 1 in wartime, as in peacetime when you had a three year course.
01:31 Anyway after that I was then transferred to the artillery, to this 20th anti-tank regiment.
01:40 I say anti-tank, either anti-tank or AK, I'm not sure which they're called precisely.
01:46 And that was part of the 11th Armoured Division.
01:50 And I stayed with them mainly up around Winsley doing trials and things, exercises and so on.
01:59 And then we moved down, when D-Day area time, just before D-Day, moved down to Salisbury and across to Kent.
02:08 And from there on the 4th of June we set off for Germany.
02:15 And as I say it was a peaceful journey, expecting to be torpedoed every minute, nothing happened.
02:22 We'd got command of the sea and the skies I think.
02:25 And when we landed on the beach there were a lot of fires and flashes and bangs and so on, but we didn't actually get any fire ourselves.
02:36 And it wasn't until we got settled in and the first thing we had was a creeping barrage.
02:46 And that's a bit frightening because you can feel the clashes getting nearer and nearer and nearer and then going past you and you think "Oh, still here."
02:55 Anyway, then after that it was a matter of, when I had to go up to the front at night, where the tanks were doing their repairs and so on.
03:09 And it brought it back to me one time, I went up, there were three forts, and we'd to be away by four in the morning, otherwise we probably wouldn't be there next day.
03:22 You know, you could see us travelling, I used to go in a three tonne lorry.
03:27 And this was a fault, a sort of, I forget what you call it, but it was a mis-fault, which is difficult to find because if it's in the fault there you can't find it.
03:44 Anyway, I managed to solve it just as they got a message saying "Would you go to Such-and-Such a map reference, camouflage up because German tanks were coming."
03:55 And I thought if it had got to go there without a radio, what would it have been like, you know, stuck out in the wild with tanks approaching and no warning of it.
04:06 And so it made me realise that it was a pretty important job as far as they were concerned.
04:16 And then I went through Germany after that, finished up at Schleswig-Holstein, and thought everything was okay, I'd look forward to retirement, coming out, and we'd to go to Burma.
04:31 And the war was still on at that time, and I thought "Crikey, we got through one and here we are having to go through another now."
04:38 Anyway, by the time we set off, the war had finished. And the funny thing there, well, funny, I mean, there were two plane loads of us went, the other one crashed, they were all killed, but because the war had finished, they got no medal.
04:56 Had the war been on, I'm not sure about that, but certainly if we'd landed in Burma, we'd have got medals just for being there. It's a bit silly, this medal situation.