Peter Davies was a wireless operator in the 27th Armoured Brigade. He was born in Monmouth in South Wales, and moved as a boy to Hereford where he attended the Lord Scudamore School. He joined the RAF as a wireless operator, and trained in Blackpool where he lived in a seaside boarding houses for 6 months. In 1942 he switched to the Army and joined the 27th Armoured Brigade, an assault brigade tank division. He arrived in France as part of the D-Day landings and saw action around Caen and Falaise, then moved through northern France and into Belgium and Holland. He then took part in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes in December 1944. He then went into Germany and back into Holland to deliver food to starving Dutch people. The Germans there surrendered, followed a few days later by the rest of Germans. He then stayed on in Germany, working to transport displaced people home across Europe. After the war he was made an Honorary Life Member and a Vice President of the Normandy Veterans Association, and President of his local Royal British Legion Branch.

In these extracts from his interview Peter describes his experience training in Blackpool, how he nearly celebrated Christmas, having a close shave with some baked beans, how he was lucky, and also his experiences towards the end of the war in Holland, and later moving refugees across Europe.

Peter Davies

Training in Liverpool

Christmas during combat

Surviving an attack

Taking food to Dutch people

Exploding baked beans

Moving refugees