The Ride

As my Dad leant unsteadily on his crutches, in a cornfield in Touffreville, Normandy telling his young grandchildren the enthralling story of his nocturnal arrival into France 75 years ago to that day, and as they gazed up, mesmerised and focused on every word as his tale unfolded from D-Day to his POW train journey, I decided at that point that I NEED to make this trip.

How better can a story be told than to retrace it, step by step.

And so it began, my quizzing and investigation of my Dads journey from his training, to D-Day, his exploits, to his capture and eventually his freedom.

I spent hours on the phone and visiting Dad, probing his 97 year old brain of a 75 + year old memory. It was amazing, some things he had no recollection of or admitted his confusion, but other details were as crystal clear and his eyes would shine as he reminisced and recalled his adventures.

I was so looking forward to speaking to Dad every night and ‘Face-timing’ him with updates and photos and visiting all the places we talked about, but in 2021 the travel restrictions in both France and Germany put pay to my trip.

Dad, who had battled ill health for the last few years, took a turn for the worst and on 28th August 2021 he peacefully passed away at home.

I really am gutted that this journey has now changed from a celebration WITH my Dad to a tribute to him, but in one way that makes it more important that I complete it.

I could easily have driven this route, stopping off in fine hotels at major cities en-route, doing it the easy way ….. but what would be the point of that … or where would be the fun, the adventure.

I wanted to make this not just a challenge but also arduous to reflect the pain my Dad and others suffered. OK, Ive decided to make it slightly easier with AirBnB stop overs each night instead of camping or bivvying, but I reckon an average of 90 miles a day for 21 days without a break will definitely be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

The basic route starts of from the end of the old runway at RAF Harwell in Berkshire (now a Business Science Park although part of the runway is still there with a memorial) to the fields around Touffreville in Normandy where he was ‘dropped’ and eventual captured, to the Hospital and POW camp in Rennes and then following the POW train route to Stalag IVB in northern Germany.

You will see from the route map that this is not a direct route from Normandy to Stalag IVB, but Dad was taken south at first to a Hospital in Rennes where he was then held POW until boarded on a train to Stalag IVB.

The route itself has never been documented, but with the help of my Dads memory and help from Jo Shipley, an American Historian whose Uncle was a captured B17 Gunner who was taken on a different but similar train from Rennes, I have managed to ‘Join the dots’ to the best of my ability to retrace the route as accurately as possible with the information that I have, but firstly you need to remember, the only ‘windows’ on these ‘Box Cars’ were about 7 foot high up and the POWs could not see out of them unless they climbed up or the Train stopped and the doors were opened.

The other difficulties in ascertaining the exact route was that many bridges and railway lines were destroyed by the allies which meant that often the Train couldn’t take the ‘obvious’ route or the train would have to retrace its own steps to find another line when the way was barred.

Another factor was most of the movements were made during the evening so regardless , as a POW, it would be hard to know where you were.

In my planning, I am generally trying to shadow the rail route on the nearby roads, but also some of the original railway lines are either not there anymore or are disused or been upgraded to faster straighter lines.

All this means that in some parts of the journey, I will be on the exact same place the train travelled, but in others and with trying to fit to the timeline of the memory of a 97 year old, it could be that I am a hundred miles away …. But that is not the point …. The point is, I’m doing this for my Dad and I’ve tried to ‘join the dots’ as closely as possible but linking up the key points that are without doubt correct.

On the first day in Normandy I will not only be visiting historical sites to D-DAY, but sites that are relevant to Dads specific movements and on top of visiting Memorials and the Grave of Dad’s friend Paddy O’Sullivan, I will also be visiting the Pegasus Bridge Museun where I will be presenting my Dads War Medals and also a carved wooden Parachute Regiment Emblem which the whole family bought for Dad for his 97th Birthday.