A veteran who served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment and was captured as a prisoner of war just weeks after D-Day was brought to tears as he remembered being reunited with his mother 10 months later.
Ken Hay was forced to march hundreds of miles and almost did not make it back home to England when he âlay down to dieâ as he fell during the three-month march, but his friends came back to help.
The 98-year-old went to Normandy on June 22, then was on night patrol on July 8 when he was captured and forced to work in coal mines in Poland.
Mr Hay, a recipient of the Legion d'Honneur and an MBE, will travel to France with the assistance of the Spirit of Normandy Trust to take part in commemorations for the 80th anniversary. (Image: PA)
Mr Hay said his first feelings after he was captured were âdreadâ and âfearâ.
âWe went out on night patrol, was supposed to be doing a blow up of a self propelled gun in no manâs land, but in fact, it was behind their lines,â Mr Hay said.
âSo they let us through and then very unfriendly, they sealed it and wouldnât let us back, so we had a battle.
âWe had 30 went out on our patrol, 16 including my brother, who was a corporal, got back, five of us got captured and then presumably nine got killed.â
They were then moved to Falaise, Alencon and Chartres and then at Chartres Mr Hay said they were put on the âwagonsâ where they stayed for six-and-a-half days.
He said: âWe were put in that, 40 men and a lidded dustbin for a toilet.
âAnd we started and we had that for six-and-a-half days and nights with very little food and of course, we all got dysentery trying to get water through the griddle.
âWe stopped out in the country each morning to empty the bin.
âIt was all very degrading. You had to do it in front of the other guys sitting there.â
Mr Hay was saved by his friends as they were forced to march hundreds of miles after being captured (Image: PA)
When they arrived in Aachen they were registered as prisoners of war, Mr Hay said, then after a week or so they were taken to Cieszyn in southern Poland.
From there they were moved to Zabrze where they worked in a coal mine.
Mr Hay stayed working in the coal mine until January, when on January 20 he said there were no miners in the coal mine because of the Russian advance.
He said they refused to operate the mine so were left down there for eight hours.
The next day, the same thing happened, the day after Mr Hay said he was told they were moving.
Mr Hay left the camp on January 23 and marched âall day and all nightâ.
File photo dated 06/06/23 of D-Day veteran Ken Hay who will visit a London school ahead of D-Day 80. (Image: PA)
âI say marched, we were slipping and sliding because it was very cold and ice and snow,â he said.
âWe did reach a camp with British prisoners in it, they made us tea because it was a sugar factory.
âBut we were only there for about an hour and then we moved on, and we never found another camp.
âWe marched, we had a rest day every five or six days.
âIt sounds ridiculous now, we marched from the 23rd January to the 20th April.â
Mr Hay explained how his friends helped him when he fell during the march.
âOn the march, I lay down to die actually, because if you fell down in the snow, you just went to sleep and froze to death,â he said.
âAnd I fell out because my leg was hurting too much.â
Two of his friends came back for him.
He said: âIf they hadnât, Iâd have just gone to sleep, and apparently you die,â he said. âSo they lifted me, arm around each shoulder.â
Mr Hay added: âWe went down through the bottom bit of Poland, into Czechoslovakia, up towards Dresden but just below Dresden.
âAll the signposts were up so you knew roughly, although we didnât know where the places were, but looking at the maps afterwards I traced it.
âWe went across, below Dresden and then down into Bavaria.
âOn the 20th April we heard gunfire from the west, didnât know whether it was Brits or Americans, turned out to be Americans, so we said we wouldnât march the next day because the war was finished.
âThe German officer wouldnât accept that but he said weâll have a rest day and weâll march tomorrow, but of course that night the guns were that much nearer we could hear rifle fire machine guns and so on and he accepted that the war finished.
âAnd we waited, and then on 22nd of April which was a Sunday, two American tanks turned up and took our guards prisoner and we were technically released.â
Mr Hay was flown to Reims in northern France and while there had his first shower in three months.
He said they were then dressed in American uniforms as theirs was burned due to it being lice-ridden.
Mr Hay was flown to Dunsfold on May 4 1945, given British uniforms, then two days later took a train and a bus home to Barking, east London.
âGetting the telegram, my mother told everybody, just everybody, that Kenny was coming home and even including, we donât have them now but we had a milkman,â he said.
Mr Hay became emotional as he recalled seeing his âlittle fat mumâ coming towards him from his house.
He said: âAs I turned the corner of the bus, I could see somebody at my house coming down, thereâs a little council estate, and he looked, and my mum had told everybody that Kenny was coming home, including the milkman, and so he turned around and went back, knocked on the door.
âAnd one of my sisters came to the door, âis this your brother coming home?â and she (said) âyeah, itâs Kenâ and my whole family, including my little fat mum, came running.
âThey came running down the road to greet me.
âThey were having breakfast, Iâd had breakfast with the army, so I just had a cup of tea with them and we all went off to mass.
âIâm a Catholic, and we all went off to mass and I was home in time for VE Day on the 8th of May.â
Mr Hay, who now lives in Upminster, said he gives talks to schools as he believes it is his âduty to pass it onâ.
He said he answers questions from the students, adding: âHow old were you? Were you frightened?
âThereâs the bloodthirsty little sods who say how many Germans did you kill? And you say âwe never ask that question and we never answer itâ, I mean Prince Harry does, but we wonât go into that.â
The veteran plans to travel to Normandy for the 80th anniversary.
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