Looks a great read. "Close to where fierce tank battles raged only moments earlier, an Army chaplain crouches over the lifeless corpse of a British soldier and carefully stitches him into an impromptu body bag. During a lull in the fighting Captain Leslie Skinner holds a brief funeral ceremony over the soldier’s body, laid to rest by his comrades in a shallow grave dug into the soil of Normandy. The pictures below, taken by a war photographer at the front line, show some of the many poignant moments captured by Capt Skinner in a detailed diary he kept of his part in the invasion of Europe in June 1944. Now extensive sections of his powerful account are being published for the first time, as the centrepiece of the Imperial War Museum Duxford’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The diary, parts of which are being exclusively reproduced here, pays tribute to the hundreds of men from Capt Skinner’s Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry tank regiment who took part in the Normandy landings, and the bitter battle for northern France that followed. It is one of the most moving and intimate first-hand accounts to survive of the intense fighting that took place as the British Army, once it gained a foothold on the beaches, pushed back the German forces – ultimately all the way to Berlin. But the diary also throws light on the unsung bravery of non-combatants like its author; the regimental chaplains and medics who accompanied the men, armed only with their faith and devotion to humanity. Indeed, such is Cap Skinner’s care for the soldiers around him that he refuses to allow them to assist him in the grim task of collecting the bodies – and all too frequent ly the shattered body parts – of their fallen comrades from the battlefield. As the diary reveals, it is a task so gruesome that Capt Skinner is frequently rendered physically ill by it. On August 4, two months after the landings, he wrote: “On foot located brewed up tanks. Only ash and burnt metal in Birkett’s tank. Searched ash and found pelvic bones. At other tanks three bodies still inside. Unable to remove bodies after long struggle – nasty business – sick.” Two weeks later, in one of the diary’s most sobering entries – possibly recounting the very moments captured by the photographer – Capt Skinner writes: “Infantry dead and some Germans lying around. Horrible mess. Fearful job picking up bits and pieces and reassembling for identification and putting in blankets for burial.” Significantly, he adds: “No infantry to help. Squadron Leader offered to lend me some men to help. Refused. Less men who live and fight in tanks have to do with this side of things the better. My job. This was more than normally sick making. Really ill – vomiting.” Intriguingly the diary describes how German troops generally respected the last rites of their Allied enemies. Describing a funeral he conducted on September 2, 1944, Capt Skinner writes: “Bodies of Sgt Cribben and Trooper Sharp beautifully laid out in white shrouds having been washed. I stitched the bodies up. Cure [priest] in robes led funeral cortège down street. The Germans had watched the funeral procession and seen the service from their tank without interference.” An earlier passage from the diary conveys the sheer terror the thousands of British, American and Canadian soldiers who took part in D-Day must have felt as they hit the beaches on June 6, 1944. In his characteristically terse and understated style Capt Skinner, one of the first Padres to make it ashore, writes: “This is it. Running for beach by 0700. Under fire by 0710. Beached 0725. Man either side of me wounded. One lost leg.” Capt Skinner goes on: “I was blown backwards onto Bren Carrier but OK. Made it to beach, though I had hell of pain in left side. Bed on ground about 0130. Dead beat. Fell asleep beside half-track.” Capt Skinner, who donated his diary to the Imperial War Museum in 1991, ten years before his death at the age of 89, trained as a Methodist Minister in India. Although invalided home with deafness brought on from malaria in 1938, he volunteered to serve an armed forces chaplain shortly before the outbreak of war. In July 1941 Capt Skinner was attached to the 13th Corps of the 8th Army in Egypt, before the noise from the barrage of heavy guns brought back his loss of hearing, forcing him back to England for light duties. But within three years he was back on the front line as the Sherwood regiment waded ashore." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10865265/A-Padres-tale-How-an-Army-chaplains-diary-throws-new-light-on-the-anniversary-of-D-Day.html
Great story Gordon, thank you for posting. (I hope you don't mind but I've posted the link to the story on our sister site ww2talk-it will be of interest there) Lesley
