FORCES fighting in World War Two knew the rules: Anyone who kept a diary risked being be jailed.
But now, at the age of 99½, ex-Royal Marine Tom Hill has finally decided to reveal his secret wartime journal.
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Father-of-two Tom showed The Sun the tiny booklet that he has kept hidden for 80 years.
It records the horrors and hilarity of war.
As the anniversary of VE Day — when war ended in Europe — approaches, Tom says: “I knew if I was caught with it I’d have ended up in jail.
“But I went to so many places and I knew if I didn’t write them all down I’d forget where I’d been.
“I kept it hidden with my medical kit in a front leg pocket. Thankfully, the medical kit wasn’t ever inspected so I got away with it.”
But what a tale the notebook, only slightly bigger than a credit card, has to tell.
It goes from the beaches of Normandy, where Tom spent 16 days under fire before his landing craft was sunk, to the Far East and Australia.
He was in the Panama Canal when VE Day was declared on May 8, 1945. His delighted last entry on May 30 says simply: “UK — Here I come!”
Despite working as a tool setter — a protected job that meant he would never have to fight — Tom volunteered to join the Royal Marines, the only regiment that would take 17-year-olds, and he became a landing craft Coxswain.
I went to so many places and knew if I didn’t write them down I’d forget. I hid the diary in my medical kit and thankfully I got away with it
Tom
At his home in Birmingham, he says: “I wanted to do my bit for my country, especially after witnessing Coventry Road being bombed and seeing first-hand how we were being targeted by the Germans.”
Here, he reflects on some of the entries from his first-hand account of history . . .
JUNE 1943: After six weeks training in Portsmouth, Tom travels to Scotland to join the former merchant ship Empire Battleaxe, which was home to 90 marines.
JUNE 4, 1944: Back in Portsmouth, Tom ferries troops out to the Battleaxe at anchor in the Solent.
He says: “We didn’t know of the plan for the D-Day landings in France.
“The first we knew of it was seeing troops playing with foreign money on board the ship. We hadn’t been told a thing!”
JUNE 6, 1944: After being held back 24 hours due to bad weather, Tom arrives off Normandy.
He was in the four-man crew of an LCA landing craft, navigating eight miles through choppy waters, taking 35 troops at a time across from the ship to Sword Beach.
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He says: “The sights we saw going back and forth were terrible, just awful, ships being sunk and injured troops in the water, but we had to keep going.
“Shells were going over our heads, troops were being shot at. By night all hell seemed to break loose and we were in the crossfire.
“Either side of us I could see LCAs with their doors blown off. The sergeant on another LCA signalled to me that he had one engine and couldn’t fire the other.
“He asked me to move around and take a look.
“I could see a body of one of our troops was wrapped round the propeller shaft rendering it unusable.”
For 16 days Tom and his crew ferried in hundreds of troops and supplies to the beaches before being used to deliver mail.
On one mail run they came across a ship where a shell had gone through a hatch, killing every soldier onboard.
Tom recalls: “There were two lads sharing a flagon of rum while they filled bags with body parts from down below.”
JUNE 22, 1944: On day 16, the landing craft is hit by a storm and sunk.
Tom says: “We abandoned ship and swam together to the nearest boat, which was an American tugboat.
“The captain told us they were returning to the USA and asked if we wanted to go with them.
If I drank one rum I must have had two or three pints of it. I’ve never ever been drunk since then. After grot time, where we spent time with pals, I was tied in my hammock from 11 o’clock until 4 o’clock. The lads thought it was hilarious
Tom
“While the idea of a new life far from the noise of D-Day was an attractive thought, we got aboard a British ship and were given five days survivor’s leave.”
He then rejoined HMS Battleaxe on an 11-month mission, attached to the American 7th Fleet, all over the Pacific, from Samoa to Sydney.
NOVEMBER 25, 1944: My 19th birthday, in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. A day I will never forget.
Tom says: “If I drank one rum I must have had two or three pints of it. I’ve never ever been drunk since then. After grot time, where we spent time with pals, I was tied in my hammock from 11 o’clock until 4 o’clock.
“The lads thought it was hilarious.”
Later, a prisoner of war became seriously ill and Tom had to ferry a doctor from an American ship to treat him.
He says: “I got alongside and shouted for them to throw a line down. I was greeted with the response, ‘Sorry pal, I haven’t got a pen or paper’.
“It made me really cross that I had to sit in the water for a long time waiting for a rope while we had a really sick POW.”
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MARCH 19, 1945: Sydney. Tom says: “Water was always in short supply so we’d strip off and shower in the rain. We had a detachment arrive of six nurses who were all on deck when it started raining.
“A Tannoy announcement reminded us there were females on board and not to strip off and shower.
“One of the nurses piped up, ‘Don’t worry, lads. We’ve seen it all before’.
MAY 8, 1945: Panama Canal. Tom says: “VE Day didn’t matter much to me. By then, D-Day and France felt like it was far away.
“But despite the end of it all in Europe, the campaign in the Pacific and Japan was still going on.”
MAY 30, 1945: New York. UK here we come.
Tom says: “We got back into Portsmouth and were given ten days leave. Our commanding officer told us to make the most of it as afterwards we would be heading back to the Philippines. I remember feeling like it was really unfair. We’d been everywhere.”
Eighty years later, retired school caretaker Tom carries survivor’s guilt that he made it home when he watched so many others perish.
On Thursday, Tom will be attending a Royal British Legion VE Day party with dozens of World War Two veterans at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffs.
He says: “I’m one of the lucky ones, I’m still here. What I saw on D-Day and in the Pacific will always stay with me.
“So many good men I served with didn’t get to see the world in peace.
“I think of them all often and will do so again on VE Day.”
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Lotto love at garden
WHEN a therapy garden wanted to build a new path for veterans in wheelchairs, a group of Lottery winners worth £115million stepped in to help.
Veterans’ Growth, near Battle, East Sussex, is a seven-acre site set up by injured Afghan and Iraq veteran Staff Sergeant Jason Stevens, 44.
Backed by National Lottery funding, it is a place where ex-servicemen and women can tend plants as therapy.
Jason planned the path in honour of VE Day 80 – and among those who offered to help were Neil Trotter, who won £108million on the Lottery in 2014.
He found the work relatively easy – as he now manages his own estate of 500 acres, which includes woods, lakes and wild flower meadows.
Sharon Hall, 58, of Havant, Hants, was a Royal Navy master-at-arms when she won £1million on a Bullion scratchcard in 2004.
She and husband John, 61, collected their cheque onboard HMS Victory.
Sharon spent the morning working in the potting shed, while John helped put hardcore on to the path.
Mum-of-two Sharon says: “Being a veteran, coming here means a huge amount.
“I’ve served with people who’ve been injured and have suffered PTSD.
“Some of them are floundering, so to come to somewhere like this where you can feel the peace around is so restful. I spent the morning in the potting shed and it’s just so therapeutic.
“It’s so nice to give something back and to know that people can come here and get some relief from the torment that they might be suffering.”