A 98-year-old, D-Day veteran who volunteered because “you did your bit” has given “gratitude to god” for keeping him alive throughout the Second World War.
Ken Hay MBE was 14 when the war began but volunteered to fight upon turning 17.
On June 6, 1944, he was on a 30-mile route march around Sussex, by then aged 18, when he saw the planes heading to France.
Joining other D-Day survivors at the Union Jack Club in London for an event organised by charities Spirit of Normandy Trust and British Normandy Memorial ahead of the 80th anniversary of the landings, he said: “We thought we were going to be used for Home Service.”
Normandy POW feels ‘very lucky’ to be alive after D-Day battle with SS Panzer Division
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Ken Hay
PA
“But then we were put through some extra training running through flamethrowers and we knew we were scheduled for Normandy.”
Ken from Essex, who served in the British Army’s Fourth Dorset Regiment, landed on Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer on D-Day +5.
Carrying a rifle, the infantryman in the 43rd West Division’s job was to press forward into enemy lines. His older brother, Bill, had joined the same regiment telling their mum he’d keep Ken safe.
During a night patrol on July 6, his unit was given orders to investigate a self-propelled gun at Hill 112. However, the Germans ambushed and cut them off.
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Ken Hay said the battle lasted 3 hours
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Alec Penstone and Ken Hay
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The battle against the better-equipped 12th SS Panzer Division lasted for 3 hours.
“My brother was a corporal in the same platoon and he was out with me. He got back with 16 others, 5 of us got captured and 9 got killed,” said Ken.
In a poem for the 78th D-Day anniversary called ‘As I Look Back’, Ken wrote, “As battle raged, it seemed like hours, then died to eerie quiet. But single noise brought guns again, grenades joined in the riot.”
He was taken to Poland as a prisoner of war and put to work in a coal mine until advancing Soviets forced it to close in January 1945.
Along with hundreds of other prisoners, Ken was forced into a 1,000-mile Death March.
“We marched for three months through ice and snow,” he said.
“My leg was troubling me. I lay down in the snow and if it hadn’t been for two guys who fell back in the column and picked me up, I'd have just gone to sleep and frozen to death.”
The POWs were liberated on a Sunday afternoon in April 1944 and Ken was back in England for VE Day.
Ken married his late wife Doris in 1949.
Years later he received the Legion d'honneur, France's highest decoration, for his service in freeing the country from Nazi tyranny.
“You didn't join to get medals. You didn't join to kill or get killed. You did your bit.”
Ken, who’s an ambassador for the British Normandy Memorial and visits schools, is returning to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Ken Hay married his wife in 1949
GB News
It’s likely the last time many veterans of the campaign gather for a major anniversary.
“I know God’s going to call me soon,” he said.
“I’ve got a deep faith. I’m catholic. I believe he’s looking after me.”
“I don't know how much longer I’ve got but we’re in the queue. We’re at the front of the queue.”
With a tear in his eye, he says: “Then I’ll get to see my wife again”.