THE Second World War diaries of one of the first pupils of Pershore High School have been presented to the school by his relatives.

Harold Haines, who lived in Station Road, Pershore and died earlier this year at the age of 95, was an army engineer during the war and sent to Normandy shortly after the D Day Landings in 1944 to work on repairing tanks and guns and other equipment.

His memories and medals have now been given to Pershore High by his son and daughter in law Brian and Christine Haines, who live in Lower Moor, and Mr Haines' sister Janet Jackson, again of Lower Moor who was also a former Pershore student.

Clive Corbett, the school's headmaster, said: "Harold Haines served his country in Europe during the Second World War, being one of the first to land in Normandy in the weeks after D Day. To mark the school’s 80th anniversary he was guest of honour at our Presentation Evening in June 2012. Harold will be sadly missed and we are delighted to display his war medals in lasting recognition of his contribution to our community."

Harold Haines joined the school in 1932 and the army in 1941 at Pembroke Dock in Wales. His diaries record that for initial drill training, the recruits were issued with broomsticks rather than rifles. "Rifles were provided for range firing, but not enough to go round at that time for rifle drill," he wrote. He was initially posed to the Ordnance Corps and then the Guards Armoured Division. In workshops in tents at Warminster on the edge of Salisbury Plain, he worked on Covenanter and Crusader tanks as well as a range of military vehicles.

The diaries continue: "In May 1944 my son Brian was born. Because we were then in Kent in a security zone, the army would not give me any leave, so I did not see him until I came back to England. The invasion of Normandy started and after about two weeks we boarded a landing craft as Gosport. I was driving a three ton Leyland machinery lorry, towing a diesel generator trailer. I remember we left Gosport and moved out to sea, and the weather was wet and the sea a bit rough. We stopped about two miles out of Gosport and waited until almost dark then moved off. When we sighted Normandy the air was full of explosive lights and fireworks.

"Our instructions were to drive off the craft, second gear, foot down, no clutch change, and keep moving, following a definite colour route arrows. (blue I think it was). We did this OK in about 30 feet of water, which came round your feet, but the sealing all worked OK. We drove what to me seemed several miles, and eventually finished in a field with a high hedge. We camouflaged the vehicles and prepared for whatever would happen. The damage to the houses and villages was awful, and the smell of dead cows and horses was awful as well.

"Early days were very hectic. Reveille 6am, work 6.30 – 8.00, thirty minutes for breakfast, then we worked sometimes till dark. Our remit was vehicles and tank repairs completed and ready for action in 24 hours, otherwise they would be left for the main division workshop. Broken tracks of tanks, replace generators, belts, batteries etc. were our main jobs, and radio repairs. Some tin bashing too, crude but effective.

"We lived on hard tack rations and after about three weeks we had a mobile shower van visit us. The biscuits were very hard, soaking in hot tea made no difference. The best item was the treacle pudding in a little tin. I think the worst part was not knowing what was going on, we were all nervy and we had to keep moving about from place to place at very short notice. We all looked forward to getting letters from home, and if you were left out it was very disappointing. Writing home was not easy, because we know our officers had to censor our letters, although this became a way of making (them) aware of our gripes and problems. Once or twice I was warned that I could not write so and so.

"Last year on TV and radio, people were recalling their experiences and memories in great detail. For myself, it seems almost a distant memory. It seemed all work and long days. Once the battle in France, Caen through the Falaise Gap was resolved, we seemed to go through Belgium into Holland quite quickly. I remember driving through Brussels, which had only recently been freed, and the civilian welcome. In Belgium it had been snowing and in a coal mining area the snow had been blackened by coal dust.

"The Guards Armoured Division carried on beyond Nijmegen in Holland and we became static. The River Maas came between us and the Germans, and a period of stalemate began. We tried to have a Christmas celebration. I don’t remember it really, although we did get a rum ration. Only time I have drunk rum. Unfortunately I then had a back injury, I was flown from Nijmegen to Brussels, Brussels home to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, then Ronkswood, Worcester. I was medically discharged in May 1945."

After the war Mr Haines continued in the engineering industry, joining what eventually became WH Allen in Pershore and finishing as works manager of one of its divisions.

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