Yorkshire's veterans poignant recollections of VE Day amid liberation and sorrow

Harrogate’s John Rushton had found himself on the Normandy beaches on D-Day almost by accident, after his name was put forward when a comrade fell ill.

The crossing to Sword Beach was worse than the guns, the now 95-year-old reflects, as the men sheltered from stormy seas under the shadow of a tank.

Only the good die young, he often says. The real heroes are those that didn’t come back.

“We’re not heroes,” he says. “The things we did might have been heroic, but it wasn’t because we had a choice. We had to get stuck in.

“There was a job to be done. I was just one of the fortunate ones to came back.”

Mr Rushton, laughing softly at the memories of his comrades’ capers, had been serving in India when Winston Churchill’s announcement came.

The significance of VE Day in 1945 had largely passed him by, he admits, and it was only later, when Japan surrendered, that he realised he was coming home.

“I was just relieved to come back in one piece,” he said.

In Harewood, north Leeds, Arek Hersh pauses to remember the things he has seen.

He was just 11 when war broke out in Poland, and blissfully naive to the horrors to come.

He would survive the concentration camps at Auschwitz, the ghettos surrounded by guns, and the infamous death marches that claimed the lives of so many.

Now aged 91, he recalls the final days of war, attempting to eat his shoes to stave off starvation on Russia’s infamous open-topped trains. Just two days later, Germany surrendered.

“It means a lot to me, VE Day,” he says. “I was liberated that day. I had a future afterwards, which I didn’t have before.”

Mr Hersh lost all of his family except for a sister and, when he speaks of the war, it is with a steady carefulness.

That makes the words he uses somehow starker, as he calmly talks of the beatings and the brutality, and the loss of so many.

“Nobody should ever forget,” he says. “It was barbaric. The world has never known a place like that before.”

Liberation

As news broke of Victory in Europe in 1945, Mr Hersh had sat and watched as the Russians danced around their tents to the tune of an accordion player.

“I was liberated, that day,” he says. “It was wonderful to see, it was a wonderful day for us.

“I still remember it so clearly.”

Today, Mr Hersh is in isolation. He spends time in the grounds of the estate nearby, and sits in his garden as reflects on VE Day.

“I will remember the difficult things we went through,” he says. “But we should remember VE Day as a wonderful day. We survived.”

Jack Mortimer, of north Leeds, is now 96. Having survived D-Day, behind the wheel of a jeep as he delivered supplies, he was stationed in Antwerp when news broke of Germany’s surrender.

He was just 21, and while his memories of that moment are hazy, he says, he can still remember the party they held.

“I can’t remember how we found out,” he said. “We didn’t hear Churchill’s speech at all.

“But one day we were at war and the next it’s peace.”

He recalls the “nice garden” of the large house where he was barracked with comrades, and the party they held to celebrate.

“One of my mates was a very good pianist and we had a piano that was from somewhere so we had a good sing-song,” he recalls.

As the nation marks VE Day, he said, he thinks of those lost in the Battle of Normandy.

“My thoughts will simply be back in Normandy – at the graves of all those who went in that,” he said. “I’m grateful to be alive, grateful to have survived and just so sorry that so many had to die.”

Normandy hero

Cyril Elliott is believed to be Sheffield’s oldest surviving Normandy hero, aged just 19 when war broke out.

He can vividly recall his first time on a ship, on his way to Sword Beach after D-Day, and the words of his commanding officer to “put his foot down” as they drew to shore.

He had been stationed in Hamburg just before news of Germany’s surrender broke, finding himself swiftly re-purposed to France.

Afterwards, as he drove into the streets of Lyon, a city whirling with celebrations, he began to understand why.

“The French were all chanting in the streets, ‘Le borsch finir’. The Germans had surrendered,” he said.

“We were as excited as they were. It was just a wonderful thing that happened.

“It seemed a miracle at the time. We couldn’t spend time celebrating, it was enough just to know it was finished.”

Mr Elliott will turn 100 on May 31, but says these memories are as sharp as ever in his mind.

“It doesn’t seem like 75 years, somehow,” he said. “The years keep going by. For the comrades that never made it back home. We’ve got to remember them.

“VE Day is something that keeps it alive.”

Neighbours tribute

Tributes to the nation’s veterans have been marked across the nation as communities honour those among them who served in the Second World War.

In Oatlands in Harrogate, Mr Rushton, known as Jack, waves from the window as his neighbours host a socially distanced street party to wish him well.

With the ribbons and the bunting, he says with a beaming smile, it was “hunky-dory” to see the celebrations.

“They’ve put on a good show,” he says. “I didn’t expect this, but word got out and here we are.

“They are the nicest of neighbours,” he adds. “I’ve had a lovely day.”

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