Ivor Williams

My name is Ivor Williams.  I am eighty years old and I live in Llwynypia.  In 1945 I joined the army.  I served in Germany in 1946, 1947 and 1948.  I came home from Germany in January 1949.  During my time in Germany I wasn't interested too much in the political side of things.  I just carried out orders and performed different guard duties and training.  We were responsible for gaining the respect of the German people and making friends and keeping the peace, helping in the organisation of different displaced persons and handing over traitors to Intelligence.

We done intensive training at that time as it was the Cold War period and Berlin was divided into four sections: British, USA, France and Russia. When I left the Army, my battalion was posted from Düsseldorf to Berlin.  My younger brother Brian was called up into the Army and served in Berlin into the same platoon and served with the same mates that I had left in 1949.

I had great respect for my company commander who was a major at the time, who I later found out that he covered the retreat at Dunkirk and was taken prisoner of war, and that he had tried to escape on numerous occasions, and later became a colonel and was Wrexham Headquarters Barracks Commander.