"In the hot desert, while on guard, some of us drank the rusty water from the radiators of the Bren Gun carriers. I would lie on my back - mouth under the drain plug of the carrier!
"I didn’t get far before Jerry had me in range and dropped a few mortars all around me. I froze, as each bomb seem to get nearer. I could feel the heat off them as they exploded …".
"They were all court martialled and two or three were sentenced to be shot!".
Revealing highlights of letters Private Fred Zilken sent to comrade Wilf Shaw over a number of years after WWII.
Great, unpublished history!
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Full show notes at www.FightingThroughPodcast.co.uk.
Please note that photos below may or may not display depending on which listening platform you’re using.
Below: Fred Zilken proudly wears the 50th Infantry Division TT badge, denoting the catchment areas of the battalion, the Rivers Tyne, Tees and Humber in Yorkshire. Drawn Sicily 1943.
Below: Signal platoon outside Marston House 1941, WW2. Fred top right.
So, a pic of Fed exists after all!
A WW2 history podcast on Bill Cheall's war diary and memoirs.
78 German Submariner Part 1: Atlantic U-Boat, POW in Canada.
77 CBI Hump Pilot lost in China - The Seabees
76 Christmas at War 2021 WW2 History
75 Coffee with Ken Cooke D-Day veteran Part 2
74 Coffee with Ken Cooke D-Day veteran Part 1
73 Jack Stansfield British POW in WW2
72 More Seabees and family stories WWII
71 The Battalion Artist, US Seabees in the Pacific War
70 LCpl Jack Betley WWII comrade
69 German Boy Soldier Willi Langbein WW2
68 Leslie Cook 5 - Australian in Burma WWII
67 Leslie Cook 4 - Sand, Sangers and Home Sweet Home WW2
66 Leslie Cook 3 Aussie in New Guinea WW2
65 Leslie Cook Part 2 Greece PLUS The Great Escape!
64 Cpl Leslie Cook Part 1, Australian in Burma & New Guinea WW2
63 Jean Lindsay, Child of the Second World War
62 Churchill's Hellraisers by Damien Lewis PART 2 WW2 history
61 Churchill's Hellraisers preview - Damien Lewis, WWII History
60 Omaha PART 5 - D-Day WW2
59 Omaha PART 4 - D-Day WW2
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