I watched the VE Day celebrations on TV with thoughts, and a little tear, for my dad. Like so many men of his age, Dad rarely spoke of his time in World War Two.
But in a way he didn’t need to because we knew his emotions ran deep. Dad, Lance Bombardier William Henry Till, was a prisoner of war in Italy for 18 months until he escaped by running over the Alps, where he spent months in a Swiss hospital.
He weighed 4st 10lbs when he first arrived. We never had a Christmas dinner without Dad being in tears and having to leave the room.
He was one of 10 men who escaped, and he ran back to save one, a Dutch man, because his foot got stuck in a fence. Only he and a Polish man survived.