posted on 2024-06-05, 19:37authored byTheir Finest Hour Project Team
<p dir="ltr">The contributor stated that their father, Frank Willis, was conscripted in 1942 and sent to the Artillery Battery in Plymouth, guarding the channel. He was there until late 1943. Frank was then sent to Royal Ulster Rifles in Omagh, Northern Ireland. He was part of the Normandy landings, a few days after D Day. Frank went with them through France to Belgium and the Netherlands, and began to move into Germany. He took leave and came back to the UK at the time when the war was over in Europe. He was then sent to Palestine, part of the effort to calm the disruption. Frank was originally from Nottingham and had never left home before. He was demobbed in 1946. There was no rationing in NI which shocked him. The contributor's father didn't talk much about the war except Palestine, when the contributor was younger. When she was 8 or 9, the contributor realised he had been in the war. As the contributor's father got older, he spoke more about it, he visited where he had been stationed in the Netherlands and had clear memories of it. Frank went back to Normandy a lot. His wife was born in 1930 and was very young during the war. The wife's parents had a market garden which produced food, and they took in evacuees from Hull.</p>
1. Royal Artillery Cap badge
2. Frank Willis' beret
3. Frank Willis' Service Book
4. Letter - end of service letter from Royal Ulster Rifles
5. Photographs of Frank Willis' time in Palestine
6. Behaviour guide
7. Thanksgiving service booklet
8. Frank Willis' release papers
9. Frank Willis' campaign medals in box with paper
10. Battle dress sizes
11. Mess tin fork
12. Frank Willis general photographs
13. Army Reserve certificate
14. Reunion groups
15. Frank Willis Identity card
16. Guide book
17. Frank Willis payslip
Person the story/items relate to
Frank Willis
Person who shared the story/items
Anon
Relationship between the subject of the story and its contributor
He was her father
Type of submission
Shared at West Berkshire Museum, Newbury on 17 January 2024.