War veterans support our boys (From Stroud News and Journal)

War veterans support our boys

As the war in Iraq finished its third week, Ashley Loveridge asked two veterans of World War Two what they made of the conflict.

FOR 83-year-old Stroud war veteran Paul Winstone footage of the current war in Iraq is a painful reminder of his time in the second world war.

"It makes me quiet tearful," said Mr Winstone, from Bisley Road.

A former tank commander of the seventh army division of the Desert Rats, Mr Winstone fought alongside war hero Montgomery in the battle of Alamein.

Now more than 60 years on television images of tanks driving across the deserts sands take Mr Winstone back to his war days as a youthful 19-year-old with the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars.

"I have to walk out of the room when the news comes on," he said.

" There is nothing nice about war and to see it being reported on television brings back terrible memories for me.

I had nightmares after the war and would often shout and scream in my sleep."

Nonetheless, watching the modern day generation fighting fills Mr Winstone with pride.

"I have never doubted the quality of our troops, they are first class," he said.

"Our war was a very long one and I didn't see my family for five years," said Mr Winstone, " this should not be the case this time."

Mr Winstone was shot twice during the second world war. "Our tank was knocked out in the Middle East in 1938 with three of my men killed. I was shot in the leg and spent three months in a military hospital in Cairo."

Mr Winstone was then posted to Italy and spent a further three years fighting the Germans.

"A week before the hostilities ended I received a head wound. I a helmet on but quickly took it off as it was full of blood.

Then as I put the helmet down a bullet ricocheted off the helmet and caught me on the forehead. Luckily it was a glancing blow and I survived."

While opinion on the conflict is divided Mr Winstone has little time for the peace protesters that are seen daily in Stroud.

"The modern generation say they are anti-war but they have never seen circumstances like we did.

" If Hitler had been stopped earlier we wouldn't have had millions of Jews burnt and we wouldn't have had countries over run and this is the same situation with Saddam.

"I'm sad that France and Germany have not supported the war they should have compromised

"I'm anti-war but I'm not pro war," said Mr Winstone. "I am anti-dictatorships and Saddam needs to be stopped."

VETERAN war hero Adolf Kardynal was also backing our boys for victory.

The 79-year-old war veteran from Leonard Stanley told the SNJ that he is behind the troops 100 per cent.

"Iraq needs a democracy not a dictatorship and this is the aim of the troops.

"Now we are in Baghdad I would hope the war will end quickly. "I'm absolutely so proud of our troops," he said.

"Lives are lost but it is the job of the troops to defend our country.

The current war in Iraq brought memories flooding back of Mr Kardynal's own war story that began more than 60 years ago. Until 1940 Adolf lived happily in Poland.

"Life had become intolerable for us with the Communist regime," he said.

Adolf and his family were forced to leave their home by Russian soldiers.

"We were taken to Siberia and herded like cattle into open trucks."

Adolf joined the Polish army in 1941 and was taken to a British camp in Russia and given a British uniform.

"We were with the British eighth army travelling to Teheran in Persia.

Adolf then moved from Krasnovodsk to Baghdad, moving through Palestine, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and Egypt.

"We took part in the great fight for the monastery at Cassino which the Germans had fortified so strongly.

"We encountered stiff resistance and it was during the offensive that the enemy nearly wiped out our patrols," he said.

"Forty of us were sent out to fight and only eleven of us returned. On my return I was told my father had been killed during fighting around Monte Cassino."

"The Germans did what the Iraq army are doing now as they fought, delaying actions with mined bridges.

Despite being a Conservative voter, Adolf is backing the Labour party.

He said: "I strongly support Mr Blair on this issue."