yril J Clifford, my father, was born in February 1910 in LLaneshen, Wales and enlisted in South Wales Borderers, the same regiment his father served in during WWI, in 1927, serving 7 years, including time in Hong Kong. Then, as was normal, he was placed in the reserves. In September 1939 he was called back to active service in the same regiment. In 1940 he was part of the British Expeditionary sent to France, to face the German advance. Sadly the allied forces could not prevent the fall of France and had to retreat and try to save as many men as possible. His unit was still in France after the evacuation from Dunkirk and only about a quarter of them made it back to England. In 1941 Dad transferred to The Royal Engineers, as requested by his mother, to look after his half-brother, who had enlisted in that regiment. He and his brother Leonard G Jones were part of what became known as The Desert Rats, fighting in Africa and winning the first victory in battle at El Alamein which took place in October to November 1942 and that was where they first turned the tide and began to defeat the German and Italian armies. In 1943 the allies invaded Sicily, in Operation Husky and once they succeeded to force the Germans and Italians off the island, and securing that success, they embarked for Italy but then many troops were withdrawn back to Sicily, to regroup there, leaving other allied troops fighting their way up the eastern coast of Italy. In early 1944 the troops were embarking for Italy once more. After bitter fighting they had to go by sea to Anzio, further up the western coast. The landings there were difficult and the allies faced huge obstacles while fighting their way north through Italy, facing some of the fiercest fighting in the European Theatre, during a harsh winter and on into spring. Eventually the Italians surrendered and then the Germans were slowly pushed back, with great losses sustained by all the allied forces. As the Germans were forced to retreat back into Germany, allied troops found the concentration camps and the horrific slaughter that had taken place in them. Dad was there when they got to Belsen and the sights and sounds and smells, haunted him for the rest of his life.