A 90-year-old World War Two veteran popped in to a South Cheshire car dealer – to reveal he’d finally given up driving and taken up cycling!
Sgt Bernard Morgan, one of the last surviving war veterans from World War Two, has been a regular at Gateway Peugeot in Crewe.
Gateway general manager Alex Walker first met him in 2007 when Bernard was considering buying a car.
But after they chatted, Bernard finally decided it was time to hang up his driving gloves – and now cycles more than four miles a day.
The 90-year-old, originally from Longsight but now living in Crewe, was an RAF WW2 Codebreaker (Code & Cipher Operator).
He used a top-secret military machine, Type-X, to encrypt messages that told aircraft where they were needed for immediate action, before then sending coded messages back to Britain for urgent action.
The RAF’s air superiority after the landings was crucial, because it meant the Allied invasion could take place unchallenged by the German Luftwaffe Air Force.
He has kept all of his original hats, jackets, tablets, letters and even kept a day-to-day diary of his 5-year war adventure.
“I was a 20-year-old code and cipher operator in June 1944,” he said.
“The first three days after D-Day on June 6 we were on a ship moored a few hundred yards off Gold Beach.
“We couldn’t start operating our equipment because the Army hadn’t advanced quite as far as they’d wanted to.
“Our equipment was so highly sensitive we couldn’t risk it being captured by the enemy, otherwise everything on our unit would have to have been destroyed.
“Going ashore, I was very frightened because you’d heard and seen all the gunfire from the beaches overnight and you didn’t know what to expect.
“Everyone was frightened because you didn’t know what you were going into.”
He recalls how he was greeted by a sea of dead bodies and that image was a true shock to him.
“When I look back on it, I feel very satisfied with my contribution towards the war effort, but it was only a small effort and the greatest honour must be given to the pilots,” he added.
Alex Walker said: “Bernard is a true hero, who like so many others, fought long and hard for their country.”
Recent Comments