This year marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War. But it will also see the 70th anniversary of the Second World War’s Battle of Arnhem. STEPHEN LEWIS reports on the remarkable story of a young paratrooper from Wheldrake who fought at Arnhem and survived.

A FEW weeks ago, on the Yesterday Once More pages of this newspaper, we carried a poignant piece about Arnhem survivor Fred Pettinger.

For almost 70 years, Fred never spoke about his wartime experiences – until, on his 90th birthday, he stood up and told family and friends the moving story of the young Dutchwoman who, in 1944, fished him out of the waters of the Rhine, and whose name he never forgot.

Now reader Ron Wild has contacted The Press with another remarkable story about an Arnhem survivor – Ron’s friend Jack Barker.

Jack sadly passed away in 2009, at the age of 87. He is buried in the churchyard at Wheldrake, where he lived almost all his life.

Like Fred Pettinger, Jack – a farm labourer turned warehouseman for the old Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – was always reluctant to talk about his wartime experiences.

“We used to have a regular game of cards, and I’d try to pump him,” say Ron, himself a retired Selby District Council employee who now divides his time between Barlby and New Zealand. “But he was always very reluctant to talk.”

Nevertheless, from the little Jack did say, Ron managed to piece together enough information to write an account of Jack’s war.

It is the tale of a young apprentice plumber from Wheldrake who, after joining the army at the age of 20, volunteered for the Parachute Regiment.

On his first operational jump, he found himself parachuting into Arnhem. After a battle to hold the bridge, he was captured, lined up against a wall with other British soldiers, and almost shot.

He then spent the rest of the war as a POW at Stalag 12 in Germany. Often the only food he had to eat was stewed turnip – and he resorted to tying pieces of wood to his feet to use as shoes because his boots had been taken. By the time he and other prisoners were rescued by American troops in 1945, Jack had contracted TB, and weighed six stone.

He was so unwell that, while being treated at a convalescent hospital in York, he lost an eye. But he recovered, married sweetheart Sylvia Nappy, and the couple had a son, Tim.

Jack became a farm labourer, Ron says, because he was told by medics that he needed plenty of fresh air to counter the effects of TB.

Jack’s wife Sylvia also died fairly recently, although he is survived by his son, and by a sister.

As a memorial to his friend, Ron has agreed to let The Press carry the account he wrote of Jack’s wartime experiences, pieced together following their chats over cards.

 

Jack was born in 1922 and went to school in Wheldrake. When he left school at 14 he joined Escrick Park Estate as an apprentice plumber and then decided to join the forestry until he was aged twenty when he joined the army.

After basic training, Jack was stationed on the Isle of Wight in the Medical Corps but soon after he was given another job replacing broken glass in the windows after a German bombing raid. He reckoned he had a job there for life.

His friend noticed they were wanting volunteers for the Parachute Regiment. They thought it might be a good idea so they could get back to the mainland and see their families. They joined the Paras and had to do eight training jumps before deciding if it was for them or not. His friend who suggested joining dropped out but Jack stayed in.

His first operational jump was parachuting into Arnhem. At first he said it was like walking through York at night-time, but then the Germans came and all hell broke loose. They managed to hold the bridge from September 17 until September 26, 1944, but eventually, outnumbered, the Germans overran them.

Jack and a few more men hid in a house, where they could see the Germans going by. All of a sudden one of the men lost the plot and let loose with his gun at the Germans, who then brought up a Tiger tank and blasted the house. Jack and his friends hid in the cellar. The next thing they knew a German officer threw open the trapdoor and ordered everyone out.

Jack was the last one out and as he came out a German solider hit him with the butt of his gun behind the head. They stood them all up against a wall and the soldier next to Jack was shot and killed. I remember Jack saying if it had not been for the German officer they would have shot them all.

The rounded up most of the Paras and took them back towards Germany by means of marching or by cattle train. The only problem was that when they travelled by cattle train, the RAF used to strafe the train, thinking it was full of ammunition, and some soldiers were killed or injured that way.

They eventually ended up at Stalag 12 where rations were very poor. The only thing they had to eat was stewed turnip in a 40-gallon drum, and if you didn’t time it right you ended up with just water or nothing.

Their boots were taken from them so they had nothing on their feet. What they used to do was cut pieces of wood and tie them on to their feet. They were made to go out and dig tree roots so the Germans could keep their fires burning. The prisoners, meanwhile, had no means of heat, and with snow and ice on the ground, life became very difficult.

One day while going out to dig up tree roots, one prisoner broke ranks to get a sugar beet top to eat and was shot and killed. Towards the end Jack was so weak he had to crawl out of the hut for roll call on a morning.

Adjoining the camp was the SS Headquarters but they had painted a big Red Cross on the top of it so the RAF would think it was a hospital and wouldn’t attack it.

When Jack joined the army in 1942 he weighed 13 stone; when the Americans freed him in 1945 he weighed only six stone. When he got back to England he spent a long time in Leeds hospital and then was transferred to Fairfield convalescence hospital in York where he ended up losing an eye.

Jack never accepted any medals for what he had been through. After the war they made a film called A Bridge Too Far (code name operation Market Garden). Anybody who served and fought in Arnhem was allowed to go into the pictures for free, but Jack would never go to see the film.

I spent a long time with Jack as a friend trying to find out more information about what had happened at Stalag 12 but he would very seldom talk about it. I offered him a tape recorder and some blank tapes but he said he could not do it – it was just too painful. Jack died in 2009 and is buried in Whel-drake churchyard.

RIP Jack.