Lt Colin Ewart Angus, C Squadron Staffordshire Yeomanry, British Liberation Army (BLA) – (Photo attached – Colin after the war)
Letter to Colin’s brother David, 5 May 1945. This was discovered when sorting out my family’s letters and photographs from the war years.
My father Colin Angus was studying at Glasgow Vet college at start of the war. In Jan 1940 he left college and joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in Palestine. In 1942 he went through OCTU and joined the 10th Hussars, British North African Forces (BNAF). One of his letters from North Africa talks briefly of the regiment’s casualties during the final battles of the Tunisian campaign.
In June 1944 he crossed to Sicily joining the HQ Squadron, 10th Hussars, Central Mediterranean Forces (CMF). Early in 1945 he joined the Staffordshire Yeomanry, C Squadron, British Liberation Army (BLA) and later British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). From photographs we know my father was close to Belsen during its liberation and only briefly mentioned it in his letters saying that “…of these places, they beggar description, and you can believe the worst you hear”.
My father’s letter attached was written a few days before VE day. It mentions “one or two cracks at the Huns”, time getting rest & recreation, roads being “thronged with ex POW of all nationalities” and larger numbers “Bosch prisoners”, awaiting the armistice and looking forward to coming home, (his later letters tell us he was still in Hanover with BNAF in Feb 1946). Finally, he shares concerns about his father’s health.
After the war my father returned to Vet College and qualified as a veterinary surgeon and married my mum Jean Pears in 1953.
Though he never discussed his wartime experiences with the family after the war, he did keep in touch with his wartime friend and comrades, with whom he may have reminisced.
