HE travelled the world, stared death in the face, took part in some of the biggest events in world history and has now decided to tell his story – at the age of 94.
Alfred Hodgson, from Cambuslang, has published his Second World War diaries presenting a first-hand account through the eyes of an ordinary naval officer.
No Passing Places recounts his role in many of the key events of the war, including D Day, the capture of Antwerp, and the North Atlantic merchant convoys carrying vital supplies from America.
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Mr Hodgson was sent to war in 1941, aged 18, and in the five years that followed he was under almost constant attack from German submarines and planes.
The pensioner has encouraged other veterans to tell their stories before their memories are lost forever.
“This is the only way you are going to get the real facts of what happened,” he said. “The news that reached the public at the time was filtered through the Ministry of Information, which was very much an edited version of what was happening. If it hadn’t been for the children talking to me I wouldn’t have bothered. I wrote a diary many years ago and my children asked me to pass it round so that they could read it, and one of my grandchildren edited it and pulled it together.”
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Mr Hodgson recalls his closet brush with death in Antwerp, when he was serving as a radio officer on an admiralty tug doing minesweeping, personnel transfers and towing.
“We got the full benefit of the guns, bombs, shells and anything they could throw at us at Antwerp,” he said. “Later in the war, I was serving on an admiralty vessel involved in the invasion of France and Germany when we were under constant air raids and gun fire.
“I also served in D Day. One of the problems during D Day was the lack of ports to dock the troops, so we were sent down there to set up a Mulberry Harbour, an artificial harbour to allow the troops to come in with the ammunition behind them.”
Looking back, Mr Hodgson considers himself lucky to have made it to 94.
“The thought that I might not have been here today to tell my story has crossed my mind many a time,” he said.
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