now on bbc news first hand accounts from veterans of the second world war in episode one of we were there. you were shot at, shelled, bombed, mortared. ..and yelled, let the bombs go from the aircraft . how many young people did we actually kill? we looked to the aircraft and the whole of the back of it had been shredded with shell splinters. if the sergeant says, jump, you said, how high? we just did whatever we were told to do. i in the sand, the only way to survive seemed to be try and get shelter of some kind. because of the 12 of us, only eight of us had come back. four of our crews had gone, including one crew who were on their very first trip. it was a sunday. i was in church with my mother and father. and i remember hearing the bishop getting up in the pulpit before his sermon and saying, we re now at war with germany and i thought, how exciting! gosh, an adventure! and little did i know what was in store for me. 0ur division was putting told to captur
of women and children. a group of african leaders are currently in russia for a crucial meeting with president putin. this comes after their visit to ukraine as part of a peace mission aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict between the two nations. now on bbc news. first hand accounts from veterans of the second world war in episode one of we were there . you were shot at, shelled, bombed, mortared. ..and yelled, let the bombs go from the aircraft . how many young people did we actually kill? we looked to the aircraft and the whole of the back of it had been shredded with shell splinters. if the sergeant says, jump, you said, how high? we just did whatever we were told to do. i in the sand, the only way to survive seemed to be try and get shelter of some kind. because of the 12 of us, only eight of us had come back. four of our crews had gone, including one crew who were on their very first trip. it was a sunday. i was in church with my mother and father. and i remem
and you got. ..you got a feeling of sort of complete comradeship with them. nothing could. nothing could take it away. it was extraordinary, really. you didn t have that same sort of relationship with the other people in the regiment, as we did with those four men. i think towards. ..towards the end of april, beginning of may, i think they thought that they were, they really had had it. they were surrendering quite a lot. they didn t. normally when you took a mountain or an objective, they counterattacked you, probably once or twice to try and get it back again. but they stopped counterattacking. and i think that was the time they realised that they were on the defeated side. at the time, if you didn t kill that other chap, he killed you. that was it. captured the objective, fight. kill people. awful, isn t it? i mean, i ve killed. i ve killed my fellow man. i m not proud of that. but i didn t go around sticking bayonets into them. my killing was at a long range. i was probab
to survive really seemed to be try and get shelter of some kind. because of the 12 of us, - only eight of us had come back. four of our crews had - gone, including one crew who were on their very first trip it was a sunday, i was in church with my mother and father. and. ..i remember hearing the bishop, getting up in the pulpit, before his sermon and saying, we re now at war with germany, and i thought, how exciting! gosh, an adventure. and little did i know what was in store for me. our division was put in, told to capture the range of hills to the north of tunisia. it took a month of solid fighting. you were shot at, shelled, bombed, mortared everything. and you got that dreadful feeling of. ..sickness in your tummy. oh, god, is this going to be the last time? sometimes you were lucky. sometimes you weren t. i was lucky. i think, towards the. towards the end towards the end of april, beginning of may. i think they thought that they were they really had had i