Winsford British Legion marks National Armed Forces Day (From Winsford Guardian)

Winsford British Legion marks National Armed Forces Day

8:30am Thursday 2nd July 2009

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MACHINE guns, hand grenades and pistols were the order of the day in Winsford town centre last week.

War veterans searched high and low for memorabilia to help transform an empty shop into a wartime museum to celebrate National Armed Forces Day last Saturday.

Members of Winsford British Legion dug out their medals, books and badges to for the display and spent a day setting everything up before opening the doors to the public last Monday.

Chairman Jeff Beetham, 54, who fought in Ireland with the then Cheshire Regiment during the 1970s, said they wanted to find a way to thank everyone in the town for helping them raise a record amount in the Poppy Appeal.

He said: “When I started as chairman six years ago, we raised £9,500. This year we raised £25,000. It’s wonderful to have such strong support and so we wanted to say thank you.

“And the vets are so pleased that this event is happening, they love it. Things like this help keep them young.”

Children from Greenfields Primary School delighted in examining the British Bren machine gun, which fired up to 1,000 rounds a minute, when they called in on Wednesday.

They also looked at photographs from the branch’s annual trips to historic sites from the First and Second World Wars.

Last month the men visited the site of the Wormhoudt Massacre, where 80 British prisoners of war lost their lives at the hands of the SS.

Four members of the Cheshire Regiment, now the Mercian Regiment, were among those herded into a barn into which stick grenades were then thrown in. The survivors were then lined up and and shot.

Jeff said: “That was a really emotional trip but we are the only branch round here that takes the men away every year, it’s important to them.”

The oldest member of the 40-strong branch is 90-year-old Sam Dodd, who served in Italy and Greece in the Second World War.

Treasurer Dilip Solanki-Koli, 54, fought in Ireland alongside Jeff, but amazingly once managed to sleep through a mortar attack.

Jeff said: “We’d done an 80-hour week, we were absolutely exhausted. Dilip said he was off to bed and then the camp started exploding.

“We fled and by the time we came back there were just two buildings standing. And in one of those, there he was, sound asleep. We couldn’t believe it.”

Dilip added: “I honestly didn’t hear a thing, I had no idea, just goes to show how tired I was.”

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