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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 446

Four: Gunner C. G. Powell, Royal Artillery, who deplored his living conditions in France and Belgium in 1944, but thankfully found salvation in the hospitality of a welcoming Belgian family

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with corresponding miniature awards, these mounted as worn, very fine (8)

Clifford 'Cliff' George Powell was born on 19 October 1921 and lived with his wife at 16 Metford Road, Bristol. He served in North West Europe with No. 131 Battery, 153 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, from November 1944, and kept a rather colourful pocket diary detailing his time in France and Belgium:

'12th Tues. (December). My 4th anniversary and fed up to the back teeth doing sweet F.A. and thoroughly tired of living with pigs. Went into Gelden to the Ensa in desperation, it was the usual show.

13th Wed. One worse than roadmaking, scraping the shit of years from a cowhouse to make it fit for a cookhouse?'

Plagued by show and endless rain ('raining like the Devil'), the diary offers a fascinating insight as to a life just behind the lines, including regular guard duties, appropriation of food, and maintenance of the guns and machinery of war. Interestingly, by the winter of 1945 he appears to have been placed in billets with a family in Belgium, his wife receiving a rather touching letter on 4 February:

'We hope that Monsieur your Husband has had a pleasant stay here, also the other soldiers, as we look upon them as our liberators, saving us from our enemies after five years on 10th May next. Dear Madam, we hope the war will soon be over, and your fireside will be completed shortly. Have patience for just a while longer, and you will be able to live happily and in peace. The family, Antoine Coune.'

Discharged at Taunton on 27 October 1945, he died in July 1992 at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire; sold with original Soldier's Release Book, two contemporary letters and a postcard, a photograph of the recipient, and the enlightening hand-written pocket diary compiled from November 1944-31 May 1945, approximately 45 pages, in excess of 2250 words.


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Sold for
£120

Starting price
£40