what was the maximum age to fight in ww2?

A 2014 Channel 5 documentary,Boy Soldiers of World War 2, explored the stories of four youngsters who fought on the forepart line of some of the almost brutal battlefields. Hither, we reveal the stories of two such boys…

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Pecker Edwardes: "In that location was me, a 17-year-old boy, cradling these senior officers, men in their belatedly twenties or their thirties. Property them in my arms…"

Bill Edwardes, a 16-year-erstwhile factory worker tired of his job, spent the first four years of the state of war in Wales as an evacuee. Returning to London in 1943 and looking for some excitement, he decided to join the army.

"I'm 17-and-a-half, sergeant" he told the recruiting officer, who took him at his word. Bill's female parent was horrified, but the youngster wanted to practise his scrap.

Pecker initially trained at Maidstone, where he was teased for beingness obviously underage. But when he came home in uniform, he felt a tremendous sense of pride. "I walked up Holloway Route thinking I was Jack the Lad," he said.

Nib was an infantryman with the 1st Batallion of the Worcestershire Regiment. Training hard for D-Day and the long campaign that would follow, Bill was and then small he could barely proceed up, and was sent to a army camp for under-forcefulness recruits.

Turning 17, Bill was still beneath the legal age to exist sent abroad. But as D-Day approached, nobody asked questions. He was tasked with being a stretcher-bearer, responsible for picking up the wounded on the battlefield, and deciding who could be saved and who should be left to die.

Bill'southward beginning boxing was the set on on Mouen: "We were simply behind the infantry, crouched in a cornfield. We watched, nosotros saw someone go down and went to them. With a group you have to await and make your ain sentence. Leave the human with the bullet in his leg, to deal with the man with shrapnel in his back."

The underage boy constitute himself saving the lives of his superiors: "At that place was me, a 17-twelvemonth-old male child, cradling these senior officers, men in their late twenties or their thirties. Property them in my artillery, looking after them. I'd tell them 'Y'all're lucky'… knowing total well that they might not last the day."

Come July, Bill was at the forefront of two of the virtually vicious battles of the Normandy campaign – Hill 112 and Mont Pincon. In two months of fighting, he had only 3 days' rest.

"It's surprising how apace a 17-yr-old gets hardened – not indifferent, but detached. You got accustomed to wounds and death…

"You came to the conclusion that how could you possibly survive when and so many people were going downwards effectually you. In the morning you'd wake up and you lot'd think to yourself, 'Mayhap information technology'south today?'"

Was I daft? Yes and no. Consider this, I was something of an urchin. I wasn't very well educated

Afterward, at the battle of Elst, in September 1944, Neb experienced his virtually violent and relentless battle yet – but survived. As the death toll mounted, Bill constitute himself training and overseeing new recruits.

"Was I daft? Yes and no. Consider this, I was something of an urchin. I wasn't very well educated. I joined the army. I did my main training and inside three months I'd learned to ride a motorbike, drive a Bren carrier, to burn down all sorts of weapons – I was happy every bit Larry. It did me skilful. It was just the fighting bit that came later that didn't practise me practiced.

"I was 12 when war broke out, I was 18 when information technology concluded. People say to me, 'that was your youth gone'. It didn't go; information technology was just spent in a unlike fashion. I was saving people's lives."

Stan Scott: "Hit the beach. Downward went the ramps. Whack! Next thing I hear is someone saying, 'Get upwardly, Scotty, you're non injure'. Got upwardly, ran up the beach…"

Enthused past the Battle of Uk, in 1941 Stan Scott, 15, pretended to be 18 in lodge to enlist. But halfway through training, his mother constitute out and he was sent habitation.

The post-obit year, aged 16, he enlisted for a second time, and establish himself guarding aerodromes in Kent. But he was desperate to go overseas, so joined the commandos.

Aged 18, Stan finally saw action on D-24-hour interval: "Striking the beach. Downwards went the ramps. Whack! Next thing I hear is someone saying, 'Get upward, Scotty, you lot're not hurt'. Got up, ran up the beach.

"Ii men beside me had been hitting. Straight into the swamp. There were already bodies lying there – Jerry started hitting us with rockets."

During the relentless fighting over the following weeks Stan became battle-hardened, facing death on numerous occasions, only never cracking. "I never thought I would break down – I was too streetwise."

Weeks later, in the town of Honfleur, Stan was wounded and taken off the battlefield. By the time he recovered, his unit had returned to England.

But in 1945 he returned to the frontline for the final battles of the war – a campaign that took him to the heart of enemy territory, and to the death camp at Bergen-Belsen.

There, he met London-born Len Chester, who had applied for the marines anile simply 13…

Boy Soldiers of World State of war 2 get-go aired on Aqueduct 5 in 2014

This article was first published past History Actress in July 2014

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Source: https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/boys-who-lied-about-age-to-fight-ww2-teenage-soldiers/

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