Biscuit tin bombs, Churchill’s Secret Army and the Normandy Landings – Suffolk veterans tell their stories for Armistice Day

In their own words and recorded on film for the first time, they evoke the chilling mood and physical terror of battle, and reveal their bravery when confronted with Nazi Germany.

The county will fall silent tomorrow to commemorate the war dead, remembering with gratitude the young men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

Ipswich war veteran, Sergeant Frank Steward,92, who served in the Army Rifle Brigade. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

Ivan Potter, member of the British Resistance Organisation (Churchill’s Secret Army) and Flight Sergeant, Royal Air Force. Lives: Ipswich. Age: 92

“After Dunkirk, Churchill wanted to form a defence squadron, which turned out to be the Home Guard. After about three weeks to a month, an army captain told us he wants six young men to form a mobile squad, which was purposefully to liaise between village and village should they get overrun by the Germans and help them out.

Ipswich war veteran, Sergeant Frank Steward,92, who served in the Army Rifle Brigade.Old photograph of the Sergeants (top row) and Officers in Franks Company. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

“But the real reason was to make us into a sabotage group of six men who went underground should the Germans invade. That was known as Churchill’s Secret Army.

“We used to make anti-tank mines out of biscuit tins, anti-personnel ones out of cocoa tins with four-inch nails in and tripwires, and we learnt everything about explosives. I went away on a special course to Aldeburgh with the marines to learn about all the different explosives and different types of sabotage. I came back as a young fellow of 16 instructing men who had even been in the Great War.

Ipswich war veteran, Sergeant Frank Steward,92, who served in the Army Rifle Brigade. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

“Sabotaging a lorry in those days, all you had to do was get a piece of sugarbeet or an apple, stick it up the exhaust pipe and ram it home about two or three feet, and when they would try to start the engine up, it would just fail.

“They even had a list of people in the village who might be collaborators with the Germans and should we think that they were really going to be collaborators, we were to get rid of them.

Ipswich war veteran, Sergeant Frank Steward,92, who served in the Army Rifle Brigade.Old photograph of Frank. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: contributed)

“In 1943, I then volunteered for the Royal Air Force, as an Air Gunner. I came out on June 6, 1947 and then worked on the railway for 41 years, and that’s my story.”

Sergeant Frank Steward, Rifle Brigade, British Army. Lives: Ipswich. Age: 92

Ipswich war veteran, Sergeant Frank Steward,92, who served in the Army Rifle Brigade.Old photograph of Frank and his platoon. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: contributed)

“I landed in Normandy, on Gold Beach. I was 19 then and went all the way through Germany. We went towards Paris, we went straight over to Belgium, because they were in trouble. We went down to the Ardennes where they took the Americans.

“But after landing in Normandy was the worst time. I lost my two best pals. One was killed and the other one, the snipers got him on our way to Caen. From then onwards, until the end of the war, we were hardly out of some sort of movement.

Ipswich war veteran,Ivan Potter. Ivan was a member of the British Resistance Organisation (Churchill�s Secret Army) from 1940 until 1943, when he joined the RAF. He was a Flight Sergeant until 1947. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

“Some people were lovely, such as the French (when they were) liberated. One day they gave me a little pair of clogs. That was lovely.

“But the thing that got me was, as you were going along, you saw dead Germans. Now and again, you would see an Englishman. That turned you over, that does. I couldn’t do anything like that now because I wouldn’t have the guts for it. But at 18, it is surprising what you can do.”

Ipswich war veteran,Ivan Potter. Ivan was a member of the British Resistance Organisation (Churchill�s Secret Army) from 1940 until 1943, when he joined the RAF. He was a Flight Sergeant until 1947. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

Asked what Remembrance services mean to him he said: “I always have the whole thing on the telly. I would go, but if I stand for any length of time it is terrible. So I always watch it every year and I see the Royal Brigades.

“I was the youngest in the last war and I was 18. But anybody who was 25, they would be nearly a century. My father was in the First World War and I’m glad I finished up as the same rank as what he did – sergeant.”

Ipswich war veteran,Ivan Potter. Ivan was a member of the British Resistance Organisation (Churchill�s Secret Army) from 1940 until 1943, when he joined the RAF. He was a Flight Sergeant until 1947. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: sarah lucy brown)

See here to read the stories of two more veterans, Stanley Chambers and Gerald Hayles.

Ipswich war veteran,Ivan Potter. Ivan was a member of the British Resistance Organisation (Churchill�s Secret Army) from 1940 until 1943, when he joined the RAF. He was a Flight Sergeant until 1947. Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: sarah lucy brown)