The everyday German soldier was just like us really, says WW2 veteran
A Second World War veteran has spoken about the moment he came face to face with two German soldiers in 1944.
Ken Cooke, who joined the fight at the age of 18, landed in France on D-Day and was making his way across northern Europe when the confrontation took place.
While one of the enemy soldiers escaped, the other surrendered and was held by Ken and his unit before being processed as a prisoner of war.
Eighty years on, Ken says he was struck by how similar the German soldier seemed to him and his fellow British troops – despite being on the opposing side.
"They were just coming down the track on our right-hand side. We were undercover, so we jumped out on them and told them to put their hands up," he explained.
"One of them did. The other chap took off down the field, zigzagging all the way. There was five of us shooting at him, and not one of us hit him," Ken remembers with a chuckle.
While amusing now, the escape of the second soldier soon caused trouble for the British troops.
"We were in our trench just chatting to each other, and these Panzerfausts (a German single-use anti-tank weapon) began hitting the trees and bringing them down around us.
"We were taking cover, then the chap with me said he'd been hit.
"The next thing I knew, I was on a stretcher with a ticket on my chest saying 'psychoneurosis', which we later found out was shell shock.
"That chap who got away from us must have bumped into his comrades further away and told them our location."
Ken's shell shock marked the end of his time in combat. It was his second injury, having already been hit with shrapnel in the weeks after D-Day.
Asked what he thought of the German soldier he captured, the ex-Green Howards private said he saw similarities between them.
He also revealed that the man, despite wearing a German uniform, was actually an American who had been "collared for the army" while visiting his extended family in Germany.
"He told us he was an American German and had been on holiday to see his relatives," Ken recalled. "That's how he came to be there."
Eight decades later, Ken speaks with a tone of reconciliation, though he acknowledges how emotionally challenging key anniversaries like this year's can be.
"He was in the same position we were as a soldier. He was there to fight, or whatever, same as we were. He'd been trained to fight; we'd been trained to fight too.
"They were just the same as us, the German soldiers.
"Apart from the SS and those kinds of people. They were the main reason we had to win the war – those kinds of people."
While many Second World War veterans will mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in the capital, Ken and his son are returning instead to northern France and Normandy, where the former soldier landed on 6 June 1944.
Stephen, Ken's son, told BFBS Forces News his father was the star attraction of their trip, after a national newspaper ran a competition for readers to win a journey to Normandy with a veteran.
"On VE Day itself, I believe we are attending a local ceremony in a village and then he has been asked by the chairman of the British Legion in Normandy to lay a wreath at the British memorial at Ver sur Mer," he said.
"It is such a lovely place to visit and, of course, overlooks Gold Beach where Dad landed, so I'm sure we will have a great day, both moving and enjoyable.
"I don't think there will be many veterans over there, so I suspect he might be quite popular!"
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