A former soldier who fought the Nazis has told of his lasting memories of evil while helping German civilians.

Bill Wells, 93, joined the army just days after his 18th birthday and had been keen to begin his career and defeat the enemy.

But his energy was soon overshadowed by the reality and horrors of war and the brutality of the Nazis towards their own citizens.

READ MORE:Former soldier, 103, escaped the Nazis who recognised his 'Scouse' accent

Bill, formally known as Clarence Joseph before changing his name, trained at Ballykinla Camp where he wastaught weaponry, marksmanship and unarmed combat.

He told the ECHO: "We were all tremendously excited to be finally getting into the real Army where we could pursue our chosen paths to serve with bravery and honour."

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The dad-of-two was assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps - something he admits he had originally protested against, requesting a transfer from his drill sergeant.

He said: "I plead that, unlike the other recruits, I had some war experience.

"For three years I had been on sea going tugs sent out past the Mersey Bar to rescue battered ships that had been attacked in Atlantic convoys heading into Liverpool.

"At the tender age of 15, I had also participated in towing parts of the massive floating Mulberry Harbours that were used by the British and Americans on D Day to launch the Normandy invasion."

Bill Wells during his days in the army
Bill Wells during his days in the army

But it fell on deaf ears and Bill was shipped out to Stranraer in Scotland and then eventually to Boyce Barracks, the Royal Army Medical Core Headquarters in Aldershot.

Bill, who was once Mayor of Wirral, said: "After months of intensive training, we were sent to the Royal Herbert Military Hospital in Woolwich, London for some hands-on hospital training. After a short stay there, we were finally shipped out to join the mighty British Army of the Rhine.

"Our first base in Germany was Bielefeld barracks. The town of Bielefeld was the headquarters for the fighting command of the British Army of The Rhine.

"It was also the scene of the famous raid by the RAF Dambusters who dropped a 22,000-pound grand slam bomb on the Bielefeld viaduct."

It was here, in the devastation, Bill saw the evil of the war, he said: "I along with my two remaining Platoon mates were horrified at the desolation that we witnessed. Germany was literally flattened.

"The devastation that had rained down from the Royal Air Force and the Americans was total and absolute.

A picture of Bill and his wife Sybil meeting the late Prince Phillip when Bill was Mayor of Wirral
A picture of Bill and his wife Sybil meeting the late Prince Phillip when Bill was Mayor of Wirral

"It’s hard to put into words the true horror of the effects of war, it’s something you really have to see for yourself. The sights of utter carnage have never left me.

"Bielefeld, I also found out, had a very dark history of its own. Bielefeld barracks had previously been home to the elite Nazi Panzer Regiments.

"They had trained at this very place before unleashing their reign of terror across the continent.

"A sense of evil somehow permeated the whole area. It was a gaunt, grey place, devoid of colour, trees, and birds. There was nothing pleasant about Bielefeld.

"At the time there was a policy of non-fraternisation [between soldiers and cavillians] in place but few of the soldiers paid much attention to it.

Bill Wells when he was Mayor of Wirral
Bill Wells when he was Mayor of Wirral

"It was sad to see the plight of the civilians who remained there. Living amongst the bombed-out ruins, clad in rags and starving, they literally had nothing.

"Some of them spoke English and spoke of the evil of the Nazis who had once ruled there. The brutality of their ways, the swift justice metered out to anyone who didn’t toe the line, the sheer terror and misery of life under the jackboot."

Bill left Bielefeld for Hannover and found much of the same horrors, he said: "Hannover, like Bielefeld, was reduced to rubble. The 29th BMH was a massive hospital with facilities to handle some 2,000 patients at any time.

"The Commanding Officer there had already cemented his name in history after he gave the order to burn the notorious Nazi death camp Belsen to the ground.

"The hospital employed a large German staff. I was shocked to learn that many of them, now young women who spoke excellent English were once members of the Hitler Youth. Several of them had been inspected by Hitler himself.

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"The hospital had a massive morgue which was in constant use. When on 'Fire Picket' duty we all took stints working there. It was a truly miserable assignment.

"There were hundreds of bodies of the war dead that were being dug up and transferred back to their home countries of France, Belgium and Holland for proper burial.

"The morgue was often used to house the bodies while their transporters rested for the night before carrying on their long sad journey.

"We also received the bodies of many American and British troops killed in accidents and by unexploded ordnance. When on the Quartermaster’s staff I was assigned with organizing their personal effects, a sad task."

Bill remained in Hannover until he was discharged in 1948 and says he remembers the day he arrived back in Lime Street station.

He said: "The train was packed with all branches of the military. It was a nightmare journey, stopping and starting for hours on end. When we finally got to Lime Street in the early hours of the morning I was amazed at how chaotic it was. Loudspeakers blaring instructions that no one could understand. Every military uniform you could imagine combined with confused civilians with their suitcases. Organized chaos at its best.

Bill's wife of 65 years, Sybil
Bill's wife of 65 years, Sybil


"Now a free man back in Civvy Street, I was grateful to be alive and finally be back home ready to begin the next phase of my life."

Bill lived in Wallasey for a large part of his life, meeting the love of his life Sybil at one of the many New Brighton Tower Ballroom dances.

The couple was happily married for 65 years until Sybil sadly passed away last year from cancer.

Bill's daughter Karen Muskett, 66, said: "I look back and think about how lucky my brother, Peter, 62, and I were to have had this wonderful childhood in Wallasey and New Brighton with two loving parents for so long.

Bill Wells who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War II with his novel The Jackboot
Bill Wells who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War II with his novel The Jackboot

"My dad never spoke about his time in the army and I think that was partly because he is part of that generation who don't show a great deal of emotion and just get on with things."

With the help of his son Peter from across the Atlantic in Florida, Bill has now written a novel inspired by his time in the army.

The Jackboot is historical fiction about the top-secret mission called Operation Fish and one RAF Spitfire pilot's quest to stop the Nazis from getting their hands on Britain's gold reserve.

Bill said: "The things I had seen and experienced during my time in the Army have always stayed with me.

"It took me over seventy years to finally put all the things that I had learned and witnessed down on paper but it was a collection of different thoughts and threads, I simply could not connect all the dots together to be a readable novel.

"In 2017 my son Peter gathered up all the pieces and after three years of hard work and meticulous research he was able to weave them into an incredible novel, The Jackboot."

Read more about Bill and his novel here and you can buy The Jackboot on Amazon here.

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