Tony Sargeant

Tony was in the Territorial Army with the Herefordshire Regiment before the Second World War. The day before the outbreak of the war he was loaded onto a bus with new equipment and kit and sent to Hereford. Tony was only 17.

From Hereford he was sent to Tenby for training with the Herefordshire Regiment but, as he was under 18, he transferred to the 60th Searchlight Regiment operating on the east coast where he served throughout the Blitz. As the threat from German aircraft declined Tony was re-trained as an anti-aircraft gunner on Beaufort guns and trained at Salisbury Plain. After training he was sent to France after D-Day and, driving his fully dubbed Ford truck and gun, landed on Gold Beach. The fighting in Normandy had advanced inland, so Tony was directed to perimeter defences in Bayeaux. While Tony saw no action against enemy aircraft, he witnessed the horrors of the war in Normandy. From Normandy, Tony was trained as a wireless operator in England and sent to India. He was in India when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and the war ended.

Tony’s father served in the First World War with the Royal Army Service Corps and with the Home Guard in Kington during the Second World War. A number of photos here show the Kington Home Guard.