The interviewee has a story about his father whose name was Peter William Simms, a longer version of which, with additional research conducted by a volunteer, is attached. He was in the 1st. Battalion Oxf and Bucks, Light Infantry in WWII. When war started his father was a schoolboy. He was living in Sussex, his parents worked there and lived in Cuckfield. As soon as he was allowed, he joined the ARP. A year later and as soon he was able, he joined the Home Guard local platoon, and then the Regular Army. He volunteered In May 1944 and was not conscripted. Just before D-Day, the war was hotting up; the 1st. Battalion were in Kent. His initial training took him to Inverness. Training in Scotland lasted until Nov. 1944, then finishing in North Walsham in Norfolk. It took to 1945, for him to be finally told he was to go overseas as a reinforcement. Perhaps one thinks of soldiers going over in troop ships, but he was flown over from Wiltshire as a reinforcement. He had never been in aircraft before; he flew over and saw his house. He was billeted at the French/ Belgian border after arrival. On disembarkation, he went to a reinforcement holding unit where he became acclimatised. He made sure he could go to the local town, where he was well-looked after; the locals were in "amazingly good spirits". When in Belgium, he was shown around the battlefield of Waterloo. Simms went into the line just after Battle of the Reichswald (nearly up to the German border and the Rhine). Germans were continuing to fight until towns were reduced to rubble, even though it was obvious to him at 18 that the war was done. The next concern after crossing the Rhine, was being shot in error by Russians. Things were 'bowling along okay' in B Company, who got to a place called Ochtrup by end of March 1945, where, in his own words, he had the misfortune to stand in front of a piece of shrapnel which nicked his left ear; another inch and it would have been the end of him. Other comrades had same experience and lost their lives. He was patched up, a ...