WHILE millions across the country mark Armistice Day, pensioner Charles Cawthorne’s daring escape from occupied Holland is still fresh in his memory.

For retired Wing Commander Cawthorne, 86, of Highworth, the events he witnessed during World War II are still as plain as day.

And while people spend a few minutes this morning by thinking of those men and women who have given their lives in armed conflict since 1914, Charles will take two minutes’ silence to remember the men he flew with in operations throughout the Second World War.

As a former member of the Royal British Legion and coordinator of the poppy appeal in Highworth, Charles believes the support from the public is vital.

“I think it’s imperative that we remember the day and people support those still fighting,” Charles said.

It is stories like Charles’s that bring the realities of war to life.

As a flight engineer on a Lancaster Bomber in September 1944 he was shot down approaching the Dortmunde-Emms canal.

He recalled the escape in detail: “Escaping by parachute, I eventually landed rather unfortunately on a barbed wire fence.

“I remember pulling the parachute off that barbed wire as if I did it this morning. We were trained to bury our parachutes and I was pulling it off the fence and probably cutting my arms while I was doing it.

“I could hear the dogs howling and some voices calling and I immediately vacated the area, traversing through fields to look for a place to hide. I found a copse of fir trees and planned my future movements. I was completely dehydrated and required water urgently.

“I camouflaged my blue uniform by applying mud and any other materials I could find, including an old sheet which I threw across my shoulders as though I was disguised as a peasant farmer.

“I kept to hedgerows and headed in a westerly direction until I came across a batch of German military and also some civilians pulling carts of ammunition. There were two tanks heading in my direction across the field.

“I came across some unburied Germans and hid myself amongst them hoping the tank crews would not recognise my uniform, which was similar to the German field uniform. I later came across several sheds in a wooded area. An old lady came out to get some wood and went back in so I armed myself a wooden baton to take water by force if necessary.

“I gestured to her for water and she gave me some awful coffee and mouldy bread. Then a young lad of about 15 or 16 came in, saw me and left immediately. I thought I was going to be discovered and it was a time when there were very unpleasant things happening to captured crews.

“Eventually he came back with an overcoat and a cap for me to wear. I was triumphantly escorted to the local village mayor before ending up with the Inns of Court Reconnaissance Corps, who initially did not believe I was an RAF officer.

“This was around the same time Brussels was liberated and I caught a flight from there to Croydon, where I then went to hospital with a severely disabled leg I sustained in the parachute fall.”

Charles, who has been married to his wife Hazell for 64 years, is a regular at the repatriations in Wootton Bassett.

“I’m on the list to be notified when there is a repatriation at Wootton Bassett and I go down and see the cortege go by. I think it is splendid that it happens,” he said.