To Hang Out The Washing

Joe Lake was a private in the British Army from 1940 to 1945. In September 1940, when he was fourteen years old, he officially enlisted after convincing the recruiting officers he was nineteen. At that time, The Battle of Britain raged in the skies above England and Luftwaffe bombs rained down nightly on his home city of Birmingham. 

In England, he served as an infantryman in the South Staffordshires, and as a Red Beret in the Regiment’s Glider Battalion, before landing at Normandy during the D-Day Allied invasion at Sword Beach in June 1944.

By then, just eighteen years of age, he was a seasoned soldier, having had four years active service. He saw heavy action during the autumn and winter of  1944–45, through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, first in the trenches, and then as a reconnaissance sniper for the 8th Brigade, often in No Man’s Land between his and enemy lines.

Now 97, Joe has lived at Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia, for almost forty years, and was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 2015.