British Forces

Sergeant Jack Byrne

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Sgt Jack Byrne fought in Dunkirk , North Africa , on D-Day and at the Battle of the Bulge..His story goes like this :While serving in France folowing the quick defeat of the allies his regiment found itself forming a rearguard action during the withdrawal at Dunkirk Sgt Byrne was first wounded by shrapnel and then bayoneted .He was found by two french civilians who carried him to the beaches were he was evacuated. After his recovery he was selected as one of the original recruits to the famouse L Detachment unit that became 1st SAS Regiment.In North Africa ,March 1942 during a raid he was shot in the face at close range and after spending five days behind enemy lines wandering alone through the Libyan desert he was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III camp in Poland .Sgt Byrne had diffrent plans so the following year he escaped while in transit to another camp by crawling through a latrine drain, breaking through a fence with his bare hands and stowing away on a Sweden-bound ship to rejoin the war ...Back in England he joined 6 commando and stormed Sword beach on D-Day being wounded in the knee.He recovered just in time for the Battle of the Bulge and endured more ferocious fighting over another four months as his regiment pushed into Germany. After the war Sgt Byrne went on to serve as a policeman during the Malayan Emergency where he was shot in the stomach by a terrorist in 1953 – but again he survived. Retiring from the military police he married Mary Hayes and had three daughters, he built up a drapery business in Shropshire England and died at the venerable age of 85 in the year 2007.