Colchester Normandy veteran says key to good life is 'freedom'

Doug Baldwin, 98, enlisted for army training in Colchester and was kept in reserve before being sent to Normandy on a landing craft on June 25, 1944, to serve with the 6th Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

He landed in northern France aged 18 three weeks after D-Day in June 1944, a large campaign where allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, as the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe began.

D-Day was the largest seaborn invasion in history, and it is estimated more than 4,000 Allied military personnel were killed on the first day of the campaign, which lasted until the end of August 1944.

Produ - Doug Baldwin with is medals (Image: PA wire)

Doug has spoken about leaving British shores for Normandy.

He said: “All the way over I was quite calm, It was still an adventure to me.

 “I felt like a hero before I even landed in Normandy.”

Doug moved with his regiment through northern France.

Doug was captured alone in the small village of Estry on August 8 that year, after taking cover from German fire in a disused house and being stunned by a nearby explosion.

He said: “When I came to my senses there were these two nasty-looking, unfriendly gentlemen.

“I thought I was going to die, but it didn’t bother me. I didn’t think it was going to hurt much.”

Fantastic - Doug Baldwin holding an old photo of himself (Image: Jacob King / PA)

Instead of being killed, he was taken to a car with a gun pointed at his head before eventually being transported to Germany in a railway truck, reported as arriving at Stalag 12A on August 28.

Spending time in several camps, Doug said prisoners were treated “like you were cattle” and got to “think like an animal” as he ate dandelion leaves.

He recalled the suddenness of leaving the camp when it was liberated by Allied forces.

“We woke up one morning and we could not see any guards about," he said.

“We were walking towards the sound of the guns, which turned out to be the American lines.”

Comfortable - D-Day veteran Doug Baldwin at his home in Caddington, Bedfordshire (Image: Jacob King / PA)

Doug returned home via Paris on May 1, 1945 – one week before VE Day – and said he remembered the sun rising as he came across the cliffs of Dover on the journey back.

Despite his previous hardships, Doug went back to Germany after the war ended with the Royal Scots Fusiliers to serve in the Army of Occupation.

The veteran has visited Normandy many times, most recently in May, through trips organised by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, which he said had given him “a new lease of life”.

He received the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest military honour, in 2021 in recognition of his service during the war.

Asked what the secret was to a good life, Doug said: “Freedom to do what you want.

“I was always lucky – for some reason they kept missing me."