Life changing

You help people remember what our war veterans will never forget

You've helped over 58,500 Second World War veterans and their families to visit the places where they saw active Service. Here’s just one of these stories. Meet Jeffrey Haward, 98.

"In 1937 I was 18 and living in Finchley, North London. I reported for duty on 1st September when the Germans invaded Poland – three days before Britain declared war. My mum wasn’t happy – my father had lost a leg in the First World War and died from complications when I was just four years old.

I was in the 1st and 1/7th battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. We went to France in January 1940. By 26th May, when the Belgians surrendered, we were at the border of Belgium and France. Our colonel sent us on a patrol across the River Lys, a blue staff car came up the road. We shot the driver and an officer in the back. Another officer jumped out and ran off, leaving behind a briefcase, in which, were the plans for the German 6th Army, which was advancing on Dunkirk. This intelligence meant my machine gun battalion could be strategically positioned along the Comines Canal and we managed to delay the Germans advancing into Dunkirk for a few days.

On my way back to company headquarters a sentry on duty tried to stop me. It was dark and he’d mistaken me for a German. I told him I couldn’t stop and he shot me. Luckily it wasn’t a great shot and it hit my shoulder, just a flesh wound. That soldier’s name was Johnny Hunt and he later told me he’d been aiming for my head! We had a good laugh about it. Then, later in the war, he was killed and I had to bury him."

Jeffrey’s next challenge was to get to Dunkirk to be evacuated. Germans were already shelling the beach heavily…

"We saw a coaster, a shallow-hulled ship lying on its side. It was on fire and looked like it had beached, but people were getting into it. We got closer and saw they were burning rags in 50 gallon drums to make it look like an abandoned vessel. My gun crew and I went down the ladder into the vessel. It was packed. There were hundreds of men down there. Once on board, I suddenly felt so tired – I hadn’t slept for two or three days and had been losing blood from where I’d been shot. I fell asleep and when I woke up I could feel the boat going up and down – they'd managed to refloat it. I fell back to sleep and the next thing I knew someone shook me awake and said we were coming into Folkestone. That was 8am on 2nd June. It was such a relief to be home."

Jeffrey Haward was one of 558,000 Allied soldiers who were evacuated from Dunkirk between 26th May and 4th June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo.

You've given more than £88 million to support our war veterans since the National Lottery began.

The National Lottery has been changing the lives of winners and supporting good causes across the UK since 1994. In that time, there have been more than 7,000 new millionaires created and by playing The National Lottery you raise over £4 million for Good Causes every dayΔ.

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