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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Christian of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library on behalf of Sydney Edward Miller and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was Driver Miller R.A.S.C. with the liberation army in Brussels on V.E.Day 8 May 1945. The rejoicing was soon cut short when I found myself posted to No. 86 Graves Concentration Unit, R.A.S.C. and was based at Hotel Beau Sejours, Hyeres, Var, France. It was a few miles from Toulon which was an area near Anzio, scene of the allied invasion from Sicily. This occurred shortly after Normandy.

My job was to collect six German Prisoners of War from a nearby camp, and on a daily basis visit Burgomasters (Mayors) of towns and villages who assisted an advance party of planning staff to map out locations of soldiers irrespective of nationality who had been mortally wounded during the battle and buried on the spot. Six to eight bodies were dug up every day, the remains (badly decomposing) were placed in blankets, loaded on to my 3 ton Austin lorry which had a metal body and canvas top and was washed down and disinfected every night. I would then drive to a military cemetery for burial. A foul job; the smell of death hung on my clothes. Most of the bodies recovered were German and American; strangely many were found within fields of vineyards. I did it for eight months then, thankfully, I was demobbed.

While at Hyeres I often had to take a weekly food supply to the Duke of Windsor and Mrs Simpson who were in exile since he had abdicated as King Edward VIII. They lived at a mansion some 10-15 miles away.

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