The son of D-Day hero Albert Fenton has paid tribute to his one-in-a-million father after his death at the age of 99.
Bath-born Albert was called up in 1943 at 18 and during the fabled Normandy invasion was serving with the Royal Army Service Corps.
His role in D-Day was critical, part of a crack unit responsible for supplying frontline troops with food, water, fuel, technical and military equipment.
Before the 80th anniversary commemorations in June last year Albert, who was suffering with Alzheimer’s, recalled his mum telling him: “Don’t worry, son, you will be home soon – you are not tall enough.”
He added: “We sailed early on June 6, 1944 not knowing where we were going or what was lying ahead of us. We arrived at Juno Beach and had to stay on board until a road was laid for us as the sand had all been blown up. All the while waiting we could hear battleships firing – the noise was so loud it almost burst our eardrums. I am sure I was not the only one who was petrified at what we were about to walk into.”
Albert witnessed unspeakable horror at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was used by the Nazis to intern Jews from 1943 onwards. It is estimated that 70,000 people died there. It was liberated by the British in April 1945.
On arriving at the gates he remembered: “We were confronted by the commanding officer asking if we knew where we were, which none of us did. He then told us our worst nightmare – we were at Bergen Belsen concentration camp.
“The first thing you noticed was the horrible stench in the air. It was nothing I had ever experienced before but was horrid and we could see the furnaces burning.
“Although we were not allowed into the other camps we could see through the fences with barbed wire around the top. From where we stood, we could see the pile of bodies stacked one on top of the other like a big bonfire.”
Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to enter the camp and, in footage that has now become some of the most poignant and moving in TV history, broke down as he delivered his first-hand report. The BBC initially refused to play his dispatch as his superiors refused to believe the scenes he had witnessed, and it was only broadcast after he threatened to resign.
Albert said: “There were British soldiers driving bulldozers digging long trenches and we could see German soldiers being ordered to one by one put bodies into the trench. It was a job nobody wanted to do but this was the unbelievable mess that they had caused.
“My truck was loaded with about 40 Jews, mostly men. As I was loading my truck I noticed Mr Dimbleby outside the gates. It was here we heard that over 50,000 of the prisoners held at Belsen were dead.”
Albert was 23 when he returned home to his mum in the West Country and, after the war, worked for a dairy. He met London evacuee Gwendoline, who was just 15 and employed as a secretary for the Co Operative.
She was 17 and Albert 25 when they married in 1950 at Melksham Registry Office.
Their union lasted 65 years until Gwen died in 2015 aged 81.
The couple had children Phillip, Norman, Bridget, Debbie, Stephen and Andrew. He had 20 grandchildren, 47 great grandchildren and nine great great grandchildren.
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2023 and was cared for at home by son Andrew, 64, daughters Debbie Brailey, 56, and Bridget Lansdown, 67, and granddaughter Karleigh Brailey 31.
Andrew said: “Another good man has left us. He was one-in-a-million. Everyone called him a hero for his war service, but to me he’s always been a hero because he’s my dad.”
His funeral is in his hometown on Friday.