Account of William Trevor Jones, 4th Coldstream Guards

William Trevor Jones joined the Coldstream Guards in 1939 at the age of 26. Initially, he was placed on guard duty outside Buckingham Palace during the Blitz; a German bomb hit the floor literally yards in front of him, burying itself deep in the ground and failing to detonate, hence he lived to fight another day or 6 years in his case . The bomb was covered with huge room sized sand bags and it did go off eventually knocking down the gate pillars of the palace and William said that despite the grandeur of the undamaged pillars, inside they were just hollow pipes.

William also managed to rescue the regimental colours from a bomb-damaged building in another air raid.

William's tank was called Eagle (Battalion HQ). He was the wireless operator, but said that all the men in the tank were trained to be able to carry out all the roles. His son has a photo of him at Monke with the regiment , which says on the back "Sgt Crossland's gang". Eagle clipped a mine while slewing sideways one day, damaging the back corner but remaining in full working order. As in the bomb incident William was convinced someone above was watching over him.

William was impressed with the Panther tank "Cuckoo" they caught and was one of the few that got the chance to drive it and use it in the Allies' favour; however the fear of the Typhoons attacking him scared him all the time they were in it! William said it conked out eventually and was dumped at the side of the road. (See photo of Cuckoo page 92 of Forbes).

William was given a book with the 6th Guards emblem on the front (presumably the Forbes book); in it there are various pictures of the 6th Guards in the field. One of them shows them assembled in a farmyard - if you have seen the picture you will see large wooden barrels which William said were full of condensed milk. They promptly filled any vessel they could to take this with them. (See page 130 of Forbes "The Coldstream Halt in Buldern").