D-Day veteran moved by Dunkirk film

D-DAY veteran Bill Betts, aged 94, recently watched the new blockbuster film Dunkirk and said he was very moved by the experience.

Although Bill, from Wellesbourne, wasn’t part of the Dunkirk evacuation, he lost friends who were and during his preparations for D-Day he trained with many men who did make it back from Dunkirk.

Bill went to see the recently released film at Stratford’s Picturehouse cinema with his friend Nick Milton and Nick’s nephew William Milton. The Picturehouse presented Bill with a Dunkirk movie poster which he gave to William.

Nick accompanied Bill back to Gold Beach in Normandy in 2014 on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. He was a soldier in the Essex Yeomanry and for his efforts was recently presented with the Légion d’Honneur – the highest decoration in France – by the French Government.

At the age of 21, Bill was part of the first wave to hit the beach and was a radio operator accompanying a Sherman tank attacking a gun emplacement but he was shot in the leg and later ferried back to England as a result of his injury.