Bert Hadrill and Stan Hodge, right, meet for the first time since the war

by Tim Collins

A Second World War veteran has been reunited with a comrade he feared dead – after bumping into after 68 years.

Stan Hodge and Bert Hadrill served together during Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in 1944.

But they were parted during the heat of battle when Bert was badly injured by an incoming mortar round.

The pair were soldiers in the Fourth Battalion, the Dorset Regiment, and last saw each other in July of that year during the battle to retake the village of Maltot, in Normandy, from German forces.

The battle would lead to the loss of hundreds of men, including the whole of the Fourth Battalion’s A Company.

Around 250 men were lost through death or capture and the battle would see Bert, unbeknown to Stan, taken to Scotland and invalided out of the war.

During the fierce fighting that took place, Bert was hit by mortar fire and sustained abdominal injuries so severe that Stan assumed he had died in the battle.

But, amazingly, 87-year-old Stan, who lives in Godinton Park and is pictured left, Ashford, bumped into Bert at the War and Peace show in Paddock Wood last month.

Stan, pictured left in 1946, said: "I recognised his regimental uniform and the thought gradually came back to me, ‘you look a bit like Bert’, so I went up to him and asked him.

"I couldn’t believe it was him. Could you after 68 years?

"We talked about that day, so many years ago. One minute we were talking and the next he was blown up by a mortar bomb.

"You can’t describe to people who weren’t there what it was like – all hell broke loose.

"Many times you had the thought of giving up and you never knew if you were going to be the next one to bite the bullet.

"You got hardened to it, the next day became easier and the next one after that until, eventually, you were one of the old boys before long.

"But blokes came and went, and disappeared all the time during the war, and I thought Bert was probably dead.

"It was a moment of joy to see him again.

"We talked about what we both did for the rest of the war and afterwards, and have made plans to stay in touch."

Bert Hadrill now lives in Bristol.