In mid 1940, Joe was somewhere in Belgium with a lorry full of ammunition when he heard that his commanding officer had abandoned his men, and that all the Allied Forces were making their way to France. The Germans were cornering the Allied Forces, and a large evacuation to England had been planned from the beaches at Dunkirk. He reversed his lorry into a canal so both the lorry and the ammunition would be useless to the German forces, and made his way to Dunkirk on foot.
When he arrived at Dunkirk, the beach and sea were in chaos. There were bodies floating in the water and the allied forces were under constant attack from machine-gun fire, bombing, and explosions sending shrapnel in every direction. Men lived on the beaches for several days, waiting for the time they would be able to board a ship to safety back home. Terrified men, trying to jump the queue were held back at gunpoint by their own officers. Joe remembered seeing men lose their nerve, and try to push on board a boat, only to be shot by their own officers.
After several days of waiting, Joe was at the front of the queue and was waiting to board a boat, when he was told to wait for the next boat, as wounded soldiers were taking their place instead. Joe remembered seeing a German bomb drop and sink this boat. He instead escaped on a small fishing boat.
When Joe and other men from his corps arrived back to England they made their way back to the nearest barracks. Their officer, nicknamed Herby, who had abandoned them in Belgium was there, and the men sang "Herby Herby, won the Dunkirk Derby" at him.
Joe married his sweetheart Sadie from Coppull on 29 May 1944, had 48 hours leave, and then went sent straight back to mainland Europe. As he was responsible for delivering ammunition to troops, he was sometimes driving straight up to conflict. On 8th July, about six weeks after his wedding, he was at the Battle for Caen in North West France, when his lorry was hit and exploded.
He was sent home to Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester to recover, and was lucky enough to suffer from only shrapnel wounds in his legs. He was told that he could have two weeks leave at home as soon as he was walking agin. He forced himself to walk as quickly as he could, so that he could have his time off, only to realise that he would have had more time off if he had taken his time recovering!
Joe was sent back to Europe after his leave. After the end of the war, in 1945, he spent time in Germany, returning the prisoners of war back to their home towns. He had a tooth removed by a German dentist who he said "var near kil't" (very nearly killed) him! He returned to 'civvy street' in February 1946, was de-mobbed, and returned to Adlington to meet his baby daughter Jean for the first time. The family still have a few of his letters from his last few months, where he thanks his wife Sadie for the oranges she has sent, and mentions a pair of (heavily rationed) stockings he has for her!