Yorkshire Post #local #harrogate #york #history View original ↗

Ken Hay obituary: D-Day veteran who survived brutal 1,000-mile PoW march

Ken Hay, who has died at 101, was a Normandy veteran who survived capture just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about the war.

Mr Hay, from Upminster in East London, served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment and landed at Courseulles-sur-Mer days after the Allied invasion of Normandy.

He was captured during a night patrol on July 7-8 and was taken to Zabrze in Poland, where he was put to work as a prisoner of war in a coal mine.

Speaking in 2024 about his capture, he recalled his first feelings were of “dread” and “fear”.

File photo dated 25/04/24 of Veteran Ken Hay, who served with the 4th Dorset Regiment at Juno Beach, pictured during an interview with PA Media at the Union Jack Club in London. Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who survived capture just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about the war, has died aged 101. The British Normandy Memorial, for which he was an ambassador, announced his death on Sunday, saying he "gave everything to support the Trust's work in sharing the message of Remembrance". Issue date: Monday September 21, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

“We went out on night patrol, was supposed to be doing a blow up of a self-propelled gun in no man’s land, but in fact, it was behind their lines,” Mr Hay said.

“So they let us through and then, very unfriendly, they sealed it and wouldn’t let us back, so we had a battle.

“We had 30 went out on our patrol, 16 including my brother, who was a corporal, got back, five of us got captured and then presumably nine got killed.”

As the Russians approached, the prisoners were marched to a new location, approximately 1,000 miles away, during which many of them died. During the three-month march, Mr Hay said he once “lay down to die” after it became too painful to continue, but two friends turned back for him and lifted him with an “arm around each shoulder”.

Eventually they were liberated by American troops and Mr Hay returned to the UK, via Reims, on May 4 1945.

Recalling the moment he made it to his mother’s house in Barking, he said: “They came running down the road to greet me.

“They were having breakfast, I’d had breakfast with the Army, so I just had a cup of tea with them and we all went off to mass.

“I’m a Catholic, and we all went off to mass and I was home in time for VE Day on the 8th of May.”

After the war, he was appointed an MBE for services to the community and received the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit. Mr Hay regularly visited British schools to share stories of the war and answer questions, saying he believed it was his “duty to pass it on”.

Earlier this year, he attended a remembrance service at the General Montgomery monument in Colleville-Montgomery with fellow Second World War veteran Henry Rice as part of commemorations marking the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.