Tributes have been paid to Raymond Whitwell, one of Britain’s oldest Second World War heroes, who has died at 105.
Braveheart Ray was called up in September 1939 and immediately sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force [BEF] before moving to Belgium, as the German advance began, delivering fuel to front-line units.
In May 1940 Ray, a driver in The Royal Army Service Corps [RASC], was part of the heroic rearguard at the fabled Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, later immortalised in the 2017 Hollywood epic starring Kenneth Branagh, Harry Styles and Mark Rylance.
But instead of fleeing the advancing Germans he drove to Lille, from where he caught a train to Cherbourg, before hitching a lift back to Britian aboard a Dutch fishing boat. It was the begining of an eventful war.
He and his unit converted to paratroops in 1941, joining the 1st Airborne Division, and fought campaigns in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.
Proud Yorkshireman Ray was also at the Battle of Arnhem, fought at the vanguard of Operation Market Garden, as the Allies were poised to enter Holland after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944, after D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
He flew from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on September 18, 1944 as part of the largest airborne assault in history.
Ray recalled: “We flew over the North Sea and over land (Holland) and we were shot at by anti-aircraft guns, but were not hit. After unloading we set off for Arnhem, but we only got as far as Oosterbeek by late afternoon, then we ate our 24-hour rations. And that was the end of our food. We did not have anything to eat for the next seven days.
“There were several supply drops, but each time all the supplies were dropped in German-held territory. After each supply drop we were told to go by Jeep and recover some of the supplies, but we never got any, but it was very exciting!.The role of the RASC was to supply the division with all it needed, but with no supplies we could not do that. We were then used as infantry soldiers and given a position on the Oosterbeek perimeter to defend, and stop the enemy when they attacked.
“We fought our own little battle in the woods for nine days, defending the perimeter. We had no food at that time, but while we were drawing water from a well a sniper shot at us and his bullets made holes in the bucket. After that, getting water took a long time, and was very dangerous, we could have been shot dead at any moment”.
After being discharged from the Army, Ray went back to his job as a seed merchant in York and later settled in Malton, North Yorkshire, opening his own shop as well as running several market stalls until he retired aged 90.
He was married to Iris for more than 40-years and the couple had three children, Paul, Tim and Jill, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Stalwart Ray returned to Dunkirk and Arnhem on numerous occasions with the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans where he was feted as a hero.
On one of those trips, when Ray was 103, the Gelderse Gliding Club took him up in a glider to see the area where he landed all those years before.
Ray said at the time: “It was wonderful, I could see for miles. I loved every minute and was very glad that when we came down it was still 2022 and not 1944.”
London cabbie and Taxi Charity for Military Veterans volunteer Sebastian Philp, Ray’s regular driver, would drive to Malton to pick Ray up and they became great friends.
Seb said: “What an honour it was to have Ray Whitwell as a friend. He had a cheeky personality and was very friendly, witty, funny and shared amazing stories of what he had witnessed during his life. I will really miss him. What a great man. A true hero.”
Ray’s daughter Jill said: “He was special to me but they all were. We need to remember that it was ordinary people like him who did the extraordinary for people of this country at that time.
”He was humble and kind, a gentleman in the true sense. He was proud to be a veteran. He felt especially loved and appreciated by the people of Arnhem and the Netherlands.
“And, when you met him, he had that twinkle in his eye and a lovely smile. He was just a nice man and, of course, a hero.”
