STUDENTS from St Ninian’s High School in Douglas have interviewed 92-year-old D-Day veteran Hector Duff, creating a video that will form an educational resource.
The students asked questions, posed by students from throughout the island, to the Military Medal holder.
For the past 15 years, Mr Duff has visited St Ninian’s – and he now visits other Manx schools to help bring history alive.
Student Mduduzi Mtshali, 15 , confidently acted as the compere for the questioning, which took place in a specially set up TV studio at St Ninian’s.
Jo Ewan, head of history, had the unenviable task of selecting from the many questions, which covered Mr Duff’s call up, the Army’s 7th Armoured Division, his time in the Eygption desert, when he returned injured, his role on the beaches at D-Day and his journey to Germany, where he was present at the liberation of Belsen concentration camp.
Year 9 students, who are learning about the Second World War this year, formed the audience and questioned Mr Duff, while Alex Townsend from the Department of Education and Children’s ICT section operated the camera with pupils.
When Mr Duff was 20 he was back in his Sulby home, recovering from illness, which saw him give up his role deep sea sailing. During this time he was called up to serve.
He said: ‘Anyone that says they weren’t frightened going into war, they are not telling the truth.’
He spoke of daily life at war – little sleep, bully beef, rations and foul-tasting, salt-contaminated water usually in short supply.
When soldiers came across fallen comrades or enemies, a necessity was to relieve them of their ration packs. He vividly described the beach at Normandy on D-Day, the very worst of the German onslaught over, but the shelling continuing.
Mr Duff is modest about the actions in saving the life of a commanding officer that led him to receive the Military Medal, although he remains reluctant to use ‘MM’ after his name, as the honour permits.
He says the citation on his office wall at his Onchan home is a daily reminder of the event.
He lost hundreds of friends and said: ‘We weren’t put on this earth to kill, but it was kill or be killed.’
Nevertheless, he added, it was hard when he found a picture of family in a fallen comrade’s possessions.
Asked about his return to the island and being reunited with his wife, with whom he’d had little contact, he said: ‘I never thought for one moment that I’d come home alive.
‘Many a time you were surprised that you had outlived yesterday.’
When asked whether, if he could travel back in time and have a choice, he’d go to war again, he said he would out of duty. The war taught him about friendship, he said.
Demobbed, after six years at war, he joined the Isle of Man Constabulary, serving with distinction for 30 years.
Mr Duff said there were just six men left from his regiment. The president of the Onchan branch of the Royal British Legion, he wears his medals with pride now at Remembrance and Armed Forces Days, not from self-satisfaction but to honour fallen comrades.
Asked if he considered himself a hero, he said unequivocally: ‘No. I know perfectly well, I have seen men do far, far braver things than I did.’
He spoke of the pleasure he gets helping students to learn from his accounts, saying: ‘I receive such wonderful letters and cards. I think more of them than if the King had given £50.’
Mrs Ewan said: ‘Mr Duff brings history events to life. It is incredibly valuable for students to hear first-hand of the experiences of soldiers. A textbook is never going to explain how it felt to be under fire, or to lose your friends, or how much better the American food was.
‘It was particularly poignant to hear Hector say that as soon as he had been in action, he never expected to return to the island alive. This resource will allow all schools access to the experience of hearing a hero talk of his war. St Ninian’s was honoured to be able to host Hector.’