30 July 2023 , 16:42
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A Royal Marine commando who fought in Second World War battles in Italy celebrated his 100th birthday today said: “I’m a survivor.” Fred Ames and his comrades were surrounded on three sides by German Panzer divisions as the Allies invaded Italy.
He was stationed at Anzio and moved up the coast after months of fierce fighting. Fred was a beach commando carrying out dangerous landings ahead of the main forces and later saw action in the south of France after D Day. He modestly said of his war service: “It was no different to anyone else, nothing too exciting.
Fred was stationed at Anzio and moved up the Italian coast during WW2
Fred celebrated his 100th birthday in style today“We boarded small motor boats for a night crossing to Palermo in Sicily where we joined forces with the American 5th Army. We then moved on to mainland Italy where I fired my first shots in anger, or more likely fear, in the Battle of Anzio. The Germans soon brought in Panzers and other crack troops which made life more difficult.”
During the Battle of Anzio 7,000 Allies were killed and 36,000 wounded or missing. Around 5,000 Germans killed and 30,500 wounded with 4,500 captured before the Allies broke out and entered Rome. Fred, who joined the Royal Marines as an 18 year old in 1942, was in Naples Bay to see Vesuvius last erupt in March 1944 as the top of the volcano blew off with a huge cloud of ash thrown several miles into the sky.
Fred married his wife Marian in 1947He became a military policeman based back at Yettington in Devon calling it “forced labour”, before demobilising and becoming a bus conductor and driver and hospital porter. The father of two, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of three, met his late wife Marion in a forces club canteen in Exeter and they married in 1947.
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He said the secret of a long marriage was saying, “Yes dear”, adding: “You both say it, you must not submit all the time!” Fred, who now lives in a care home, suffered a broken hip in a fall around a year ago but was operated on in hospital the next day.
He joked: “If you want a new hip, fall over. I still have a brain, can joke and you can replace knees and hips. But I’m feeling well. I’m fine and in no pain. I’m a survivor.”
His son, Richard, said: ”He was a beach commando and involved in landings up the Italian coast. We obtained his medals for his 90th birthday and he had one for serving in France during the invasion of Marseilles. He just got on a boat and secured a beach until the main landings came along. He has three campaign medals.”
Fred will return to his home village of Ide near Exeter this week for a celebratory drink with friends who described him as “a hero and a gentleman but very humble and modest”