VE DAY CELEBRATIONS Bernard was one of first to know war in Europe was over

A BRAVE young man from Crewe had one hell of a secret to keep during the Second World War. It was no ordinary secret... but frontline codebreaker Bernard Morgan was no ordinary young man.

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He knew the “German war” was over BEFORE the rest of the world.

“I had a lot of secrets up here,” Bernard said, tapping his head as he told The Mirror about his memories of the war.

Bernard, then 20, was the youngest RAF sergeant to land on D-Day.

He saw his fair share of terror, positioned close to the front line as troops moved through Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Bernard and his unit had advanced through dead bodies on Gold beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944. His crucial role was to pass on messages to show where the planes were needed to “fight the enemy”.

Bernard explained how, in the run-up to what would be VE Day, he was working in an intelligence unit near the village of Schneverdingen in Germany.

But, after three months stationed in Germany, he was “overjoyed” after decoding a very different message.

Sitting in the care home where he now lives in Crewe, Cheshire, Bernard holds the two messages he typed up and has spent 80 years looking after - 50 years in secret until he was finally free to speak about them in 1995.

He reads out both messages he decoded, the first from May 4, 1945, said: “SECRET... All hostilities on second army front cease at 0800 hours tomorrow May 5...”