Winter, P.L. Capt.

Personal Information

Wounded 6 June 1944. Peter Winter was born in Egypt to a service family, his father being a doctor with the RAMC,

and was educated in England. He joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1941 hoping to be a pilot but when nothing came of that, he joined the Corps in 1942 as a potential officer candidate. Commissioned in August of that year, he ultimately joined 47 RM Commando.

During the D-Day landings, his LCA carrying Y Troop struck a mine and sank. Sustaining a broken right arm, right leg and a broken nose, Peter with great difficulty managed to get ashore and in due course, returned to England on a hospital ship.

After weeks of hospitalization and recuperation he returned to his unit in time for the preparations for the landing on Walcheren Island.

This time he reached the shore in fighting fettle and was heavily involved in the twoday battle to subdue Battery W11 at Dishoek and ultimately Battery W3/4, the enemy command HQ. When his troop commander became a casualty, Peter was promoted in the field to replace him. As a German speaker he became much involved in negotiating a surrender with the German commander. Later, he was seconded to a Dutch resistance group for a few days to take part in a raid on an enemy post on the further side of the River Maas and also took part in the ill-fated night attack at Kapelsche veer which subsequently took a Canadian Armoured Division and Infantry Brigade five days to take, suffering 234 casualties in the process.

After the war, Peter worked in the oil exploration industry for some time in the Middle East, the Caribbean and Canada.