Logam Ranjau Tertanam 68 Tahun di Kaki
Explosive Booby Trap Embedded 68 Years In Leg
Editor : M. Achsan Atjo
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KETIKA cucu Ronald Brown ingin duduk di lututnya, ia selalu meminta mereka untuk menghindari paha kiri. Barulah diketahui sebabnya ketika sang kakek meninggal pada usia 94 tahun.
Hampir setengah kilogram pecahan peluru tertanam di kakinya setelah ia menginjak ranjau selama Perang Dunia II.
Logam maut tersebut dibawanya selama hidup lebih dari 68 tahun, yang terkuak saat jenazahnya dikremasi dan diserahkan pada keluarganya.
"Ini luar biasa, karena dia tidak pernah mengeluhkan rasa sakit," kata putrinya, Jane Madden, 55, dari Exeter. "Ini menunjukkan betapa beraninya dia."
Brown, dari Hull, East Yorkshire bergabung dengan Resimen pada 1939 pada usia 21, dan menjabat sebagai intendan. Dia dievakuasi dari Dunkirk, kemudian melanjutkan pertempuran El Alamein sebelum membantu pembebasan Sisilia.
Pada Juni 1944, saat manuver di Prancis, dia menginjak ranjau dan kaki kirinya terkena serpihan logam hingga berwarna merah. Dia terpaksa merangkak sepanjang dua mil ke tempat yang aman.
Akibat kondisi medis terbatas di medan pertempuran, lukanya dianggap aman tanpa harus mengeluarkan pecahan peluru di tubuhnya.
Brown, yang kemudian menjadi inspektur pajak di Exeter, mengaku kepada kedua anaknya tentang ´kisah´ tersebut yang mengakibatkan lututnya tidak nyaman.
"Dia mengatakan ada peluru di kakinya tapi saya membayangkan salah satu bagian dari logam," seperti dilansir MailOnline.
"Ketika pergi untuk menebarkan abunya kami bertanya apakah peluru telah ditemukan dan mereka memberikan kami tas penuh logam."
Holly Maden, 25, salah satu dari lima cucu Brown mengatakan kakeknya tidak banyak bercerita tentang perang.
"Dia bepergian ke luar negeri seperti Australia dan Amerika, dan dia selalu lancar melalui scanner. Kami selalu berpikir itu adalah peluru di lutut tapi ketika direktur pemakaman memberi kami tas ini dari pecahan peluru yang diambil dari kakinya, kami terkejut karena begitu banyak."
"Potongan dalam tubuh kakek menunjukkan betapa mengerikan perang itu."
"Saya kira itu adalah kenangan kelam sekaligus manis karena menggambarkan keberanian dan penderitaannya. Sangat menakjubkan bahwa di berjalan dengan membawa itu begitu lama."
"Dia berjalan normal. Dia juga pria yang aktif. Dia biasa berjalan setiap hari."
WHEN Ronald Brown’s grand- children tried to sit on his knee, he always asked them to avoid the left thigh.
It was not until he died at the age of 94 that they discovered why.
Almost 1lb of shrapnel was embedded in his leg after he stepped on a landmine during World War II.
The metal, which he had carried around for more than 68 years, was sifted from his ashes following his cremation and presented to his family.
‘It’s amazing because he never used to complain about the pain,’ said his daughter Jane Madden, 55, from Exeter. ‘It just shows how brave he was.’
Mr Brown, from Hull, joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1939 at the age of 21, and served as a quartermaster. He was evacuated from Dunkirk, then went on to fight at El Alamein before helping to liberate Sicily.
In June 1944, on manoeuvres in France, he set off the booby-trap device and his left leg was peppered with red-hot fragments of metal. He was forced to crawl two miles to safety.
Because of the primitive medical conditions in battle, it was thought safer to leave the shrapnel in his body.
Mr Brown, who went on to become a tax inspector in Exeter, told his two children only scant details of the incident, which he said had left him with a ‘bad knee’.
Mrs Madden, whose mother Gwendoline died 24 years ago, added: ‘He’d said there was a bullet in his leg but I was imagining one piece of metal.
‘When we went to scatter his ashes we asked whether the bullet had been found and they gave us this bag full of metal.’
Holly Madden, 25, one of Mr Brown’s five grandchildren, said he never spoke much about the war.
‘He would travel overseas to Australia and America and he was always setting off scanners as he walked through. We always thought it was a bullet in the knee but when the funeral directors gave us this bag of shrapnel they had taken out we were shocked at how much there was.
‘The bits of metal in him just show how horrible the war was.
‘I suppose it’s a bitter-sweet memory for us because it symbolises everything he did and how he suffered. It’s amazing that he walked around with it in his leg for so long.
‘He walked normally. He was an active man too. He used to go on a daily walk.’
