Two Dundee second world war veterans who grew up within yards of each other have been able to swap tales of wartime derring-do after a chance encounter in a Ninewells Hospital ward brought them together for the first time in 70 years.
George Watt (90) and David Baillie (85) both grew up in neighbouring streets in Lochee but had not seen each other since Mr Watt was drafted when he was 18.
Mr Watt joined the 51st Highland Division.
He was a gunner in the 127th artillery.
He fought in the regiment’s first battle at El Alamein and served throughout the war.
Meanwhile, his younger neighbour David Baillie joined the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, and went on to see action across Europe.
After the war both men returned to Dundee but their paths did not cross again until last Sunday, when they were both being treated overnight in Ninewells Hospital for minor conditions.
It was then that Mr Baillie realised the patient in the bed opposite him was the red-headed teenager he had seen around Lochee 72 years ago.
“He heard the name ‘George Watt’ and then asked who I was,” said Mr Watt on Wednesday.
“It was the first time we had met since I was called up before the war.
“I didn’t know him because I was a few years older but he recognised me and remembered me as a kid with red hair.”Lochee ladsThe pair soon worked out that they had been virtual neighbours growing up and were soon swapping recollections of life in Lochee before the war.
“We were soon talking about all of our brothers and sisters and how we knew them all,” he said.
Mr Watt is now recuperating at his home.
He and his wife Jessie celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary last September.
Mr Baillie was set to be released from Ninewells.
Mr Watt’s brother David also served during the second world war with The Black Watch.
While on guard duty near the end of the war close to Bremerhaven he had an encounter with SS commander Heinrich Himmler.
The soldiers stopped a car carrying a high-ranking Nazi official and his driver.
While they were trying to ascertain who the senior Nazi figure was believing he must be important to have a chauffeur he asked to go to the toilet.
While there he committed suicide by biting on a cyanide capsule.
It was only later they discovered the true identity of the man they had stopped.