A WWII hero soldier has recalled how “the toss of a coin and a pint of Guinness’”saved his life from a Nazi rocket attack exactly 80 years ago today. Ken Pusey, now 98, had planned to spend the day at a cinema in Belgium on 16th December 1944 - the first day of the “Battle of the Bulge”. But at the very last minute he changed his mind and headed to a new club after hearing it was serving draught Guinness.
While Ken was supping Guinness the nearby Cinema Rex in Antwerp took a direct hit from a Nazi V2 rocket. Over 1,000 people were inside with 567 killed including 296 Allied service personnel. Ken was just 18 at the time, having only just joined the Army, and was serving with the Royal Engineers.
He said: “A lot of us were given a day pass, and we were taken by lorry up to the main town centre. It was suggested we go to the cinema, or a new NAAFI called The 21 Club, which was selling draught Guinness by the pint, which was unheard of, for thruppence. We didn’t know what to do so we tossed a coin. It came down tails and we went to the club.
"After an hour or so we heard an enormous explosion. We thought ‘what the hell is that?’ But it was just another incident. There was a war going on and people were getting killed all over the place. We didn’t find out until a lot later that a rocket had been fired from Holland and it had hit the cinema directly.
