War bullet is a pain in the leg for hero Fred

War veteran Fred Gough thought arthritis had caused the pain in his leg – before doctors found a German bullet in his hip.

Stunned doctors told the Darlaston 83-year-old he had been unwittingly been carrying the memento since his time on the front line 66 years ago.

The pensioner, of Smith Avenue, had been referred to Sandwell General Hospital for an x-ray after suffering from a mystery ache in his right leg.

And he was left gobsmacked after learning it was the result of a bullet that had been embedded since the final months of the Second World War when he had served with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

"It amazed me," he said.

"I only joined in 1944, when I was 18, so it was towards the end of the war. I remember we were moving forward and we would have been on the front line, but I wouldn't know where.

"We were only kids and we didn't really know what was going on.

"All I can remember is getting this thump in my thigh, but it didn't knock me off my feet or anything.

"Goodness knows who it was, but I suppose it must have been a German soldier.

"Anyway, someone slapped a plaster on my leg and sent me back down the line.

"Three weeks later I was back with my unit and that was in Minden, Germany. It has been that long ago that I forgot about it.

"I suppose I was unlucky looking back at it. I was only serving in the army for a few months and managed to get shot."

But more than six decades later, shortly after a hernia operation, he began experiencing a twinge in his leg and doctors prescribed him painkillers.

"I don't think they thought it was much at the time and just gave me some tablets," he said.

"But they sent me for an x-ray and sat me down after and said I had a bullet in my leg.

"I thought 'where on earth did I get that from?' I haven't had any problems with it at all, all this time.

"At first I couldn't remember where the bullet came from, as it wasn't anything of great importance at the time."

Mr Gough, whose service with the Second Battalion included time in Belgium, Germany and Palestine, has two sisters, Jean Carpenter, aged 75, and Mary Martin, 89, who he said had a 'good giggle' with him about the news.

"We all live within a stone's throw of each other and we had a good laugh about it," he said.

"Because I was only there for the end of the war, I haven't really got many horror stories about it, but I was glad to get out of the army.

"I never really liked it. I just can't believe I've had it in my leg for more than 60 years with no problems at all."

Mr Gough, who held a number of different jobs in his career, including as a bricklayer and a steelworker, said he has been told by one doctor that there may be no need to take the bullet out at all, if it causes no more pain.

But he is due for another appointment today to discuss the results of his scan, when he hopes to find out whether the bullet needs to be taken out.

"They said they might not even need to take it out," he said.

"But I'll sit down with the doctor and we'll have a little chat about it and see what the situation is.

"I suppose it's been there so long as it has, if it's not going to give me any trouble, it may as well stay there."

Mr Gough's experiences mirror those of another man's in 2008, when doctors in Barbastro, Spain, removed a bullet from the shoulder of a Spanish Civil War veteran nearly 70 years after he was shot during a battle.

Faustino Olivera, 88, was admitted to the hospital to remove a painful lump in his left shoulder and doctors performing emergency surgery and were surprised to find a bullet fired from a Mauser 98.