大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ron Hampshire and added to the site with his permission. Mr Hampshire fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Always there are the emotions going from complete and utter boredom to frenzied activity and back again, occasionally reaching a fever pitch of excitement accompanied by fear.

There are also some things that never leave one鈥檚 memory and in my case I always disliked the smells of war. These varied from the smell of German barracks to the smell of rotting carcasses, horses, cattle etc. to the smell of cordite. The latter was usually the result of heavy gunfire, which gave rise to another memory-the noise. I never did make up my mind which was worse the sound of the incoming shells or those we were firing, perhaps our own as they were nearer.

Food was also a constant thought, there wasn鈥檛 a lot of it and it was so monotonous-we got a tin of stewed steak every day except Sunday when if lucky, we got a tin of suet pudding. Even so this was better than the early days of the war when the cooks had to sit outside cooking over open fires. It was hard to tell which was the worst hazard, the smoke from the fires or that from the cigarettes the cooks seemed to be always smoking.

I spent my 21st.birthday at battle school at a place called Pen-Y-Bon receiving over 拢20 in the post and having nowhere to spend it other than the local. This was a one-roomed affair where one stood in a queue to get a drink and as there were so many soldiers one stayed in the queue for the next round.

However by far the most graphic memory is the scenes of devastation following air raids. I have written of the damage to our cities already but the worst I saw was in and around Hamburg. Entering the city one would pass mile after mile of rubble and when I left 12 months after VE day the authorities were still making a railway to get it moved so that rebuilding could start. I didn鈥檛 feel sorry for them but wondered whether laying to waste by both sides had served any useful purpose. I am therefore pleased we have seen no war in Western Europe since 1945-long may peace continue.

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