大象传媒

During 1942 my late husband George Miles at the age of 17 years enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman. His training took place at HMS Chatham. During this time he held the record for the fastest over the rigging. I believe his training also included manoeuvres over Dartmoor.

During his service he was involved with the D-day landings in Normandy delivering supplies to the beaches from landing craft. Later he joined the crew of the destroyer HMS Whelp en route to the Pacific. The First Lieutenant was Prince Philip of Greece who at that time was not yet engaged to HRH Princess Elizabeth although it was well known by everyone on board that mail arrived for Prince Philip from her. HMS Whelp was part of the British Pacific Fleet and, on crossing the Equator, instead of the usual ceremony conducted in peacetime, a Certificate was given to each rating, signed by Prince Philip, together with an extra tot of rum. Unfortunately this Certificate has since been lost.

My husband served in Australia, Hong Kong and also on Kowloon Island where he, together with other members of the crew acted as a temporary Police force. He mentioned that on the first occasion he was on duty and in the early hours of the morning he heard an unusual sound that he did not recognise. Eventually he realised that this was the noise of hundreds of Chinese walking to work in their clogs.

At the end of the war in the Far East my husband tole me that HMS Whelp was the destroyer berthed alongside the US battleship Missouri and from which the Japanese delegation were hoisted across to sign the Surrender. Although surrender had taken place on the 15 August 1945 the actual Surrender document was formally signed on the 2 September 1945 where the ships were anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Back in Great Britain George received his demob but was later seconded to take part in the Victory Parade. He had to undergo a six-week period of square bashing and went under canvas in Kensington Gardens prior to the march. I would love to see a recording of this march shown again on 大象传媒 television, especially in this 60th Anniversary Year.

On my part I was aged four years at thebeginning of the War (I had not yet met my late husband!) and along with my two brothers was evacuated to Surrey. We were billeted in separate houses and unfortunately my brothers were subjected to shipping by their host because they had started to wet the bed. Whem my mother complained my two brothers were then sent to live in Liskeard in Cornwall. We did not see them until the end of the war, six years later. One good thing came from this in that their hosts kept a smallholding andmymother received chicken and rabbit that were absolute luxuries in view of the food rationing. My brothers also learned to knit and my younger sister and myself received presents of the then well-known pixie bonnet.

My eldest sister joined me later that year whilst my mother continued to live in Forest Hill in London with my youngest sister, a baby of nine months. She developed rickets due to the interrupted feeding whem my mother had to run to and fro to the Anderson shelter in the garden when the siren sounded.

Some time later my mother managed to find lodgings with a family who lived in the same street as my eldest sister and myself where we were living with our host family. Finally my mother was able to rent a property in the same road and where I with my two sisters were reunited. We lived there during the duration of the war and many times our ceilings and windows were damaged due to enemy aircraft disposing of their surplus bombs over our village. There were some fatalities and many injuries. There was however a tremendous camaraderie amongst neighbours where doors were left unlocked and everyone knew everyone else's business and many good turns were done. My mother played host to many British and Canadian men and women serving in the armed forces who were far away from home and many a happy evening was spent around the piano singing the wartime songs.

My eldest sister, born in 1926 was aged 13 at the beginning of the war but obviously got to an age where she would have to take on some form of 'war work'. Rather than leave home to go in to the forces of the Land Army she agreed to work for the Railways working as a porter/ticket-collector/jack of all trades a a local station.

At the end of the six years our family was re-united; my two brothers returning from Cornwall, my father having manned the anti-aircraft guns in London was finally demobbed and there was a new arrival to the family, that of my youngest sister born in March 1945. It was a very strane time for all of us to try to get back to normality.

August 2005

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