大象传媒

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Part 5

Just as summer was beginning, everything stopped, there was no more movement. It seemed as though they had run out of armies. Everything was suddenly quiet, something was afoot, but what ?
At the beginning of June, we were all hard at work, when the boss came in and told us that our army, along with all the other allied armies, had made a successful landing in France. The invasion of Europe had started, June 6th 1944 (D-Day), a red letter day indeed. Everyone was thrilled at the news, at the same time though, they were sad and frightened to think of what was happening across the water. Our men and boys, fighting for their lives. How many would be injured, and permanently damaged, even killed ? They weren't only fighting for themselves, but for all of us who were waiting at home.
Nurses, not far behind the troops, were doing an admirable job, and once again the Green Line buses began ferrying the injured from Tattenham Corner station to Horton hospital, similar to the army going out of Epsom.
The ambulance buses were bringing back the injured. Unfortunately, the American armies were having a bad time, their planning had not been quite right for their landing and thousands of men were killed, but the survivors still fought on for freedom.
The Royal Engineers had made artificial harbours, they were floated across the sea, towed by ships. They were set up on the coast of France, all the heavy equipment could be unloaded from the ships and landed, ready to go into action without any complications.
All the French, Dutch, Belgians, Norwegians, Poles and other continentals, who had fled from their homelands, were now on their way back home. They were all determined to find their families and young ones once again. All the countries were eager to finish the fight that Hitler had started. Now they were on French soil, they were determined not to be driven back into the sea again.
It had taken over six thousand ships to get the armies over the sea. The ships didn't want to take them back again, until the world had been freed. Unfortunately, there were hundreds of wounded to bring back, but this time, there was more hope than despair.
Soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses, all hoping to get their bodies repaired, hard work for all concerned. Patients, doctors and even spectators, all found the suffering difficult to deal with when they were unable to help.
We all thought that we were safe now on this side of the Atlantic, wrong again, because on 12th June 1944, just six days after the French landings, we all heard a loud noise coming from the skies, it sounded like a very loud motorbike.
Louder and louder the noise became, whatever could it be ?
We suddenly saw it in the sky, it looked similar to a glider with a headlight on the front and flames coming out of the back. Everyone was wondering what it could be, when suddenly the noise stopped. Everywhere went deadly quiet, and as we watched, it came plummeting down to earth very quickly. At this point everyone dived for cover, and as it hit the ground there was an enormous bang and the blast shook everything all around us. Everyone was very shaken. Hitler's secret weapon had arrived; a flying bomb, remote controlled form over the sea. it was called a V.L- Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug. Three different names for something that looked harmless, but was really a deadly weapon.
The Doodlebugs started to come over at regular intervals every day. Everything was alright whilst you could still hear them, but the minute the noise stopped, the streets would clear as people ran for cover as soon as possible. Once they made contact, they were powerful enough to demolish a block of flats or a row of terraced houses.
Sometimes, if the noise stopped, and it had passed overhead, we thought we were safe. But it could turn around and start coming back toward us, giving everyone a double shock. Until you heard the actual explosion, you knew that you were not safe. Once again, the children had to be evacuated to the country, away from danger. Just as hundreds had been sent away at the start of the war, many had been away for the whole five years of the war, some had been sent away and had returned and were now being sent away from home again. They were to live with people they had never seen before, in places they had never heard of. The majority went to good homes with good people, but a few children were sent to places where they were not really wanted and were certainly not made welcome. At about this time, my Mother had taken my sister, who was expecting her first baby, to Wales. We all therefore, had to pull our weight at home, my sister Alma had to work shift work, Vera normally worked on Saturday mornings and so did I. But we were all at home on this particular morning, Alma was on afternoon shift, it must have been a bank holiday weekend, I don't remember.
I didn't feel particularly well that morning when I got up, so I was asked to go to the butchers to get the meat rations. When I arrived people were queuing inside and outside the shop. I joined the end of the line and waited, what seemed to me, forever. At last it was my turn, I handed the ration books to the butcher, and that was the last thing I remember. I had fainted, and banged my head on the marble slab by the window. I really held up the line apparently. I was out cold for a long time, and luckily, the woman who lived next door, happened to be in the shop at the same time. She helped me to get back home. Two fairly long roads away, Alma became quite concerned, and by the time I got home, when she saw how ill I looked, she would not go to work and leave me alone.
By the time Dad got home, he had heard what had happened, I was told off for not telling everyone that I didn't feel well in the first place. I spent the weekend in bed, and on the Monday morning, Dad was going to the doctor's, so I had to go with him. Our usual doctor had been called up for the army, and another doctor had taken over. He gave me a quick once over, looked at my finger nails and eyes and said that I was a little anaemic, and I could have a week off work and that was it. Dad was not satisfied with this and packed me off to Wales to Mum. The only food he gave me was a packet of cornflakes. The day after I arrived, I was taken to see a doctor, he gave me a more thorough examination, and asked me what my doctor had told me. I still had the medical certificate, and I showed it to him, he was very annoyed. He said that I was seriously overworked and suffering from debility and had to stay on the sick list. Meanwhile he reported the other doctor to the Medical Council.
I kept going back to the doctor, but he would not sign me back off, until after three months I told him that I was going back to Epsom, so he had to sign me off for work.
I came home again, not to go back to work in the laundry, I was now allowed to get another job, so I went to work at a small factory, working for a family of German Jews who had fled for their lives, from Germany.
They made chemicals for developing films, which were bottled and packed away, ready for use in the Royal Air Force to develop the films of picures taken on reconnaissance flights over enemy territories. These pictures soon revealed where the dreaded Doodlebugs were being launched from. The Air Force quickly demolished the site.
They also made hand cream in the factory, we quite enjoyed filling the pots with hand cream and all the time I worked there, I had hands like a lady !
The R.A.F. had now begun to seriously bomb Germany, and they needed to know the vital points that were a danger to us and our advancing armies in Europe. Every night, weather permitting, the drone of bombers could be heard in the sky. Thousands of planes, blotting out the light from above, droned past; Flying Fortresses, Dakotas, Lancasters, Hercules, Wellingtons, in fact, it seemed that every plane ever made, was up there in the sky. Wing tip to wing tip, all on their way to drop bombs on Germany; Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne and Berlin to name just a few places. Many smaller towns got the same treatment, they were now on the receiving end, just as we had been. As we bombed from the air, our soldiers advanced on the ground. We were now re-taking Europe and it was a hard slog. Our men were gradually reclaiming the continent; France, Belgium, Holland and all, were being reclaimed.
Our armies were now advancing on Germany, and they approached the river Rhine. The Germans thought that the Rhine was uncrossable, and were confident that the allied armies would come to a full stop. All the bridges had been blown up, and dangerous undercurrents would leave them on the wrong side of the river. However they had underestimated the British inventors and scientists, together with their educated allies. Not forgetting the Royal Engineers, they had a new invention, especially developed for crossing the river Rhine.
The Pontoon, or Bailey Bridge was here now, a very clever invention made from collapsible canvas boats, floating on the water, upon which was fitted, a type of road, made from steel and wooden slats. These were put together on the banks and fixed on to the canvas boats, and made longer and longer, being steered straight from the banks, until it reached the opposite bank, where it was made secure.
While this was going on, the infantries were being taken across the river in amphibious craft. Once the bridges were in place, the mobile sections of the army could cross the Rhine and by 25th March 1945, our armies were unstoppable. While our armies were conquering Germany, Many terrible things were being discovered. Things that we had never dreamed of, concentration camps, where Jewish people had been interned. They had been branded with numbers on their arms. Thousands of Jews had been exterminated, one way or another. They had been brutally treated, shot, or sent to the gas chambers to die, for no other reason than their birthright, which was being born a Jew.
Men, women, children and even tiny babies, were being treated less than humanely. If they escaped the gas chambers, they were starved; many dropping down dead where they worked. Nobody, no matter what their colour, creed or birthright, should be treated the way these people were treated.
We at home, watched the newsreels at the cinema with unbelievable horror. Unable to believe what we were seeing, even to this day, people who survived these horrors are still searching for news of family and friends who had disappeared and were never heard of again. Coming to the end of their lives, never knowing what might have happened to them, as we at home watched the newsreels, we could easily cry at the sight of these people being released from the camps, looking like walking skeletons.
As these camps were opened up, hundreds of bodies could be seen being bulldozed into massive pits.
People who witnessed these scenes, whether in reality, or on film, will never forget the horror.
People there could recall the stench, which could be smelt miles away, and before
they got anywhere near the place, they could smell that there was something terribly wrong ahead of them. Soldiers as young as eighteen, had to face unimaginable things, which should never have been allowed to happen, and must never be allowed to happen again, in so called civilized countries.
One sunny day in September, 1944, we were all getting ready to go home from work, I was standing near an open window on the third floor of the building. Everything was quiet and peaceful, in fact it was a lovely day.
All at once there was a terrific explosion, I jumped so much that I nearly dived head first out if the window !
Whatever had caused it ? we hadn't heard anything at all beforehand, such a blast had to be caused by something. It sounded like a large bomb going off, it couldn't have been a Doodlebug or we would have heard it.
We were soon to find out what it was, another of Hitler's secret weapons; a V2, a rocket. There was no warning this time, no time to shelter, they came silently and ended up exploding loudly on contact, razing everything to the ground.
Large craters were left where once, large buildings had stood.
You couldn't let yourself think about these rockets, otherwise you would never have a moment's peace. Luckily, they didn't last for long, and within six months of the first V2 landing, the war in Europe ended.
The Germans surrendered on Tuesday 8th May 1945, and it was officially announced that the war in Europe was over at one minute past midnight.

Concludes in Part 6

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