大象传媒

I suppose it would be about the time when the allies were building up for the Normandy invasion, virtually every vehicle seen on the roads were military. It seemed like months that the build up went on. I know around our way and I expect all along the south every piece of woodland there were tanks and guns and every other type of military vehicle that you could think of were hidden and camoflagued, so they couldn鈥檛 be seen from that air. After the invasion everything seemed so quiet and empty.

It was the later stages of the war that the weapon I think put most fear into the population was the v2 rockets. Now these things had a very distinct drone to their engines, so much so that you knew exactly what it was. Today we think of rockets travelling at great speeds but these things did not appear to be going all that fast and they were easily seen, but the fear was when the engines cut out. That鈥檚 when you more or less knew some poor devils were going to be blown to pieces. I鈥檓 not sure if it鈥檚 true but it was said that Spitfire pilots developed a skill of meeting these things and flying alongside and gently turning them out to sea with their wings. Knowing the bravery of our wartime flyers I don鈥檛 hink I鈥檓 surprised at anything that they got up to anymore.

Then as youngsters there was this great celebration when VE day was announced and the joy of being able to switch on the lights without having to go through all the rigmarole of making sure that all blackout was in position at the windows. I am sure that a lot of people pulled the curtains back as far as they would go and turned every light in the house on just for the joy of being able to do it.

On the evening of VE day we went to a spare piece of land opposite where my Grand Parents lived where a lot of men had built a huge fire and people were singing and dancing around the fire. I remember that a member of the Salvation Army brought his trumpet to lead people singing hymns, and after getting booed loudly because he refused to play for a sing-song around the fire, saying he only played the Lord鈥檚 music.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.