大象传媒

Memories of VE day

RAF Sgt. J. C. Thompson (No. 575092)

My unit was 658 AOP Squadron RAF attached to the second Army TAC HQ.

We had travelled through Belsen en route from Celle to Luneberg and our site for our airstrip was several miles north of Belsen. We were camped in and around a deserted farmhouse several fields away from second army TAC HQ. There had been an attack on the guards (Tyne Tees division). A grenade was thrown into one of their tents but the area was now clear. We were still sick and angry about Belsen and the attack.

It was late afternoon when we got news of the German surrender from our CO Major Lyell. Our mood changed as we celebrated with a tot or two and fired off some Very lights on the strip. That evening the General鈥檚 Adjutant comes over to us and thanks us for our efforts and the CO has a talk with us on the strip about how important our work had been. He tells me about the role the General had played during the war, in particular his tactical support for Montgomery from El Alamein through to D day and beyond.

Next day we pack up and move on to Luneberg Heath where our airstrip is alongside a block of flats. The official surrender ceremony is carried out. I go up through the devastated outskirts of Hamburg and Keil to Fleusberg on the Danish border to check on our flight there, to find that one of our aircraft had landed on a Danish island and the German garrison commander had surrendered to him. Much excitement as our aircraft were Austers with no armament.

JCT
Feb 2005

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