大象传媒

Elsewhere, I have referred to my parents and their friends renting a cottage at "Cut Mill" near Bosham and this small cameo of things that can happen in war-time occurred there.
In the Chichester area in the mid-1940's, were to be found a considerable number of Canadian troops and, unsurprisingly, reports of bad behaviour, when they visited the town, began to circulate. Particularly,reports of attacks on women were made. In those days, the word "rape" was not - except in respect of the acts of Japanese troops in Nanking - used, so,a young adolescent, like me,could only conjecture what these attacks were all about.
I was home from school for the Easter Holidays when, at about 2 o'clock in the nmorning, there was a loud knocking on our front door and my father, reaching for his Home Guard "Winchester" rifle went to open it. There stood two soldiers in khaki, looking the worse for wear, bewildered and somewhat frightened. It did not take long, from the shoulder flashes on their uniforms and from the fact that they were speaking a language other than English or an attempt thereat, to deduce that these were French-Canadian soldiers.
Why were they knocking on our door at 2 in the morning and what did they want ? To the latter question, the answer was "Shelter" until the morning. Eventually, we deduced that they had gone to Chichester for the evening, drunk a little and had tried to catch the last bus back to where they were quartered. Unfortunately, their poor English - or the basic English incomprehension of any language but its own - had let them down and they had been put on the bus which stopped at Chidham (a mile or so beyond us)instead of one going to Chilgrove, some miles north-west of Chichester. Poor souls - they were only a few years older than I - they had alighted from a bus in the pitch dark and had wandered around featureless Chidham looking, without success, for their camp.I am glad that they eventually found us and awakened us; they were worried, too, that they would be in trouble for failing to report back to camp by the appointed time.
The women and I were allowed to go back to bed, whilst my father - with rifle on knee but probably unloaded - and Frank Cropp sat guard for the rest of the night ! In the later morning hours, some sort of breakfast was provided for the lads, who were then put on the next available bus for Chichester. In the meantime, my father had walked to "Cut Mill", where there was a telephone and had informed the Canadian Army of the whereabouts of their missing soldiers. I gather he was asked about their behaviour and had reassured the questioner that it had been perfectly proper.
Not long after this incident, the Canadian Army was heavily involved in the landings at Dieppe, where they suffered grievous casualties. As like as not, our two wanderers were among them but I hope they survived the War to return to their own people, speaking their native tongue.

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