大象传媒

Very few people realise the enormous strain put onto the lives of soldiers who have loved ones at home. One of the worst things to happen to so many young soldiers (which is rarely spoken of) were the 'Dear John' letters which girlfriends and wives sometimes sent in order to break off a relationship. You have to remember that for a soldier serving in World War Two there were no mobile phones, no television and no internet in which to communicate with, and find out about home life and family. Letters were the only way a man and his wife or girlfriend could communicate. As such, letters were extremely important to the men; they provided news of loved ones and helped to keep the men's morale up. A 'Dear John' letter could have a profound affect upon a soldier, once received they would shatter a man as there was rarely anything he could do (being thousands of miles from home). S.S.A.F.A (Soliders, Seaman and Airforce Family Association)was one organisation however that could and did help many men. While the officer in charge of a battilion did not have the authority to send a man home to sort out his marriage, S.S.A.F.A had the power to arrange leave in order to help save a marriage. This they often did, and even today there is a member of the Hinckley community who looks after the families of men serving in the army.

Another issue arising from the war was that the visiting American soldiers often left problems. Alot of us men didn't like the yanks very much. Especially when they were billeted in Hinckley as we knew that they were dating the women of the town, women we were hoping to marry at the end of the war. Of course not all girls dated Americans, but those that did suffered the stigma of being used by them and not wanted by us when we returned. At the George Hotel, market place, a friend of mine saw a woman who was married to one of his friends flirting with some Americans. Her husband was a Japanese Prisoner of War and my friend went out of the hotel and collected together a number of his friends who then returned to accuse the woman of 'conduct she should be ashamed of'. Needless to say a fight broke out, but to us this was the only way of dealing with the Americans.

The gentleman that provided the above memories served with Viscout Montgomery. When asked what kind of a man Montgomery was he told the following stories.

'Whilst serving in the Far East Montgomery had to parade his troops in front of a very high ranking officer. It had taken us hours to get the men ready for inspection and finally, when all the troops were line up Montgomery came out and positioned himself in front of his men. Before he even got chance to give the order to the men, the senior army man rode up behind him and in a loud clear and pompous voice pronounced that Montgomery was two paces left of centre to his men. Montgomery paused but did not move, insteaded he gave the order to his men to make two steps right in order to bring them in line with himself. He then calmly gave the men the order to raise their rifles to their shoulder.

Few people liked Montgomery but he was a man who got things done, a man that wasn't afraid of authority and followed his own rules. Another encounter with Montgomery involved a young private (along with a number of other solider) had been worked into the ground for no real purpose other than on the whim of the commanding officer. The young private had thrown down his tools from the task in hand and pronouced 'I shall soldier no more'. The Private was brought before a disciplinary board and charge, however Montgomery knew that the Commanding Officer had been in the wrong and so he exonerated the young Private and wiped his record clean.

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