大象传媒

This is how my late father remembered VE day:

I was engaged in a reconnaissance in the Burmese jungle with a small party of Indian troops. We were very short of general news and our only means of communication was by wireless at certain times of the day.

Atmospherics in the jungle were generally bad and on particularly bad days communication was by Morse code, otherwise by radiotelephony in which case everything had to be repeated twice.

On this occasion the interference did not seem t be too bad (or at least Control did not seem to think it was) and we were using radiotelephony. The Indian Signals Corps Operator with me and I were both wearing headphones and concentrating on the messages coming from Control through all the crackling and spluttering. We heard a number addressed to various units in clear or in code.

Then in exactly the same voice from the Control Operator (an Indian) 鈥� and I have never forgotten this - 鈥溾�︹�︹��.I have a message for all units 鈥� Begins: The war in Europe ended at midnight. 鈥� I repeat - The war in Europe ended at midnight. I have a message for Able Charlie Fox 鈥�..鈥� and on he went with the usual routine stuff to various units.

These contained a coded message for me needing decoding and immediate action which kept me fully occupied for some time and it was much later that the significance of the announcement of the end of the European war sank in. Even then it didn鈥檛, as I remember seem to be of much interest and to matter only as a relief for my wife, my daughter and all friends and relatives.

Celebrations? Many days later after my return to base. At the time my Indian companions were sympathetic to my relief for family and friends, otherwise they could hardly care less about the news 鈥� we still had the ***s to deal with.

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