大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Mr Frederick Jude
18th July 1945. Each day I feel more and more satisfied 鈥� this is the life! But for how much longer I wonder? With Capt. Crawford and a dozen or so of the chaps in the Unit we visit the same spot every afternoon and bathe in these luke-warm waters before scorching our bodies in the perfect sunshine. For the following 5 months this pattern of living continued, the Middle East Command has been very generous to us, we still operate as a Field Park serving the Units with their needs, particularly the Workshops but what we do is completed by mid-day
13th October, 1945. At last the much heralded LIAP (Leave in addition to Python) has actually accommodated me. After fifteen hours in a railway carriage yesterday we alighted in Milan. Here I would say is the cleanest and most modern industrial city or town I have seen. Tomorrow we leave for Calais via Switzerland, a thirty-six hour train journey.
18th October, 1945.The scenery through Switzerland and France was splendid, at Calais we boarded our ship bound for Dover. From London I said my farewells and headed for Norwich by train. It was one o鈥檆lock in the morning when I arrived at Norwich, only to find there would not be a train for Fakenham until 8am. Searching around the station I saw Post Office vans loading mail for delivery to country post offices and found one bound for Fakenham via East Dereham. I crept round the back of our house in Hayes Lane to where our main bedroom is sited and after a few calls Grace was alerted to my arrival. Needless to say I was very tired and after further refreshment we went to bed. Three hours later an enthusiastic young lady of two years plus a month rushed into the bedroom and almost screamed 鈥榳ho鈥檚 that man in your bed mummy鈥�. 鈥業t鈥檚 your daddy鈥� said Grace, 鈥榯hat鈥檚 not my daddy鈥� Annette replied with not a little feeling of disgust and pointing to a photograph of me taken a few years ago said 鈥榯hat鈥檚 my daddy!鈥� Had I changed that much, I wondered. So to begin with, the father and daughter relationship wasn鈥檛 at all good.
My fears about our printing business proved real. Fortunately we still held the contracts to serve both the Walsingham Rural District Council and that for the Docking Council, when in 1940 both Councils had demanded that it was essential to them that I be excused service in the forces, at no little embarrassment to myself. They claimed that in order to administer the district council affairs I should be excused future service, because Mr Applegate aged 68 was no longer fit. A 6 month delay was granted.
Looking back I thought Grace had changed but little, our long separation had presented no problems and it seemed the years had been but hours. My youngest sister nursing at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford had become engaged to John Gillingham, serving as a Neurological Surgeon in the army whom I was delighted to meet at a Church Parade one Sunday morning during my time of service in the area of Tripoli, North Africa.

Back in Trieste I reported to the Field Park HQ, it was clear to me that life from now on would be very different, as the Major said our main function would be to accommodate the closing down of various units
Once again I found myself in charge of the office with a staff of ten plus four Italians who were incapable of communicating in English. But life in Trieste turned out not so bad after all, most of the work was still completed in the mornings and I developed a keen interest in horse riding from the stables at Oporcino. It seems we had commandeered these stables with its horses and one of our chaps, a despatch rider, who I learnt came from Norfolk detailed to look after these animals.

26th March, l946. The events of today compel me to add to my much-neglected diary.
I must record this Triestinian uproar that almost amounts to a revolution.
Tonight thousands of inhabitants from the countryside surrounding Trieste, all Croats and supporters of Tito, are demonstrating in the city against the Italians. It all reminds me of a Wembley Cup final except the volume of noise is ten times greater.
I sincerely hope the commission decides in favour either of an International Province or to hand it back to the Italians. At all costs it must not be handed to that brigand Marshal Tito, the persecution that would follow a Yugoslav conquest is truly unthinkable, Hitler and his persecution of the Jews, as we understand it, would be but a fairy tale in comparison.
2nd May, 1946. I now know that my discharge from the services will be late August this year, so I can look forward to getting back to civilian life and doubtless problems at the Lancaster Press.
However there was the possibility of taking a two month course at the Universita Straniero, Perugia, provided I had the approval of my commanding officer and could pass the entry test. As students we were expected to make the most of our visit in order to 鈥渆nrich your education, thus enabling you to benefit from this experience as you return to your civilian occupations.鈥�
July, 1946. Back at the Unit in Trieste with just one month to serve life was most pleasant, I continued with my office responsibilities including dictating many character references which I hoped would be well received by those they were intended to impress when chaps hopefully faced their interviewers back home.
20th August, 1946. Caught early train from Trieste bound for home and onto the Aldershot Training Camp. As a result of shell landings at St. Archeangelo I ignored the fact that I may have qualified for a pension to compensate for the partial loss of hearing; my outlook on life had considerably changed through my years of service, I was determined not to accept everything at face value.
I arrived home at Fakenham at a respectable hour and so ended my four and a half years service in the British Army feeling fortunate to be alive and to have had the experience of travel, wonderful friendships, tragedy and happiness.

Most of all I mourn the loss of so many friends as I recall the years of my service and on returning to civilian life I am finding many pre-l939 friends missing from our local scene. One then has to wonder, was it just luck, was it the blessing by the Pope or the prayers of the nurses at Forli hospital? I can only thank God for being alive to tell the story.

Frederick Jude. May 2005

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