大象传媒

We interviewed a 94 year old man called Lander. He was a boy in the WW1; he was 21 when the WW2 started. He had a job in the special police service, but he joined the army when he was 28. He lived in Southampton all through the war and at the end, he and his wife owned a hairdressers for men and women. Later on in life- when he and his wife were older, they went to live with their daughter in Stoke-on-trent. He has 2 daughters, one of which runs the old peoples home in Romsey. He has 7 great grandchildren! He has been married for 72 years and his wife is still alive. He retired in 1970.
The particular aspect of the war that he wanted to to talk about ws his position in the special Police before the war, but he said it was not as interesting as the crime of today. He entered the royal artillary in 1945, a year after his brother joined the royal airforce. In 1930 he met the empress of Scotland. He moved about through France and Egypt in the army and had a hard time contacting his wife.
Lander recalled that the rations his wife had were hard. She had very little. there was a short supply of fish and a tiny bit of cheese. No fuit, oranges were reserved for children. Sweets and protein were scarce. The army got special rations, which were far more than the civilians. Lander says that he agrees with the claim of: "people being healthier during the war" because the rations meant everyone had a balanced diet. He recons that our generation will never live to the age of his.
Landers experiences of evacuation were that his eldest daughter was evacuted to Fordingbridge when she was 12 years old. She went to Lander's cousin who lived on a farm and stayed their for 9 months.
Lander described the Blitz in Southampton as madness. He said he would prefer to have lived in London. There were 2/3 bad times when the docks were bombed as well as everything in the highstreet. Bittern and Woolston were badly bombed and there were terrible airaids. there were lots of anderson shelters in the suburbs- every few houses had shelters. The underground was an experience Lander would never forget. He says there were masses of temporary bunks crounding the platforms, and beds on the floor. Apparantly the civic centre was the same as the London underground. He remembers when he worked for the police, that when the suburds were hit, they couldnt save everybody.
Lander worked in the Royal artillery for 3 and a half years. He was sent through France, then to Egypt as backup. It was one of lander's jobs to train the young territorial army. There were different statuses: Once fully trained they was the brigade then regements then batteries. Lander was in battery 529.
Lander says he was well informed about the war as he was in the main services. Apparantly at home, the newspapers were informative and the wireless was popular. Most people werent well educated but were very interested in Politics. Lander agreed that if you couldnt follow politics, understanding the war was hard.
Being in the Backup batteries, meant comfort. Lander was only on call when the frontline went down. When he was in France he had to cope with "Those bloody Foreigners!". His wife had bad rations, the civilians had a hard time.
Some of Lander's fellow commanders were killed, and air raids lost the lives of some of his friends. Some boys lander knew were killed in an air raid 2/4 miles from Portsmouth, long with a group of girls - camp followers who hung around the soldiers in their camps as company.
Only once did he have a lucky escape, in an air raid in France where some of his commanders were lost. He blamed it on the French being soft and letting them through.
Lander did have contact with enemy and other allies. he said the French were cowards dropping out if things got bad. He claims to like the germans who were pleasant enough when he met them.
There was nothing particulary unusual about his families contribution to the war. He + his brother joined the army and his cousin joined 'voluntary aid' and another cousin ,looked after his daughter when she was evacuated.
Lander says he felt good abotu the war because we won. He thought th germans would win. Britain expected invasion no matter how hard they tried.
Q) I have a friend who is 93 and still has her sight and hearing. Would you say she had a better life during the war or was just lucky???
Lander says she was very lucky. that not living would stop this from hapenning, it is just old age. Lander has partial sight and hearing. He can only hear properly if he looks at you.
Landers advise is that god has been good to us. he has tried to let everyone live as they would like to. His final words were:

" Do unto others as you would be done by."

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