大象传媒

As a territorial soldier pre-war, I had been called up on 1st September, 1939 and so had spent all the following years doing "Home Service", that is doing exercises of various sorts and keeping up with new equipment as it came along, in my case "TANKS".
I was now a Tank Commander (Corporal) in my brand new "Cromwell Tank" having been in Normandy for about the same number of weeks compared to the number of years I had spent preparing for the job!!!
By now I felt I had acquired enough experience to judge a situation as to whether we (my crew) were in any immediate danger or relative safety. We were sitting in the grounds of a large house with it's own orchards, gardens and lawns etc. and it so happened that close by were several rows of very large and ripe raspberries on the canes.
Now there had been moments in my mind, when I wondered how the civilians may have felt about our coming to liberate them from the the "German Occupation Forces", after all we were virtually destroying the country. My story will explain how at last one person was pleased.
Having told my driver not to move I took a can intending to "liberate" a few of the raspberries, doing the thing you do when picking your own strawberries, I first ate my fill before filling the can. Now at some time in your life you have most likely had the feeling when doing something you ought not to be doing, of the pricking at the back of your neck, indicating "DANGER". So suddenly my situation of happily picking raspberries changed to a sudden feeling of danger which in Normandy could be the prelude to sudden death. I was literally frozen to the spot, not being in a situation in which I could defend myself. Suddenly the leaves in front of me parted and a face appeared in front of me. You can imagine how my mind was racing, total turmoil, suddenly a voice spoke!!
It turned out to be a young girl of about sixteen years of age and obviously very well educated, because in perfect english she said "Hello Tommy". Almost speechless I managed to say "I'm sorry, but they looked so nice and ripe"
She replied "Please take what you want" and then, very quietly, she added "THANK YOU FOR COMING"

Reg
2nd Northants Yeomanry

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