大象传媒

Memories of D-Day 1944

T R W Butler DOB: 11.06.1940

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know where they came from and I didn鈥檛 see them go鈥� - through the eyes of a four year old boy born in Francis Road, Purbrook, near Portsmouth.

One morning I woke to the sound of strange noises outside our house in Francis Road. I was off to see what it was all about, breakfast was unimportant. On reaching the pathway to the front gate I was amazed to see Army vehicles parked outside our house. I went into the road through a gap between these vehicles which were completely covered in camouflage netting, and stood there in complete amazement. On both sides of the road were military vehicles from one end to the other and I later found out that these vehicles were parked in all the nearby streets. There was a smell of oil and petrol and the noises of engines, men talking and laughing and the clinks of metal as things were moved and checked.

I rushed back into the house to tell my mother. After endless questions from me she told me that they had arrived after I had gone to bed the previous evening and they were preparing to go to war.

I went back into the road again, this time with my older sister, Diana and lots of other children from the neighbourhood.

Most of the soldiers were American. They were very friendly and it was not long before we were having meals with them under the camouflage netting. I remember sitting with other children, cross legged, eating a wonderful mince stew which they cooked in a huge tin. The inside of the vehicles were kitted out with every kind of storage container fitted into the sides and all the food and equipment was kept tidy and organised. I don鈥檛 know how they spared the food for us but after the rationed war years, the food was wonderful. One day a soldier gave me a boiled sweet from a huge bag, filled with lovely coloured sweets. He later came to my house as he realised that only being small, I might choke on such a large sweet.

One particular morning I had to go the local shop to collect a newspaper for my mother and as I was passing between two large vehicles, one started its engine engulfing me in black exhaust. I was petrified and a soldier who saw my plight took my hand and escorted me to the shop. To my surprise, they took me home, a drive of 400 yards in an American jeep.

I don鈥檛 know how log they were there, my sister thinks about two weeks, but our days were filled with wonderful excitement. On leaving the house one morning I noticed the vehicles were no longer outside our house and when I walked into the road I could see that they were all gone, hundreds of different types of army vehicles just disappeared. Where had they gone? I asked everybody.

It was only in later years that I learnt where they went and what they did. Those wonderful men who shared their food with us, many of them not making it back to their families. I and many like me owe them a great debt of gratitude, and I who met them, will not forget them.

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