大象传媒

I will always remember Liberation Day and the days immediately after - the sight of the allied warships outside the harbour - the khaki uniforms (having been accustomed to the green uniforms of the Germans) - the happy faces of the crowd - soldiers giving chocolate and cigarettes to people on the Quay.
A day or two later that week a large landing craft came into the mouth of the Old Harbour (now the Victoria Marina) with lorries fully laden, driving out of the ship down the ramp formed by the lowering of the square bows, onto steel matting laid on the harbour bed to enable the vehicles to reach the slipway opposite Woolworths without sinking in the mud. This was surely the forerunner of "roll-on-roll-off'!
In the evening, the crew of this large landing craft were standing on the bows throwing sweets and chocolate to the crowds on the Quay. I was priviledged to have been invited to join a group on a flat roof of a High Street property overlooking the harbour. The crew were trying to throw things to us but the distance was too great and the bars of chocolate would crash against the wall of the building and fall to the pavement below where there was a general scramble for the pieces. The ship's cook, complete with white hat, then came on the scene and started throwing bars of soap. These were heavier than the chocolate and after a few attempts he succeeded in reaching us. The next day my mother met one of our neighbours who said "look at the bump on my forehead, I was in town last evening and was hit by a bar of soap being thrown from the large ship in the Old Harbour". This must have been one of those bars which failed to reach us on the roof!
Looking back we remember many things, some sad, some amusing and have forgotten many others but one thing we will never forget is our liberation from five years of German Occupation.

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