大象传媒

Tin hats and toy guns

Chapter eight

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All together , side by side.

When I got home , I think that, for the first time, I really saw the tiredness and the greyness of it all.
People had a new determination and I think that everyone knew that, at last, there was perhaps, just a faint glimmer of light at the end of the very long, dark tunnel !
But, all those years of darkness and shortages had taken it toll on people.
I could see it all around me.
Many had lost loved ones and many more had not seen their families for years.
To us kids, it had all become a way of life ! age almost fourteen. it was difficult to remember any other life.
I had spent almost half of my life in the war.
But, I still felt the excitement and the adventure of it all.
Now, the allied armies were really moving across Europe and the Germans were being pushed back into their homeland .
I couldn't wait to tell my mates at school about my American cousin.
The first thing they wanted to know was, had I got any gum left?
But, I certainly got a lot of prestige from it all. Every kid was in awe of these American soldiers.
I noticed once more, how the Americans had changed . They were no longer the kids who had arrived here in 1941.
They looked older and wiser. They didn't dash round in their Jeeps with quite the same casual attitude.
They were now as deep in it as we were.
They had seen many of their buddies killed over in France, and they had become MEN !
I often wondered where cousin Albert was. I never got any news. But, in those days,
kids were just , kids .
meanwhile, the space age had arrived !
People had got used to the snarling sound of the 'Doodle Bugs ', chugging over London.
But, one day there had suddenly been a terrific explosion without any warning at all !
It was the V2 rocket. V2s flew swiftly and without wings ! They were indeed the forerunner of the space age.
This was another of uncle Adolf's secret weapons. And there didn't seem to be any defence against this one.
I often thought about the difference in our national characters.
The Germans had a brilliant inventiveness and, they also had their backs to the wall !
The Russians had fought their was across the vast steppe lands and were now fighting inside Germany.
Then, there was the Americans. The exporters of powdered eggs ! Those kids HAD become soldiers and they had vast amounts of equipment. And, an unswerving belief in Uncle Sam ....
Then, there was us. What could I say about us ? We seemed to have ignored everything that had been thrown at us !
We didn't say much and our weapons to combat Hitler included little strips of aluminium and rubber tanks and aircraft !
It worked ! We also had some fine soldiers
with a great desire to get it over with and go home to how it had been ! But, how it wasn't going to be any more !
Our values ? A pint and a football match,
families and a week at the seaside and, just being left alone.
But, for whatever reason, our side was winning .
Christmas 1944 arrived. Still carrots in the Christmas cake and saccharine custard !
Next year, I would be fourteen !
We didn't have much in the way of toys. Fashion for kids was just our school clothes ' including my cardboard shoes, and, of course T.V. and electronic games were a thousand miles into the future !
I had abandoned the 'Mickey Mouse club' it seemed a bit childish now.
I wanted to go, but it was not the thing to be seen queueing alongside a lot of 'kids'. We still played our street games in the blackout and we ran around the woods with toy guns. It will seem a bit silly to modern kids ? but, that's the way it was.
Swapping things at school was still popular. But, now it was military badges and even German helmets !
The air raid shelters were by now, long abandoned and overgrown. Even the empty gun pit at Molineux was slowly disappearing under brambles and nettles.
The women were wonderful. They still didn't complain.
My mother still worked in the factory. Now, they were sorting out American military equipment that had been in battles and pulling out the good stuff.
Women had been doing all sorts of things now for years. Land army, forces, building planes and flying them ! They also reared children and kept the homes going on their own... They got no medals.
Still, they struggle for equality !
Everything was dark and gloomy, but we enjoyed our Christmas carrot cake.
We had been told that carrots helped you to see in the dark ! So, we all chewed carrots. Our fighter pilots and the Germans too. Our pilots did seem to be able to see in the dark! Actually, it was a big cover up to hide the efficiency of our night radar ! Tin strips, rubber tanks and carrots ! How did we win ?
Now, it was 1945. I saw at the 'Odeon' pictures of a place called Belsen.
How could human beings do that ? I remembered again my little German Jewish friend. Her family were safe in England.
But, we knew now, what had happened to the ones who never got out.
The allied soldiers that we saw on the news seemed to have forgotten how to smile.
Most German prisoners too, looked grim. They trudged wearily, in their thousands into captivity.
Now, we were bombing Germany all the time.
We didn't seem to be any better at avoiding civilians than the Germans had been.
We still worked on the farms. Schoolboys were to be seen working alongside the German Prisoners out in the fields. Gradually, our school shes were being destroyed. Sliding about in the mud .
We didn't wear our school raincoats on the farms. We wore old potato sacks tied with bits of string. We must have looked like
medieval peasants as we trudged about in the cold winter mud !
I loved it . Better than lessons.
I was being left behind a bit because of my dyslexia ( stupidity ) but, I was finding ways to fight back. I discovered talent for art and also writing ' as long as I had a dictionary to sort out my awful spelling.
I knew that I was a bit eccentric even at that age. I didn't like that, but I was stuck with it. We are what we are !.
But, just then, what mattered was winning the war. It was a way of life.
So, we trudged across the muddy fields in our medieval clothes quite happily !
Even my old balaclava helmet still survived. It was now full of holes, but it looked quite in place as part of my thousand year old fashion !.
I think that it should be recognised as a wartime uniform when they have the big parades in London to remember the war.
But, without the musty smell of the mud, old potato's, cows, turnips, tractor fuel, hayseeds , horses and, our own not too careful schoolboy habits of personal hygiene!
Wartime soap looked rather like a bit of old cheese. And it was about as useful for getting the mud off.
Water was cold and towels were old potato sacks.
Yes, a wartime aroma that stays in the memory over the years !
At school , the morning after, there was no leeway given.
Shoes had to shine and we were inspected behind our ears with military efficiency.
The cane was the punishment for dirty shoes .
I had... And still do have, unruly hair.
It sticks up at the back in a little tuft.
I always got told that it was a disgrace.
Comb and water made no impression at all.
It runs in the family !
I disliked my hair. I still do.
I used to ram my old balaclava helmet on my head whenever I could.
School dinners never got any better.
Still, gallons of the awful custard and a scoop of lumpy potato ! How I looked forward to 'Sago day'.
I still got my egg and mash at Mrs Allen's and we still got 'Spam' and 'Prem' from uncle Sam. And, the wonderful powdered eggs. Now, we got a ration of sticky stuff called 'National orange juice'. and spoonfuls of malt, because we were getting boils and needed vitamins.
Fortunately, I never saw any more American dried bananas . If the Yanks can eat them , they can eat anything.
But, I don't think they did. They sent them all to us.
National dried milk.. I don't know where THAT came from !
It turned your tea orange and it floated to the surface in little lumps . I used to chew the little lumps !
But, the highlight of the month was when we got our sweet ration. I used to eat mine in about ten minutes. We got six ounces of any sort of sweets. I used to buy 'Victory V lozenges, because they were hot and that slowed you down a bit .
Back to the war....
Hitler shot himself . But the war didn't end. They got another Fuhrer .
The Merchant ships were getting safely across the Atlantic. But it made no difference to us. Food was needed for starving people all over Europe.
I was looking forward to my 14th birthday. Suddenly, ten days before it arrived, the war ended !
May 8th. Everyone was rushing around in great excitement. I felt guilty as my dad turned on all the light and opened the curtains. It looked like fairyland .
No longer, would I smack into unsuspecting air raid shelters in the darkness .
They took the covers off the bus headlights and suddenly, each bus had a little patch of light in front of it !
I had forgotten about all that.
It all seems pretty silly now, but it was like coming into another world.

Slowly, the soldiers started coming home. Some had been prisoners of war. they looked very thin and quite ill.
The grins were back on their faces now,
They were coming home to their families..
The Yanks too. They were going home.
On a visit to Wales, just after my fourteenth birthday, I saw hundreds of American bombers flying back to America.
There is a big R.A.F. base at Valley on Anglesey and it was used to send the old worn out bombers back to the U.S.
They didn't go empty. They filled each one with returning G.I.s
I remembered. all those years ago, looking into the sky from St John's schoolyard. and seeing my first flying Fortress .
That silver bird looked like something out of another world. I suppose it was really ?.
One day, I was visiting auntie Elsie. She told me that uncle Ken was on his way home from Italy. We were laughing about some funny things that had happened over the last five years. I told her that I would miss powdered eggs . I was telling her bout Ronnie and has air raid shelter when there was a knock at the door.
She went out into the hall and returned with a big happy grin and tears in her eyes.
She tried to speak.
In walked uncle Ken, just as though he had only been away for a couple of days ! but,
very tanned . He had been all through the desert with the Desert rats and then through Italy. He was wearing his battered looking uniform still. He had the rank of captain at the end of the war.
He put down his bags and put his battered old cap onto my head.
Suddenly, I felt in the way. We nattered for a short time and I made my excuse to be on my way.
On my way home, I saw flags flying everywhere and some home made 'Welcome home' signs.
Women too, were coming home . I wondered how THEY would fit in .
They Had changed forever, like so many other things. Even At fourteen ' I was beginning to see it.
I wondered what became of the lovesick soldier who gave me his gun and wandered of across the sunlit fields. Did he ever marry his little blond air force girl ?
What happened to the soldiers from the gun site ? The bramble bushes had almost reclaimed the spot where they lived for all those years.
You wouldn't even notice that there had ever been a little camp there now.
Its just beside the M62 !
The sergeant who gave me the pineapple chunks ? I will never forget you.
What happened to the young fighter pilot who winked at me . Did he survive the war ?
Was he knocking at his door, or would he never go home ?
I remembered little ' booster' high up on a wild Welsh mountainside forever.
I remembered the crew and a lot of other crews.
So many ships at the bottom of the Atlantic. All they were trying to do was feed us kids.
The German prisoners went home eventually.
What sort of a Germany ?
The world had changed forever !
Lets have a final look at little Arnold .
He is wandering along slowly on his way to school. It is a grey, damp morning.
Lets look into his mind !
He is quite lanky now. Still, his shes are mended with cardboard , His clothes are worn and still , his little tuft of hair sticks up. ' forever'.
No gas mask now. No flying pigs, no shrapnel.
He has an art lesson this morning. That cheers him up a bit.
He still has his dyslexia and it's still called stupidity.
If we could see his face, we would see a little tear running down his cheek.
Where had his world gone ?
No more spitfires, no more soldiers, no more tanks and guns in the woods. It was all over.
The Yanks had gone home.
If you're going to become involved in such a war , there will never be one again,
Then eight is a good time to wander int it.
But, when it ends, five years later, so much of your life ends with it !
The good days at Molineux, Arnhill, The innocence of the 1930s were gone forever,
Little Arnold's childhood had gone too.
It had not been noticed in passing.
His talent for putting out firebombs was not required any more. He wold even miss his gas mask.
He remembered his little Jewish friend. He never saw his American cousin again, or Helmuth. He disappeared into Eastern Germany.
As he walked across the bridge over the smelly river, he walked into the future.
But, nothing would ever come close to his childhood. The morning was grey and damp.
He wiped the tear from his eye.

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