大象传媒

I was 9 years old when the Munich Crisis hit us and I can remember seeing film of Neville Chamberlain descending from his aeroplane at Croydon Airport waving that piece of paper claiming that he had 鈥淏ought peace in our time鈥�.

In August 1939 I well remember reading in the Sunday papers about The Nazi-Soviet Pact which was a signal to Hitler that he could attack Poland without interference from Russia.

On 3rd September 1939 (still 10 years old), I went with my younger brother to the Sunday morning service at a chapel about a mile away from home. At the end of the service we were told that war had been declared on Germany because she refused to withdraw her troops from Poland. I remember telling my brother that we should hurry home to get there before the German bombers arrived. Of course they did not come on that day or any other for many months of 鈥減honey war鈥� until Hitler attacked Norway, the Low Countries and France in 1940. This was followed by the Battle of Britain. During that beautiful summer I remember seeing what looked like silver dots high overhead and hearing the occasional rattle of machine gun fire. Crashed German aircraft were seen all around locally. They were mostly Heinkel 111s but there were some Messerschmitt Me109s. I was allowed to sit in the cockpit of a downed Me109. What a tight fit it was!

I lived in the small town of Haslemere, about 30 miles from the south coast. We were very conscious of the fact that the Nazis were just the other side of the channel and that if they made a landing in England our town would be overrun within a couple of days. In spite of the immediate threat of invasion, Churchill insisted on sending troops to Egypt. The British invasion of Libya followed with the capture of thousands of Italian soldiers. Soon we were to see Italian prisoners walking around our towns with large coloured patches sewn on their uniforms to deter them from running away. Although they were not guarded I don鈥檛 think any of them did try to escape, they liked it too much here!

Eventually, Hitler decided that our Navy and RAF would make an invasion of Britain too risky so he turned eastwards and invaded Russia. Our Royal Naval and Merchant Navy suffered huge losses when trying to provide Russia with food and armaments.

December 1941 saw the entry of the USA against Germany and Japan. At that point we knew we would never be invaded and started preparing ourselves for the Second Front 鈥� the invasion of Europe. Large Canadian Forces were stationed around Haslemere. I remember 鈥渙ur鈥� Canadian troops leaving Haslemere on their way to the Dieppe raid. This proved to be an expensive and tragic failure. The lesson was learned that it would be terribly costly to try to land directly into a port. Instead the Normandy landings when they came were onto beaches with the help of Mulberry harbours. That was on 鈥淒鈥� Day 6th June 1944. Soon after that the Germans launched their V1 and V2 bomber attacks against London and the Home Counties. On a Thursday evening, the night before my GCSE exams started, there was a terrible bang about a mile up the road from us. Later we were told that it was one of the first V1s or Doodlebugs as they were nicknamed, to hit Britain. The exams which followed, were punctuated by frequent trips to the air raid shelters, but I passed my exams in spite of the Doodlebugs or maybe because of them!

Arnhem came not long after that. I remember seeing hundreds of planes towing gliders on their way to Holland. Although Arnhem was a failure it only delayed final victory over Nazi Germany. This was in May 1945. This was followed by victory over Japan the following August.

All sides suffered badly as a result of the war but good relations were eventually restored, and I now have had real friends in Germany for many years.

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