- Contributed byÌý
- 2nd Air Division Memorial Library
- People in story:Ìý
- Odell Johnson
- Location of story:Ìý
- Train Journey from Attleborough, Norfolk to London
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2881550
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 31 July 2004
This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Christian of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library on behalf of Odell Johnson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
My name is Odell Johnson, I was a member of
the 453rd Bomb Group, 733rd Squadron. My story is a humorous one, in that our group was taken off operation April 11th 1945 as the targets were getting few and far and we were the Junior group in the 2nd A.D.
So we were taken off operations to be shipped back home to train on B29s to go to the Pacific. We shipped out on May 8th, which happened to be V.E. Day. This was all planned much in advance. We formed up early in the morning at Old Buckenham, and marched the two miles down to Attleborough where we caught a troop train down to Southampton to board a Hermitage to go back home to the USA.
On the troop train, as we passed through villages and towns – and especially when we got to London – at every crossroad we came across, the streets were full of humanity. It just was wall-to-wall: people had suffered so much during the war and were now just letting it all out. So we witnessed great excitement everywhere.
And at this time, we were passing through London, through the tenement areas, where there were these five and six-storey buildings, fire escapes on the back. And, as we did, up on the fourth or fifth floor, stood this elderly woman in the fire escape. She was probably thirty-five - in her hands, she had a pair of red, white and blue bloomers that would have fitted the biggest elephant you ever saw!
She stood there, waving at us Yanks going home on V.E. Day and wishing us well. So that is a memory I remember very much of my time over here and of going home.
It was good to get home of course, but it's good to get back here and see the library in Norwich - a living memorial to the men who lost their lives, and were unable come home.
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