大象传媒

Co-opted to the above Service to fly sealed packages to Mr. Churchill who was on holiday in Biarritz, and later to the Government Officials involved in the post-war Potsdam Conference. To facilitate these operations, engineers had removed the bulky cameras from long-range photographic Spitfires, and replaced them with a wooden tray in which to store any papers. This was of course very useful for the return journey from the South of France, being filled with such delicacies as melons, peaches, etc which had not been seen in England for about five years. The pilots themselves, allegedly to ensure the smooth running of the Service, organised a reserve aircraft to be kept at the outward end of the journey, thus enabling them to have two or three days away from base. There were normally two flights a day; the first one very early in the morning as soon as the Kings Messenger on duty arrived from London. In the case of Biarritz, it was necessary only to fly as far as Bordeaux where a resident Kings Messenger took over the responsibility of delivering any documents. These were assumed to be very secret and important, but on one occasion, when the Bordeaux Kings Messenger failed to turn up, the pilot concerned insisted on taking the package himself to Biarritz in the Kings Messenger official car. He was actually shown into the Great Man鈥檚 presence as he was having breakfast, the package was opened and all that came out was a copy of that morning鈥檚 鈥淭imes鈥�.

Berlin in 1945 was very different from Bordeaux, and even more different from the last visit made some nine years previously. On that earlier occasion, by a fortuitous sequence of circumstances, had managed to attend the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympic Games. Not only that but had a seat in the official Government Box surrounded by all the Nazi leaders and only about four rows behind Hitler himself. It was a most impressive occasion: thousands of Swastika flags, a huge orchestra dressed all in white and at each end of the stadium there was tethered the Graf Zeppelin and the ill-fated Hindenburg. Had the same seat later in the week to in time see the famous Jesse Owen win the 100 metres.

And so, nine years later, everything was in ruins, no food available, very little drainage, and a pervading smell of putrefaction and death. There was clearly little in the way of recreation as there had been in Bordeaux, but the grapevine suggested that a visit to the 鈥榤arket鈥� might be of interest. It is said by some economists that markets are efficient, and in its way the Berlin one was no exception. It took place on a large empty space near the ruined Reichstag, and participants included a) Germans, b) American soldiers, c) a few British ditto and d) numerous Russians. Broadly the Germans contributed cameras, field glasses etc in exchange for food, provided by the Americans. The British provided cigarettes, and to help with this, there was a huge Naafi truck parked behind the Reichstag filled to the roof. How it got there, and under whose authority, was a mystery. The whole market was made more liquid by the Americans having printed some 鈥淥ccupation Marks鈥� which they had issued to their forces as pay. These marks did of course get into general circulation and facilitated many sales and purchases. It was however rumoured that the Americans had agreed to make the printing of such currency available, after a certain date, to the Russians; the only proviso being that Russian printed notes should have a minus sign in front of the serial number. This was indeed a fact, and the Russians printed notes like mad, and made them available to their own troops, many of whom were said to have not been paid for over three years. The net result of all this was that the Russian printed marks with minus signs traded at a heavy discount, and those visiting the market could be seen with carefully segregated bundles of notes in each hand to be used for the day鈥檚 bartering.

There was a quite ridiculous side effect of this. In the initial stages at any rate, Russian notes could be redeemed at the American PX at the full rate and the resulting profits airmailed home to grateful relatives back home in the States.

Back to England on July 28th 1945, thus ending official War Service. Six years: from Signalman at two shillings a day to Acting Kings Messenger (unpaid). It doesn鈥檛 look as if it was worth it.

But it was really.

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