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In my various memories I have already referred to D.Day, but with the 60th anniversary coming up thought it might be opportune to again record some of these in one article. To those of us who lived during those days 6th June 1944 does not need to be recorded in a calendar - it is engraved in our memories. Trowbridge was one of those towns completely taken over by the military during the war and the area where I lived was one huge 'tank park' As the war progressed the army personnnel and their equiment varied. The preparation for the many campaigns and return from the battlefields saw many changes. I remember the soldiers training before they left for the continent prior to Dunkirk - and their return. Then there was the build up of British tanks and our forces defending us with the Germans threatening our shores but now the Americans were taking over. Their large tanks lined Union Street and from our bedroom windows we could almost look down the turrets and watch as the soldiers prepared their equipment for battle. Up Middle Lane as we then called it (now St. Thomas' Road ) large half-tracked vehicles were parked on the wide grass verges - whilst just over the hedge old Farmer Hancock was still keeping his cows, driving them down to market through the lines of tanks and supplying us with milk. My dad was employed on Ushers transport (our local brewery) and after delivering beer to Bellefield House where many of their officers were stationed came back with tales of the luxurious food they were having! The GIs were however great and kept us supplied with gum! Any gum chum? was often a request- and they would oblige. They also had wonderful voices and I still pass the spot where one evening GIs - having formed a choir - were singing just outside their camp.
Suddenly they had gone - the streets and lanes were strangely empty - and then we knew that D.Day had dawned - now the activity was in the air. Keevil Airfield which had always been so important during the war - Spitfires made in the Trowbridge area were assembled and tested there, but now lines of aeroplanes towing gliders were taking off all day. My most vivid memory is listening to the six o'clock evening news. There was a clear blue sky and as I listened to the voice of the newsreader coming through the open window to the back yard where I was playing so I watched the lines of gliders going over the town. I have since read that they went to the Mendips before turning south to France and checking local history books those I actually saw would have arrived over Normandy during mid-evening. Sadly they did not all reach their destination. There is I believe a monument on the Mendips to men who were lost when one of the gliders crashed. This may have been D.Day or Arnhem of which I have smilar memories.

Having been so young at the start of the war, memories of that time were more of what was happening locally, and 大象传媒 broadcasts, but from this time I was following the day-to-day stories in the daily press. The newspapers were full of reports and maps - and as the war eventually drew to a close I used to wonder what ever could be in the papers after that time.

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