大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Norman Holding, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In May 1945 I was a young lad in the first year of my apprenticeship at Vauxhall where my father was a Design Engineer working on the Bedford army lorry. He was crippled with rheumatism in his spine and could only walk short distances with difficulty. Hence he was allowed a small ration of petrol so that he could drive to and from work to his home in New Bedford Road, opposite the Barnfield College or at least the field where it now stands. In my spare time I was a member of the 9th Luton Boy Scouts at St Andrews Church in Blenheim Crescent, two facts which were to give me such clear memories of VE Day.

An announcement had been made on the afternoon of Monday 7th May that the war with Germany was over and Tuesday 8th was to be celebrated as 鈥淰ictory in Europe Day鈥�- the war in the Far East was to continue 鈥� and both the Tuesday and Wednesday were to be public holidays. The events of the next few days have left vivid memories although I鈥檓 not sure in which order it all happened.
I suspect I went down to George Street on the Monday evening to join in the celebrations. I have strong recollections of the vast crowds in the Town where the whole street was packed. We tried to form a ring to dance the Hokey Cokey; a popular party dance at the time which even I could manage with my two left feet, but there was no space. There were quite a number of Forces personnel there and a few Thunder Flashes were let off. (A large fire work used in Army exercises to simulate shell explosions. Very dangerous in such a crowed place but I saw no one hurt.) I don鈥檛 recall much drinking going on.

It must have been on the morning of the 8th that a small group of senior Scouts and Girl Guides gathered at the Church to raise the Union Jack on the tower. As I already knew the last part of the climb was via a 20-foot vertical steel ladder up to a heavy oak trap door on to the flat roof. Our leader had come with one of the church kneelers to protect his head as he clung to the top of the ladder and raised the trap door with his head and then inserted a large block of wood, which he carried under his arm, into the gap formed by the slightly opened trap door. For the rest of us it was easy, a straight climb and on to the roof although the girls felt a little uneasy by the height and the fact that the warm air within the tower tried to exit to the outside forming an up draught which threatened to blow their skirts over their heads as they passed though the trap door. In fact one of them still remembers the occasion clearly to this day. Her first and only time on the top of the church tower.

It was probably on the Wednesday. that my father decided that now was no better time to use his small stock of petrol to join in the heart of the Nations celebrations. One of the two gallon emergency cans of petrol was recovered from its illegal storage place at the bottom of the garden and we set of in our small red and black 1934 Morris 8 towards London. With no M1 in those days, it was the long journey through St Albans, Mill Hill and the Barnet Bypass. There was almost no other traffic as goods vehicle were on holiday and private cars, including ours, were not allowed to make far ranging pleasure trips but who cares the War鈥檚 over. Much to everybody鈥檚 surprise we got to The Mall without any problems and although there were lots of people about it was easy to drive down to the end where we stopped against the kerb just before the road widened to form the round about in front of Buckingham Palace. As my father could not walk far he stayed near the car and watched the events through his WW1 German field glasses; a souvenir of his war service. My mother and I walked up to the Palace railings, or as close as the ever increasing crowd would allow. Here we watched the Royal Family and Winston Churchill appear on the balcony to a tremendous cheer from the crowd. When we reached the car again my father was getting worried, As the Royal Family had gone back inside people were starting to return down The Mall towards Trafalgar Square which would impede our return. We did a U turn and drove slowly back through the thin crowd. I had the sun shine roof open and by standing up had a good view. As the crowd caused a momentary halt three girls jumped on to the rear bumper and hanging on with the help of the spare tyre waved to all as they drove on with us through the thickening crowd. My mother was worried about the 鈥渟prings鈥�; 鈥淪houldn鈥檛 they get off?鈥�, but my father wisely said that as they did not weight much we should let them stay and this would prevent their places being taken by three heavy men. I can鈥檛 remember when they did get off but apart from a few words from a London Bobby as he eased the path of this lonely car and its passengers though the Trafalgar Square crowds we arrived back in Luton with out further incident. We still had enough petrol to get to work the next day.

Some time later I was surprised to see an old newsreel film of a shot looking down The Mall from the Palace and what did I see but a small red and black Morris parked at the end of The Mall nearest the camera. Unfortunately it was before the days of video recorders so I was unable to get a copy of my day in London as history was being made.

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