大象传媒

I was born in 1953 but this is an account of an aspect of wartime life recounted to me by my parents (now both deceased) over the years.

My father, Robert Ireland, was a mechanic in the RAF (unit to be provided) and was working on airfields twenty four hours behind the front line - bringing them into operation so that fuel and supplies could be brought in quickly for the frontline troops.

During this time he was stationed at an airfield in Belgium in December 1944. It was during this time that the German army managed to break through Allied lines in the Ardennes ("The Battle of the Bulge"?).

As a result, my father used to recount, he and his colleagues, were issued with a rifles of First World War vintage - as there was nothing else available for them to use. He then had to do roof-top guard duty and wait for the Germans! Fortunately they were stopped before my father had to use his rifle in anger!

He often used to say that he wondered what he would have done if the German army had arrived as he'd not handled a rifle since his basic training in Blackpool five years earlier!

My mother, Margaret Ireland (nee Caller), knowing what my father was going through used to say that it was the worst Christmas she ever spent - waiting for news of my father. Years afterwards she still blamed what she saw as the inferior fighting skills of the American army for letting the Germans break through as they did and spoiling that Christmas!

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