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After I had been a plane spotter in Britain, we went by ferry from Dover to Calais on New Years Eve 1944, travelling for about 36 hours on the train overnight to Ostend, where we stayed for two nights. Next we went through Holland by coach to Antwerp. I was struck by how colourful the houses were compared with Britain where they were all brown or white. By then the Germans had been pushed further on, but whilst in Antwerp we could still hear guns in the distance. We were on an aerodrome that the Americans had used. It was like a fort, complete with a moat which we used to go on in a little boat. We used to barter with soap or anything sent from home with the people across the fields in exchange for fresh eggs. On our days off we used to go dancing in a big hall next to the zoo. I was in Antwerp for V.E. day but we did not see many celebrations as in a way, the war was still going on. There was a shortage or water when we were there and we used to have a little Billy can which we filled up from a tank and then we washed with that.

I went to Brussels from there to train to type for a month and was then allocated to a Catholic priest who was liaising with the Archbishop of Westminster regarding the prisoners of war or the people who were interned in Germany. He visited them in the concentration camps and obtained any names or addresses to see if they could be reunited with anyone in London. He never allowed me to go into the camps, I always stayed with the chauffeur in the car outside. I lost all my speed as I had to type up long lists of these foreign names. I was in Germany for eighteen months and was demobbed there, by then I was in the British Army of the Rhine. During this time I stayed with the priest who had a flat above the big British post office for the forces, where the mail was sorted. We went to the public baths in Badoinhosen, which was a spa area and the German women would be there with their white coats on. There were sunken baths made of wood and the water used to come up through the bottom somewhere. That was our first bit of luxury.

I had seen the effects of the bombing in Britain, but there was such devastation there, especially in Cologne. I had leave two or three times while I was there and they would send us home in biplanes to London. I know one time I was due to go to Paris for what they called ‘48 hours leave’ and I swapped with somebody, going home instead. The next thing I knew they had stopped them so I never did get to go to Paris.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sian Roberts of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs. Catherine Deakin and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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