大象传媒

Dear Sir,

Herewith my contribution to your proposed feature May 8th 1945. Afternoon Leavengreave school, I was twelve and a half years old, the headmaster summoned the entire school into the main hall and announced the end of the war, cessation of hostilities! Loud cheers! Delight! Joy! Laughter as we were let out to make our way home. I lived at the higher end of Shawforth before Britannia. Our gang , probably Geoff Whitworth too made our way up the road, Market Street. We knocked on every door and I MEAN every door, triumphantly announcing the good news "we've won the war". We danced we sang and cheered all the way home.
Not so long before April 12`h the president of the USA Franklin D. Roosevelt had died and the allied nations mourned his untimely death on the brink of victory. Now we were celebrating, I had grown up during the war, I was a veteran! I had survived! I was glad. I had lived in Manchester in 1939 and had been evacuated on September 2掳掳 , the day before war was declared, to a farm at Hutton near Preston with my sister Elsie. Then followed the "phony war" so come Easter 1940 we returned to live in Hulme. The autumn and winter of that year saw the blitz begin. We were lucky, our house remained intact, despite near misses. My younger sister Mavis was born during a raid in the bed above our heads where Elsie and I were on the floor for safety sake. Many of our playmates weren't so lucky. When they didn't answer to their names at morning assembly we knew they weren't playing truant, they were either dead or in hospital. Imagine the shock to my young eyes the morning after a raid to see one of these playmates, a girl, her body still clad in her nightdress on the roof of a house. The blast victim from her destroyed house and family.
Fortunately for us we were able to seek refuge and comparative safety first in Rochdale with our Grandparents and then up the valley to Shawforth living first up Shanter Back and then Crowther Street. From the tender age of seven I knew all about the destruction, human suffering and agonies at close quarters in Hulme. No longer in any physical danger we did our best in the war effort by house to house collections on the many drives, aluminium pots and pans, books, all sorts of anything salvageable. Cash donations, aircraft week -HMS Moonstone, Whitworths contribution - a trawler/minesweeper which served with distinction in the Crete campaign.
Even at that young age we were aware of the situation on the continent, The nazi regime, their defeating and occupying of those countries. The blitzkreig of the nazi war machine as they rolled into Russia. The battle of the Atlantic, the Arctic conveys, the desert rats the battle for their lives against Rommel. In spite of this we still kept on lustily singing Rule Britannia whilst living on the ration book.

The bitter blows of defeat, the inspiration of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain in the air, the tame capitulation of France and particularly Belgium left our little island stunned and almost despairing. Ironic isn't it that it is the bureaucrats of these countries that now wield the whip of power over Europe and are cracking the whip over our heads with their ludicrous policies.
So the blows continued. The debacle of Singapore with the Japanese winning the victory simply by turning the water mains off in Jahore Bahru! Was there no end to it? My Uncle Johnny got away with his life at the siege of Tobruk. The loss of battleships, over 1500 men in HMS Hood, the U boat campaigns horrendous losses of sailors, soldiers air force merchant seamen civilian in the bombed cities of Coventry, Plymouth London, Portsmouth Liverpool Manchester. Day after day, weeks, months came the grim news but day after day Mr. Newble led us in singing "There'll always be an England". On the wall of the classroom was an enormous picture of the Battle of Agincourt which was a tremendous encouragement because that picture symbolised victory over overwhelming odds.
After America finally joined in the war our spirits were raised for a time, then they too started taking a hammering from the Japanese, but eventually, weight of numbers and materials turned the tide and the prospects looked brighter. Through the trials and tribulations we finally triumphed and that is why I shouted aloud and wanted everyone in Shawforth to share the good news, that, yes! Yes! We have won the war. What a parry we had on Crowther Street which was behind Peel Terrace . I won a 6d saving stamp ( 2 1/2 p in today鈥檚 money) in a fifty yard dash. We boasted two really good singers, Mrs. Lena Stansfield and Mrs Ada Wilkinson. Mrs Lena Stansfield rendered Beautiful Dreamer followed by Mrs Ada Wilkinsons "Begin the Beguine". We were proud of our victory, we were all relieved and grateful that we had survived. Some five years later I volunteered to join the Royal Navy to serve King George VI and then H. M. the Queen and country for twenty two years. I was ready aye ready.
Great to read the stories in "The Ob" of the memories that this period of our history evokes..
A pox be upon those that decry the cost of the remembrance and celebration activities. The price has already been paid in full by all those that lost their lives and didn't return home. " They gave their tomorrows for our today鈥檚" is an epitaph that is fitting and proper, my Uncle Robert lies in his grave at La Deliverance in Belgium. Many many Rochdale folk have their loved ones resting thus under foreign soil but nevertheless is forever England. I am unashamedly a Patriot. I cry God Save the Queen, God rest the souls that gave their lives. Amen.

Yours Faithfully
Leonard Boardman

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