大象传媒

When I worked on the farms with the POWs, a tall young Italian man made me understand in broken English that before the war back home in Italy, he was a policeman. In the evenings at the POW camp he made some badges out of alloy metal like he wore on his police uniform and cap badge. He gave these badges to me and I still have them today.

A German POW I saw on the farms was very good at drawing. With just a pencil he drew me a picture of a Lancaster bomber which looked first class but unfortunately I have since lost that.

I was 13 years old in 1945 and the first thing I remember about V E Day was the lady head teacher who lived at the junior school just up the road. She sent a younger boy to ask me and my friend to go and hep her to put up all the flags and bunting along the front of her school. She had been saving these ready for the big day. Next, I remember all the merry making; dancing and singing in the main street of the village in the evening and late into the night. Everyone joined in the celebrations. The soldiers from the searchlight camp brought the searchlights into the two streets. One shone along and above the main street and the second on the church spire. There was a third shining on the church from the camp. These lights really illuminated the village after the blackout of the past 6 years I can remember seeing a shadow of the church tower and steeple on the night sky up above. The music for dancing in the street was from a record player just inside an open pub window. Two older teenage boys were letting off banger fireworks in the street among the people. Somebody had made an effigy of Hitler which was put on top of a bonfire. I was very late home that night.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.