大象传媒

Strange to say, my memories about the latter part of the war are vague compared to the days of 1944 and 1945 leading up to this time. I have often wondered why, and there could be a number of reasons why the celebration of the end of the war against Japan was not quite the same as VE Day.

Winston Churchill had of course been defeated and Clement Atlee was certainly a different character. VE Day had only been some three months earlier and it was difficult to again work up such enthusiasm and spontaneous excitement in such a short period. This war was not on our doorstep anymore, and sadly the troops fighting in those far-off countries have often considered themselves the forgotten army.

As a result of the change of government we were already entering into what was to be a long period of post-war austerity, and the many of the horrors of the German concentration camps were being made known. The war had been ended by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan.

At the beginning of the war I was just starting infants' school. In June I had left junior school and in two weeks time would be going to the big new world of secondary modern school. I certainly was not looking forward to this, and of course whereas in May we had the excitement of two days holiday at very short notice, now it was the middle of August and we were not at school. In fact, many families may have been away on their first holiday after the war.

Many reasons, but nevertheless there was still celebrations in Trowbridge with our dear friend Albert Taylor once again organising the children's sports in the park. Again we had our street parties with the children of Union Street returning to Zion Chapel Schoolroom (still suffering from wartime use as a food depot) for their party.

This time however there were fireworks in the street, something we had not experienced for years. Boys will be boys! The next morning we collected up all the bits and pieces from spent fireworks, some of which contained gunpowder or whatever it was that made them go bang! All this was put in a pile on the roadside and lit. It's a good job the amount was only small - it could have been a disaster! We certainly had to jump back very quickly and we didn't try it again.

Trowbridge Park has always been the place where the townspeople meet on special occasions - be it sad or glad - and on the Sunday following VJ Day once again a service was held, led by dignitaries from the bandstand. I think however that this was rather curtailed by heavy rain and we spent a large part of the time sheltering under the trees.

So the war had ended, but my abiding memory - I have mentioned this before - is not of VJ Day but the night before. The surrender of Japan was announced very late on the radio and my dad came upstairs to my bedroom and said, 'It's all over'. I turned over and went to sleep - I could not remember a more peaceful night. No more fighting, interrupted nights, bombs. Peace had come.

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