大象传媒

My father (now 65) was a mere 18 months old at the outbreak of WWII. His Father, Godfrey "Goddy" Edwards was (I think) a military policeman in the Tank Corps based at Bovington. My father, the youngest of three children, would often go out and play (with the other children) in the area surrounding the base, even as a todler when he once got away from his mum on his Tricycle only to be found being very well looked after by the local German PoW's!! Towards the end of the war, he and his friends would often do fun things like pick unexploded bombs that had soft landed in the trees - until another boy from the village became the unfortunate soul for whom the numbers in THIS particular lottery would be up.
However, in the days leading up to D-Day, the now 6 year old Roy Edwards was playing with the toy he had recently been given by my Grandfather (as a late birthday present I think)- a line of wooden tanks, carved by my Grandfather and each joined to the last by a piece of string. My father pulled this line of tanks along the road and decided to eventually cross it! However, he obviously could not have guessed that a column of tanks heading out of the barracks were advancing and very likely completely oblivious to the significance of their mission or rendez-vous time with the waiting sea transports near-by! Seeing this 6-year old boy, the sympathetic tanks DID stop (I'm pleased to announce!)and not splat him all over the road. HOWEVER, they must have become very bemused when this self-same little child kept stopping and walking back into the middle of the road - because he STILL insisted on pulling HIS column of tanks along behind him, and they kept falling over.
Quite what the tank commanders must have thought to this sight of a six year old boy, in the middle of the road, dragging home-made wooden tanks along behind him by a piece of string, stopping every few steps to walk back and reset an errant wooden tank that had had the audacity to fall over as it hit a bump!
It is quite likely that one or two of the commanders would have recognised my father as the son of the local Acting-RSM MP and perhaps this disuaded them from saying anything. Maybe they DID say something, but my resolute father may not have acknowledged them... who knows...either way- it is a nice story!

Robert-John Edwards

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