大象传媒

The author of this story had understood the rules and regulations of this site and has agreed that this story can be entered on the People鈥檚 War web site

Part 4

For a while, there was a shortage of men in the district, there were young lads and very much older men, but not much in between. Suddenly everything changed and the town was full of Canadian soldiers, all ready to take the girls out dancing or to the pictures. They taught the girls how to jitterbug and jive and all were very friendly, missing their homes and families. Most people made them welcome and invited them into their homes, some soldiers brought things we hadn't seen much of for a long time, sharing chocolate bars, chewing gum and cigarettes. These things had been in very short supply. Chocolate was very acceptable, with us being rationed, we had to chose a small bag of sweets or a small bar of chocolate once a week, sometimes we had no choice at all.
We did not see oranges, grapes, bananas, pineapples, peaches or lemons or any other fruit from abroad for nearly the duration of the war. Occasionally, we might be lucky enough to get a tin of fruit if we had sufficient points left. Apart from basic foods being rationed and petrol, now bread and milk and clothes were also rationed. Clothes had to be quite simple and with not much material used to make them. The Government specified how much material should be used in the making of clothes, and coupons still had to be used to buy them. The motto of the day was "Make do and mend" and people who were clever with a needle and cotton, could make a new dress or a skirt out of old ones, using the parts that were not worn out. Anyone who had an old blanket to spare could make a dressing gown to help keep them warm. If you were lucky enough to get hold of a used parachute, many things could be made out of them, underwear, nighties, blouses, even wedding and bridesmaid dresses.
My Mother's brother was in Italy, he wrote and told us that he would send us a parcel of oranges and lemons and we waited patiently for the parcel in anticipation of at last tasting an orange again. At last it came, a wooden box, covered in hessian and stitched up so that the box was contained inside. The wrappings were quickly taken off and the box opened, we were all waiting to taste the oranges. What a blow, the box was half full of lemons, and not an orange in sight, the box had somehow been opened in transit and all the oranges had been removed, the empty spaces were stuffed with paper and the box had been very carefully re-sealed so that it looked alight. The hessian had been very carefully re-stitched and nobody had realised that it had been tampered with. The disappointment was so intense that we could have cried, someone else had enjoyed our oranges, we still had the lemons, but they were not the same though.
People had dug up their lawns and flower beds and planted vegetables to try and cope with the food shortages, people often shared with those who couldn't grow their own, and the same applied to people with fruit trees and fruit bushes. Any surplus fruit was shared around, some people selling it, and others giving it, but nothing was wasted that could be used.
In every road the council deposited brand new dustbins, so that people could put in their vegetable peelings or any other scraps that were left over from a meal. The bins were emptied daily and taken to various farms to help to feed the pigs. Children also collected acorns in the autumn for the same reason. A horse and cart were very handy for collections, they didn't use valuable petrol.
The country needed metals of various kinds and people were appealed to by the Government, to turn out anything that was not needed any more. It was needed for the war effort. Certain places were allocated in towns and villages for people to deposit the metals. We had a place just off our road, on a spare piece of land, and it was amazing the things that turned up there. Old saucepans, buckets, kettles, washing bowls and zinc baths, old bike frames and garden fences to name but a few. Any metal that was hanging around, soon ended up at the dump, the big iron gates and metal railings that surrounded the local recreation ground, disappeared without trace, much to the delight of the younger generation. They had always been locked up at dusk before, but now there was nothing there to lock. It soon became very popular with young girls and their soldier boyfriends that might have been around at the time.
Meals were sometimes very different in those days, not having much in the way of meat, our mothers had to improvise. They tried to make meals from very unlikely things. Offal such as liver, hearts, kidneys and tripe, and sausages were all off ration, but quite scarce. If you were lucky enough to arrive at the butchers when he had just had a delivery, you were fine, but often people had to queue for most of the morning, only to find that when it was their turn, there was nothing left. We had tins of powdered eggs, that mostly were used for making cakes, but it made great scrambled eggs.
If we had porridge for breakfast, we would sweeten it with golden syrup instead of sugar, it was quite tasty. Our mothers had a terrible time trying to make us a decent meal each day, a nearly impossible task, a tin of corned beef made lovely rissoles or a hash. A tin of Spam worked wonders, the Spam could be fried or eaten cold with salad in the summer, we all thrived on these unlikely foods and had plenty of vegetables to fill us up. We all tried to carry on as normally as possible, there were three local cinemas that we could choose from, cash permitting. We had no fridges, freezers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners or televisions. Everything was done by hand and was often hard work. Anyone who was well off enough was able to go to the pictures three times during the week from Monday to Saturday and twice on a Sunday if you could get from one end of the town to the other before the last programme started.
There were plenty of dances on locally at various church halls, school halls and dance halls. The local Baths hall was a great favourite, it was often packed out not only for dances but for shows and boxing matches too.
People who smoked or drank found it difficult, lots of things were sold "under the counter". Beer, spirits and cigarettes were in short supply and if it became known that there had been a delivery of cigarettes, the word would go round and people would soon arrive to try and get some. The pubs would serve what they had and then stay shut for a day or two when their stocks ran out. When people knew the pubs had a delivery, they would have a night out and the pubs would become packed tight and after a few drinks, everyone would start singing. Having a good sing-song was a great morale-booster, helping everyone to forget what was happening all around them. The pubs would close at 10 o'clock at night.
Another shock was awaiting the world on December 7th 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, dropping bombs on the fleet of the United States of America, sinking or damaging most of their Pacific fleet and killing more than two thousand people. There was nothing else for it, the U.S.A. was now forced to declare war on Japan, Germany and Italy as well. So as they went to war against Europe; Great Britain went to war with Japan. The U.S.A. and Britain were now allies, but would the world ever be peaceful again ?
Everyone listened to the news on the wireless, hoping to hear some good news about the war, the B.B.C. always tried to end the news on a happy note and to try and find something to make us laugh and lift the gloom of the news.
Everything seemed quiet in Europe, most countries were under German occupation. Everything seemed alright on the surface, the local people had formed an underground network movement, working secretly against the enemy. They sabotaged anything in order to disrupt the Germans. They found ways of making explosives and dodging the curfew, getting around right under the noses of the soldiers.
Britain was dropping secret agents into the countryside, equipped with radio sets. They were able to spy on the Germans and send coded messages back to London. This was a very dangerous job and there were many reprisals for these activities around the continent.
When the underground people managed to damage anything, and not get caught, a whole village or small town would be summoned together. Everyone for miles around was obliged to attend. The Germans would then hand out punishments, often shooting half the men folk or sending them away to concentration camps. Even children of thirteen or fourteen were treated in the same way. The women and children were forced to watch. They were kept short of food and stripped of their dignity, but most still managed to stand together against the tyranny. Meanwhile, the U.S.A. were sending their armed forces over here to help us, the whole country seemed to be full of service men; there were soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines of all different nationalities. People who had escaped from the continent, there were Poles, Norwegians, French, Polish, Dutch and Belgians, all from occupied countries. They all had flashes on their shoulders, telling us which country they had come from. There were Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Gurkas, in fact there were people from all over the Commonwealth, coming from countries thousands of miles away and giving their all to stop the tyranny of the Japanese and the Germans.
Most of our armies were in North Africa, with Field Marshall Montgomery fighting a hard battle with Field Marshall Rommel and his German army. By 1942, the eighth army, known to everyone as the " desert rats " had won the Battle of El Alemaine and had stopped the Germans advancing on to Cairo in Egypt. By the October of that year, Field Marshall Rommel and his army, were expelled from Africa and Egypt and our armies advanced into Tunisia.
By February 1943, General Eisenhower took command of the American forces; uniting with Field Marshall Montgomery, they conquered Tunisia and Sicily and went on to invade Italy.
I celebrated my 16th birthday along with the good news we kept receiving from abroad. Lots of places were now back in our hands. Between 1941 and 1942, we lost several ships belonging to the Navy. H.M.S. Dunedin, Barham, Repulse, Ark Royal, The Prince of Wales and the Hood, all gone with a great loss of life. All wasted because fanatical people were not satisfied with what they already had, and wanted more and more.
As the air-raids quietened a bit, we all went out more, working hard and playing hard. Dancing, going to the cinema and to shows at the Baths Hall. As teenagers we, were aware that once we reached seventeen and a half, we would have to register and probably have to go into the women's forces or the land army, wherever we were needed most. We could be sent anywhere in the country, and we had no choice as long as we passed the medical examination.
News continued to be good, and to the delight of many little boys, soap was put on ration. Many thought that it was a good excuse to dodge having a wash. We were already rationed to six inches of bath water, so with many little boys, they thought that soap rationing was a marvellous invention !
The Island of Malta had taken a terrible beating, being bombed from the air and shelled from the sea. They had non-stop bombardment.
The brave Maltese people didn't falter, they stood firm against the enemy, and on April 15th 1942 King George VI awarded Malta the George Cross; the highest civilian award that the country could give them. A great honour those very brave people deserved, and they earned it with all the suffering they had to endure.
At home, life went on as normally as we could make it.
The siege of Leningrad in Russia ( where the Germans had the Russians holed up for eighteen months ) in 1943, was finally over.
Meanwhile, the eighth army was still making progress and had occupied Tripoli in Libya. American bombers had started to attack Germany. What was left of the German armies in Stalingrad, surrendered. There was also a little good news from the Far East, Guada Canal Island had been cleared of Japanese. It gave everyone a little more hope, knowing that different places were being won back from the German army.
We were not having much luck with the Japanese, we had lost Hong Kong, Singapore, Java, and countless other islands to them. It was good to know that now, at least, we had won one island back from Japan.
The allied armies invaded Sicily, and on 25th July 1943, Mussolini, the leader if the Fascist party in Italy, was overthrown, and the Fascist party was dissolved there. By September, Italy itself was invaded, and surrendered on 7th September. This was one less country to worry about now.
1943 also saw the sinking of several German ships, including the Tirpitz and the Scharnost. Men in Britain were being drafted into the coal mines to work, as mentioned before, they were called Bevin Boys. This name came from Ernest Bevin, the minister who decided it was necessary to send them to the coal mines to boost the coal output.
There now seemed to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon, the news was getting better each day. Along with my friends, if we could manage to scrape together enough money, we would go dancing or to the pictures. We were trying to get a bit of fun out of life. At least once a year, there would be a parade through the town, or a show on at one of the halls, such as Spitfire Week or some other week, for good causes. This would help to raise money for anything that was needed. There would also be a funfair in the car park behind Woolworth's.
1944 dawned with many rumours going around, also there was a lot of activity going on all around us. By the time spring came there was a lot of movement all around us. After eating lunch at work, myself and a few workmates would stroll along to the main road, which went to the coast. There would be long, long convoys of army trucks, armoured cars, tanks, large guns in great long lines, as far as the eye could see.
English, Americans, Canadians and all nationalities, waving to us as they went by, it seemed like all of the military vehicles in the country were on the move. Hundreds of troops and all kinds of army equipment, heading towards the south coast. Hundreds and hundreds, one after the other, clattering and rattling along. Everyone surmising what they were doing and where they were going, and what was about to happen.
Not only was Epsom cleared of Canadian soldiers, but it seemed to us that all Service personnel in the country were being cleared out too. They came from London and all surrounding areas, something was happening, but what ?
We didn't know, speculation was rife, what would happen next ?

Continued in Part 5

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