大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

V E Day Memories of Maureen Chapman

by 大象传媒 Open Centre, Hull

You are browsing in:

Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
大象传媒 Open Centre, Hull
People in story:听
Maureen Chapman. Story originally submitted to The Beverley Civic Society
Location of story:听
Portsmouth
Background to story:听
Royal Navy
Article ID:听
A4201985
Contributed on:听
16 June 2005

I joined the WRNS in 1941 when I was 18. In 1945 I was a WRNS Drafting Officer stationed at Portsmouth. My job was to move WRNS around the country to release naval personnel to go to sea. I lived in WRNS quarters, hotels in peace time, on Southsea front.

In 1944, prior to D-Day, we were not allowed to travel further than 15miles away, due to high security. For weeks before D-Day the sea front, the beaches and many roads, were packed with tank landing craft, transport and various boats, equipment etc. Every day we expected the lot to disappear across the Channel. We also expected to be bombed! On the night of 5th-6th June we went to bed as usual. We had been looking forward to seeing this great armada leave, but unfortunately I slept heavily, and found, to my great disappointment, that the lot had gone in the night! I couldn鈥檛 believe it.

On May 7th, the news of the cessation of hostilities in Europe was released late in the day, so many of us were in our night attire if not in bed. However, nobody could sleep, so we put on a coat and, with hundreds of others, ran down to the beach and lit an enormous bonfire for, of course, nothing like this had been allowed for six years. We danced and we sang with total strangers until the sun came up. It was a fantastic experience. Then we still had to go to work!

VJ Day was a much lower key occasion. But for me and my family it meant that hopefully my father would return to the UK. I had not seen him for seven years. He was a civilian prisoner of war in Shanghai and had been captive since Pearl Harbour. He had also been tortured badly, so we didn鈥檛 know if he was even alive. Our family lost everything, and we have never been compensated by the Japanese.

My father did return, aged 58 but looking 80, and after several operations and good food, soon recovered. He lived until he was 88. My mother left Shanghai in 1940 on the last ship to leave with only women and children, and lived until she was 89, spending her last years in Hull near to us.

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

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

Childhood and Evacuation Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy