大象传媒

1944 (Continued)
The bombing continued, as we were on the outskirts of London, and if the bombers could not get past the barrage balloons, and the ack-ack fire, they jettisoned their bombs. We had quite a few misses, especially with the flying bombs. In view of this, the lady with whom I lived, became very apprehensive about her two small children and decided to go home to her mother in Durham. I gave in my notice, and travelled part of the way with her to Yorkshire. I arrived late one night at Thirsk station, and so I reported to the police station and asked if they had a spare cell. One of the auxiliary policemen, kindly took me home. As it was late, his wife was in bed, and next morning, I awoke to find a lady at the bottom of the bed, and she remarked, 鈥淚 just came to see what my husband had brought home鈥�. However she was very nice, and sympathetic. After breakfast, I went to find Eric. Of course, he was nowhere to be found, and the Captain asked one of the sergeants to go with me to find him. We went round the roads and surprise, surprise located him in the N.A.A.F.I. I had not told him I was coming, so the surprise was on both sides. We stayed with the couple for a few days and then found a couple whose son was in the services, and they let us have the attic at the top of the house, which had been made into a small flat. Mr Wright sold animal feed to the local farmers, and so this many he had various things given him, such as eggs and butter. They were very kind to us, and told me to help myself to anything in the pantry. This helped my finances, until I found a job in the library at Northallerton.
This library was a very large one, as it supplied the travelling vans, that went round all the villages and took the readers鈥� requests. We had a series of postcards, which the clients filled up, gave to the driver, and we then put on the van the following week. A large part of the library was non-fiction and as the books were filed under numbers, and not by author, the process of getting the van loads together, took some time. We were in some ways, an open university, as many of the readers asked our advice, and we worked with the local school teachers to provide the books people needed. I really enjoyed this job, and spent quite a lot of time reading as much as I could. (1944/5)
Eric was now told that he would be posted to Catterick, and although I went to Catterick, I could not find anywhere to live. I stayed for a short time with a lady who promised that my rent would be reduced, if I helped in the house. The first week I ironed four basketfuls of washing, made the beds on all four floors, every morning, and had the magnificent sum of 2/6 deducted from the rent. I stayed for two more weeks, and then decided that I could save more for our future home, if I returned to Hastings and got a job. We then would have time to wait and see what was going to happen to him. I then became chief book-keeper, in a laundry, whose customers were mainly the large hotels, on the sea front. We had two vans, which had a large delivery area, and they collected laundry on one day, and then returned it three days later freshly laundered. They had the account pinned to the parcel, and the men collected the money. We then reconciled the amounts to the ledgers.
The worst payers were the large hotels. One manager, was never in when I phoned, and when his bill reached several hundreds, I decided to act. I went to the hotel, and asked for the manager, but was told that he was out, but was expected back. I sat and waited, and waited, going to the desk every quarter of an hour. The staff began to get uneasy, as people were beginning to look, and after two hours, the manager appeared and gave me a cheque for half the amount, promising to pay the balance before the end of the week. I asked if I should call to collect it, but he said he would send it. He kept to his word.
One of the problems was the staff. Their work consisted of feeding the sheets through the large rollers, using the large presses and sort the items into piles according to the laundry marks. Then check the list and parcel up the laundry.
When it came to money, they knew to the last penny how much they should earn, including overtime at time and a half, and double time, but when the Government brought in 鈥減ay as you earn鈥�, it was very difficult to explain. The first week was fine, but after a time, when the gross amount differed for two girls, but the wages for that week were the same, they could not understand, why one was stopped a shilling (5 pence) more than the other. I used to draw bricks of different sizes to represent different amounts, to show that one lot came just above the line or just under it. Some times I used to think I was saving for my holidays. Of course, every entry was made in the large ledgers, no computers in those days, and no calculators, only a manual adding machine.(1944 July/January 1946.)
1944
Being back in Hastings, meant that I was once again in the area of bombing and sirens. The V-1s continued until August of that year, and it was thought that the we could then rest, as the news was good on all fronts, the French troops had entered Paris, the British troops were in Athens, and Belgrade was liberated. The Americans invaded the Philippines. The new United Nations Organisation was set up, to send troops to stop wars throughout the world.
There were, of course, set-backs. The failure of the drop of troops at Arnhem. Due to bad weather, supplies did not get through to the troops, and 7,000 men were lost. The first V-2 landed on London. This was a type of rocket, weighing 15 tons, with a one ton warhead, which was fired from launch pads. There were no warnings, only an ominous thud, and as I experienced, the horrific sight of a building just disintegrating in front of my eyes. It was a Woolworths, and one demented man literally pulled his hair out, as his wife and small daughter had gone to shop there a few minutes before. (Duplication. Check. )
The end of the year, meant that Hastings would not experience any more alerts, the Home Guard was disbanded, the black-out had been lifted, except for some coastal areas. The lights were switched on in Piccadilly, the Strand and Fleet street, and the children were taken to the West End to see them.
1945
The year was one that Eric and I were still apart. I continued to work as a book keeper at the laundry and he was in Catterick.
It was a case of waiting and hoping that we would soon be able to have a life together.
Now that the bombing had ceased, it was a case of looking forward to leaves, and going to Catterick for a few days now and again.
The war news was good. There was no doubt in our minds that we were going to win, and in February, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, met to discuss how to divide the territory after the war ended. (Roosevelt however died suddenly in April, so did not see the end of the European War.)
In April, Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, was shot by Italian partisans and hung up by his heels. The following day, the war in Italy was over, as the remaining German and Italian divisions in Italy surrendered to Field Marshall Alexander. Two days later, Hitler killed himself, and the end of the war was in sight. The sad news at the same time, was the liberation of concentration camps. The public were very distressed at the pictures of the Belsen camp, where 30,000 were killed, and the survivors looking like walking skeletons, were stumbling about, hardly able to walk. The same was found when Buchenwald Camp was found to have another 20,000 prisoners, where there had been unbelievable cruelty, operations without anaesthetics for experimental purposes, and even lamp shades made from human skin.
May 1945
This month saw the end of the war in Europe, when a million German troops in Italy and Austria surrendered, as well as those in Holland, North Germany, Denmark and Norway.
On the eighth of May, the prime minister, Winston Churchill broadcast the news at 3 p.m. that the war would end at midnight.
Long before this, the people had flocked to London, to the Mall, to stand outside of Buckingham Palace and cheer the Royal Family on the balcony. Mother and I considered catching the train and joining the crowds, but because of the thought that many of our friends still fighting in Burma, and another friend was a Japanese prisoner of war, we decided that we would wait until the Far Eastern war was won, as well. The news that Rangoon the capital of Burma had been captured by our troops, made this seem possible in the not too distant future.
During the months following, it was announced that 750,000 men would be demobbed, the first German troops were demobbed also and sent to work on the land and help produce food, and the zones of occupation were agreed. Russia was to occupy half of Germany.
Berlin was to be divided into zones as well. Later there were disagreements about the amount of territory Poland occupied, and it was during this time, that the term 鈥渋ron curtain鈥� was used by Churchill. A term that was to be used for many years during the 鈥榗old war鈥� that followed, although Churchill lost office, when Labour gained power, and Mr Atlee was the new prime minister, a month later.
Although the Americans were making progress in the Pacific, the war with Japan was not ended, and would probably have continued for some time, had it not been for the first tests and subsequent use of the atomic bomb. At the end of July, the Allies threatened to use the bomb, if the Japanese did not surrender, and when this did not happen, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th August. Russia (Stalin) declared war on Japan, on the following day. The next day a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, where Japan claimed that 70,000 people perished.
The bomb which had been secretly developed by British and America scientists, was 2,000 times bigger that a normal bomb and yet much smaller. The plane that dropped could feel the explosion ten miles away. The pictures shown on the news reels were unbelievable. The whole town appeared to be vaporised, and a mushroom cloud rose five miles above the target.

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