大象传媒

I landed at Dover at 4 a.m. on 1st June 1940 after a narrow escape from Dunkirk. We got on a train where the corridors and carriages were packed with soldiers. We were going very slowly through a station some miles North of London when we saw an RAF airman and his wife or girl-friend standing on the platform. Some wag shouted 'Good Lord, we've got an RAF after all - there he is' and everyone on the train jeered. I ought to point out that the Luftwaffe had dominated the skies over France, and so feeling against the RAF was running very high, although I learned later that they had suffered very heavy casualties unseen by us. This still has the power to embarrass me 65 years on. Later we stopped at Birmingham, Snow Hill, for tea and buns and it was quite odd, with business men in suits on the platform and us in our uniforms straight back from France. A man came up to me and said 'Can I phone your parents?' This was a very long shot, because few people had phones at that time: ours was a two figure number in Warwick. It turned out he was a 'Daily Express' reporter and he phoned my parents so they knew I was back safely, though they didn't hear about my brother till a few hours later.

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