大象传媒

I began a 5-year apprenticeship at Odhams(Watford)Press Ltd and discovered another reason why the stick of bombs presumed to have been jettisoned by a fleeing German bomber had landed close by. At the back of the printing works stood a very large warehouse designed as a store for magazines and books prior to delivery to our outlets. This building had been requisitioned for the duration, named Fairfolds, and herein Fighter planes were being assembled. In all prbability a German agent had discovered what was happening and reported it to the Luftwaffe. It was a salutory lesson in keeping your mouth shut, you never knew who waslistening. A popular slogan warned: `Even walls have ears. Be like Dad - keep MuM!`

As if to drive home the fact that there could be an enemy in our midst one had only to tune in the radio to receive 'Lord Haw Haw' broadcasts. He started his programme by drawling with an upper-class accent: "Germany calling, Germany calling".
As far as we were concerned he was always good for a laugh, we never believed anything he said BUT ... imagine our surprise when we heard him instruct Watford councillors to correct their Town Hall clock, saying it was two minutes slow - and it was!!

September 1944 - In a desperate bid to break our spirits the Germans introduced us to their latest much improved V-2 rocket bomb. I thanked my lucky stars I had relinquished my previous job and returned to the relative safety of my home town.

Time passed. A concerted effort was launched to re-take the island of Greece which had been over-run by the Germans in '44 forcing the British and Commonwealth troops to beat a hasty retreat. A sergeant air-gunner/wireless operator in the R.A.F., my future wife-s brother Vic was returning from a successful bombing mission on a German installation on the island, when they ran into a number of German fighter aircraft heading home over the English Channel and had the misfortune of being shot down with the loss of all hands. My Jean was only nine years old then and she was devastated when her mother received a short terse telegram informing her that her son was 'Missing - presumed dead". His loss was not confirmed until after the war ended. However, his sacrifice had not been entirely in vain, we successfully occupied Greece in October 1944.

The same year our forces over-ran and freed Belsen concentration camp. We were sickened by the newsreel scenes of the emaciated matchstick men and women who had been waiting to be exterminated, many of whom could not be prevented from dying after our arrival. What a cruel twist of fate. They had been freed, saved from the gas chambers, but were too far gone, too weak to be fed.

The last V-2 rocket fell on Orpington, Kent on 27th March '45. One month later, in April, the black-out restrictions were raised shortly before the atom bombs fell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Now we eagerly awaited the declaration we had dreamed about for six long years. It came on VJ-Day, the day Japan capitulated, and peace was restored to the kingdom September 2nd 1945. We held parties in ourstreets and in the evening we poured into our home towns singing and dancing, grateful for an end to the killing. During the war Churchill had adapted a rather obcene two-finger salute by reversing his hand and turning it into a V for Victory sign. On VJ-night the citizens of our island variously expressed their feelings re. Hitler and his followeres. Families now looked forward to the return of the survivors.

Jean's other brother Rhos came home after fighting the Japanese in the dense steamy Burmese jungle, where the enemy set up an ambush then called out in English, "Tommy! Over here, help me", pretending to be an injured comrade. After the first of our lads had been deceived into going to help and then been shot, our troops were forced to ignore the cries ... even the genuine ones1 But the cries continued day and night in a war of nerves, and when Rhos came home the strain really showed. There was no sympathetic counselling then. Rhos was a wwalking skeleton with sunken eyes and furtive eyes. For years after he re-acted as if he expected the enemy to be round every corner. His wife Mildred nearly had a fit the first time she woke up to find him sleeping with his eyes open. In the jungle he had not dared to close them for fear of being caught unawares. Today he is a jolly, plump figure of a man - even so, he continues to sleep with his eyes wide open.

Ofcourse, the deprivations of war did not end overnight. Rationing and shortages continued for some time, until demobbed servixemen were back in jobs and the wheels of industry and agriculture began to turn in ernest. When the supply ships unloaded all those exotic fruits we had missed for so many years, people wept. To be given a real banana, peach, grapes or an orange seemed like a gift from heaven. The stress, the fears and the worries of war faded leaving us time to grieve for our lost loved ones.

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