大象传媒

This story was recorded and posted by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author.

I was near Bremen on V.E. Day with five or six other officers when the word came through about the celebrations so we agreed to celebrate ourselves the following day. The mess waiters were told to go into the village and get white linen table clothes to borrow, not commandeer. We also sent an officer to go and get some champagne. We had proper cutlery and proper cups and saucers. In the evening we came in and the table was set for us all. Some of us were sitting down and others were standing about. One man turned and said, 鈥淗ey fellows, I have an important letter to write,鈥� and he left. Then another left. Then I felt flat and I left myself. It suddenly hit us that although it was wonderful that the war was over, we were all going to be split up and our comradeship was over. We didn鈥檛 drink the champagne and we didn鈥檛 celebrate, and the people of the village had their tablecloths returned unused.

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