VE Day 2020 - Historical Memories 75 Years On
It's not the expected celebrations for the 75th anniversary of VE Day, marked as it is by social distancing, a lockdown under a global pandemic. Single global leaders or royalty, flanked by a few protective officers, lay wreaths whilst keeping a significant distance apart. Flypasts of Spitfires and Hurricanes - traditional WWII aircraft, followed by more modern 'British' aircraft - the Red Arrows and the Typhoons - over the four capitals of our United Kingdom - London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. At 9pm tonight, Her Majesty the Queen will address the nation - the same time her father did 75 years ago.
It's quiet on our neighbourhood; some of us came out to mark the 2 minute silence on the door, but nothing else planned. We have the red, white and blue up in our home in bunting and flags.
In my sister's neighbourhood, flags and bunting are only the start; a social-distanced street party of people sitting on their separate front lawns has been arranged.
It's not the way we imagined, but it's still going ahead. For now, at least, we 'never forget'. We will remember.
I'm currently watching the reflections of Rusty Waughman, a WWII veteran, on the BBC. He is thankful for the people around him, the children, the neighbourhood support. To him, this is what he fought for.
It's gladdening, and sad when I think that for the next major celebration, the centennial, there most likely will be no survivors of the War. My parents probably will not even be here to see it. It's sobering. It makes me hold every moment close to my heart. It means that I will continue to call my mother every day, and I won't go and hug her close so that I can continue to value every second of her life she spends with me.
For people my age, it's often their great or great-great grandparents that fought in the World War. This era is a lot closer generationally than that for me; my parents were both the youngest children of their parents, who had them at around 37, and my brother and I were my parents' youngest children.
It was my grandparents who battled through World War II.
Dad's parents, Morgwyn and Margaret
Mom's parents, Albert and Jennie
Daddy GG's parents, Herbert and Lily
(Tadcu) Morgwyn - a soldier on the Normandy beaches
(Mamgee) Margaret - a ATS corporal manning searchlights
(Granddad) Albert - a Navy able-seaman, cook and boxer present at the sinking of the Graf Spee
(Nanny) Jennie - a housewife and citizen
My great aunts, Albert's sisters, worked in the factories, and (as I recall) along with my great-grandmother, Alice.
Each of these had a hugely important role in their society - the supporting of the warriors abroad and the protecting of those at home.
I have a few stories from the War handed down to me by my parents that I would like to share with you.
Morgwyn:
Morgwyn signed up to join the Armed Forces at the start of the War; because he volunteered, he could choose where to go, so he chose the Royal Corps of Signals.
He was part of the Combined Forces that went to Dunkirk and was part of the British Expeditionary Force, from September 2nd, 1939 - March 31st, 1940 - the evacuation at Dunkirk. Morgwyn became a driver for the RCS and senior military figures as he could speak mostly Welsh and broken English, an ‘officer’s batman’, and was one of the drivers for John Vereker, Lord Gort in France.
During the evacuation, whilst in France, Morgwyn was driving a vehicle which was transporting an electric transformer on the back to an evacuation point, when the vehicle was strafed by the Luftwaffe. The lorry went off the road; the transformer harness broke from its housing and pinned Morgwyn to the steering wheel. At this point, he passed out. When he woke up, the other service personnel with him had left him. He no longer knew where he was, as there were no road signs - these had been taken down to confuse and misdirect the advancing Germans. Despite speaking no French and with Germans everywhere, he managed to make his way to the Dunkirk beach and boarded a ship; while on board this, he had a fall into the hold and sustained a lifelong back injury from this.
His lasting memory of France was seeing the French spitting at the British forces as they evacuated; the French regarded them as cowards.
When, in later years, the Jones family attended Hermon Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Bridgend, Morgwyn served as a deacon there with another man named Randolph Churchill. Randolph was captured during the War and the Germans thought he was Churchill’s son.
Morgwyn was a predominantly Welsh speaker. His mother, Winifred, spoke only Welsh, so she and Morgwyn would talk to each other in Welsh. Margaret spoke only English.
Margaret told her children that she and Morgwyn didn’t want them to learn Welsh because of all the stigma that Morgwyn took. As he couldn’t speak English until later in life, he was regarded as stupid. Due to both his back injury and his poor English, his military service record diagnosed him as a retard. Because of what he went through, he didn’t want his kids to learn Welsh.
Margaret:
Margaret served during the War in the ATS, Auxiliary Territorial Service. She became a corporal.
All I know of her service is that she operated searchlights during WWII. During one air raid, she was moved from the searchlight she was manning to another one close by. Shortly afterward, the searchlight she was previously on was bombed, killing the operator.
Albert:
Albert signed up to join the Royal Navy at the commencement of WWII and became a gunner, barber and a ship's cook. In his 'downtime', he possibly organised boxing clubs on board ship; for certain, he became a lightweight champion in the Royal Navy.
Due to his role as a ship's barber, he was known as ‘Cuts’ Cunningham in the Navy; thanks to his role as a ship’s cook at sea, he learned to cook with whatever was available, even becoming a notably better cook than Jennie after the war. Yvonne recalls that he used to cook a few recipes at home from his time in the Navy - most clearly, he would cook what he called Pot Mess, which was really tasty - he used to shove bits of everything in in.
Albert was deployed on many ships throughout the War. Two we are aware of include HMS Dispatch and HMS Mermaid. He was at the sinking of the Graf Spee in WWII; he wasn't allowed to, but he sneaked a photograph!
He used to sit Yvonne down when she was little and talk her through the photograph album - the 'war' album. A photograph of the headband that went around his Navy cap was also in there. He used to tell her about the guns; she remembers that he was annoyed at the war films when they came on television because they weren't true to life.
Later in life, Yvonne visited HMS Belfast and saw a clip of how the guns used to fire, how they used to recoil, men stripped to the waist loading and firing them. It was the first time she had seen a realistic video that represented what Albert told her.
Near the end of his life, Albert shared one more memory; it brought him to tears even then. He was due to come home on leave and the wife of one of his Navy friends had just had a baby, so Albert swapped his leave with him, so that his friend could go and see the newborn. Later, he heard that the ship transporting his friend home, which would have been transporting Albert home, had been blown out of the water. There were no survivors.
Albert wrote a brief record of his time on HMS Mermaid for his grandson Simon's school report, detailing his experience of the disaster which engulfed the Empire Patrol:
Jennie:
Jennie had met and married Albert shortly before the War began. In 1939, just before war broke out, Jennie gave birth to their first child, a son. One can only imagine the state of mind she would have been in as a new mother, her three-year-married husband heading off to join the Navy, in a hugely populated area heavily bombed by the Nazis. The only memories she shared of this time is when she heard the air raid sirens, she would grab her young son, and, following Government instructions, hide under the stairs for protection. Food was rationed, and Jennie had to stand in massive queues to obtain their allowance. She wished she'd married the butcher! Along with other war-time women, Jennie found that stockings were in scarce supply, so followed the new fashion trend of dying her legs with tea to pretend they had stockings.
Yvonne thinks that the women of WWII must have been absolutely amazing, as the men that they married never came home or came home completely changed.
Yvonne's Memories from the mid-late '50s/early '60s - these contain a snapshot of life just after the War, including what it could have been like for Jennie as a housewife then:
My dad bought me so much chocolate because it was rationed for the War - it was only unrationed in 1953, just before I was born.
I remember sitting making rag-rugs ten years after the war. Even though we had a new house and we weren't living in the slums of Handsworth, we had quarry tiles, oil cloth and rag-rugs. No one had carpets. If some clothing or material wore out, it was cut up in strips - we had robust materials back then, like corduroy and tweed. We used to sit around to make these; every year, we had a new rug. We'd make a new one for the front room (which you only used for when you had company and for special occasions - it was in the 70s when having a big living room was the rage), move the old front one to the living room and the one in the living room went out - got rid of it. To clean the rugs, Mom (Jennie) used to take the rug, hang it on the (washing) line outside and beat it with a paddle.
Everything was washed by hand in the dolly washtub, then would be rung out through the mangle. I remember the temptation to poke my fingers into the mangle hole (which you should never do!). After this, the washing would be hung out to dry on the line. In the winter, it would freeze solid; when brought inside, it would be placed in front of the range and you'd see it sort of melt. We had the black range in the back room and I remember Mom heating up the metal iron for ironing. All the time, she'd have two irons working, one to iron and one to heat. To test whether it was hot enough to use, she'd spit on it.
In the mid/late 50's, they put the gas pipes in and we had a gas cooker, a little blue and white cooker about two ft sq cube, two burners on the top and it was on little legs.
The first fridge we ever had was a gas fridge; it was a second hand fridge.
Then, when Johnny started work, shortly after, he bought Mom a spin dryer.
Yvonne's Memories from the mid-late '70s/early '80s:
We used to take washing to the launderette at first. We bought our first automatic washing machine when I was pregnant with Sam; we sat down to watch the washing machine, and it filled up with water and then emptied. I said, "I'm sure it's supposed to go around!" It turns out it was a faulty machine and had to be put right.
We had our first microwave in 1981; we used to put an egg in and watch it cook. You get used to technology very quickly but it was absolutely fascinating when we first had it.
When Simon was little, you never had any television until about 1pm? Then you'd get the news, followed by 'Watch with Mother' , which was a kid's programme. The television would go off until 5pm and then go off again at 10pm. The BBC would do one show and ITV the other.
When the television would go off and the tube would cool off - it became transistorised later in the '70s - you could watch the dot on the screen shrink until it was around the size of 5p, and then we'd watch it for around half an hour until it disappeared. When the first colour tellys came out in the 70s, they were absolutely huge and really expensive. They used to put school programmes on. Then there was the test card - you could tune your television contrast and brightness against that picture of a girl with her hair in an Alice band holding a toy - there was an OXO board behind her.
Yvonne's Memories of Working with an Ex-Prisoner of War - a Snapshot of the Change:
When I started work, I worked for an ex-prisoner of war, who was kept in the Japanese prisoner of war camp. He was skin and bone; they kept him really starved and he learned to be very thrifty with food from it.
He started his business, who used to supply a rather eminent company; he made their quiches, Danish pastries, chocolate eclairs, all confectionary. One day I got the cheese out of the fridge and it was mouldy, so I binned it. He got it out of the bin, cut the mould off and told me to use it.
Another time, we had margarine wrapped in boxes and plastic wrapping, which after unwrapping, I threw in the bin. Once again, he got it out and made me scrape out about an ounce of marge off the plastic.
Herbert:
Herbert was already enlisted in the Army's 2nd Battalion (Buffs) Royal East Kent Regiment when the war started, so instead of releasing him, he was kept in. The 2nd Battalion was part of the British Expeditionary Force sent into France, but when the order to retreat was given, Herbert was too far inland to get back to Dunkirk. As there were various bits of regiments scattered too far inland, these were brought together under the command of Major General Sir Victor Morven Fortune, who was placed in charge of holding up the German advance. The end came for Herbert when he and his company were on two roads; they knew the Germans would come down one and waited on it. Someone informed the Germans about the British waiting in ambush, so the Germans came down the other road, came up behind the British and took them all prisoner.
Herbert spent the majority of the war in prison camps, including Stalag 20b, Marienburg, but this at least kept him physically out of harm's way. He didn't like talking about the War later in life, but he did tell young George one humorous anecdote that stayed with him.
Towards the end of the War, the POWs were guarded mostly by old men or young boys, as all able-bodied Germans were at the front. The barracks they were in comprised of a long wooden building where prisoners stayed; there was a mess room and beyond that was the dormitory. At night, they would all have to leave the mess room and be locked in the dormitory. The prisoners were getting Red Cross parcels at this time, and amongst the items given were cigarettes. The prisoners could hear the Germans outside, so they made a hole in the wall so they could see what they were doing. To their surprise, they saw one of the Germans, an old man, rooting through the ashtray, digging out the dog-ends to make himself a cigarette.
Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners were not allowed to do certain tasks, but they were used for some events. Part of what Herbert and his fellow prisoners had to do was to fill in bomb holes made by the British bombers. To do this, they had to go to quarries to get material. One day, the old man was guarding them; the prisoners suddenly had a bright idea. One of them was carrying a pack of cigarettes; they approached the guard and offered him a cigarette if he would do something for them. On hearing it the guard looked around, saw no one, got into a dip in the quarry and then raised his arm, saying 'Heil Churchill!' Each time he said it, the prisoners gave him another cigarette.
When the Allies arrived and started advancing on the camp from the west, the prisoners were matched eastwards. Then the Russian forces came from the east, forcing the Germans to march their prisoners westwards, backwards and forward.
This last event happened before Herbert was taken prisoner. To boost morale, like Vera Lynn travelling around to sing to the troops, the 2nd Battalion used to have boxing competitions and boxing rounds. Their champion wasn't available, so they asked for volunteers; Herbert decided to volunteer. He kept getting knocked down, but every time, he kept getting back up. In the end, he got a little medal for being a brave loser.
Lily:
Lily's oldest son Mike was age 1 and she was pregnant with Bob when Herbert was taken prisoner. As the war progressed, she and the children were evacuated to Bedford. During the time they were in Bedford, one of the young boys managed to sneak into a training camp nearby and somehow swallowed a bullet! He was only 3 at the time. Lily anxiously took him to the doctor, who told her not to worry as it would come out naturally. A few days later, while he was doing his business, there was a clunk; the bullet had worked its way through his system - in a non-damaging way.
Another story from the training camp involved the soldiers there throwing bits of chalk out of the window; the boys came home and told their mother they'd found a chalk mine.
Later on, she and one of her sisters decided to share a flat; although they had got along well when they were younger, since both had been married, they didn't get on so well as they were used to having their own homes.
Lily thought that Churchill was a brilliant leader during the war; after Dunkirk, when Herbert was missing and she didn't know if he was dead or alive, everyone was anxious and dejected but Churchill spoke as if Britain had won a great victory, instead of being defeated. Lily said it really raised morale.
After the war, Churchill came to visit the East End; he wouldn't believe the East End were slums, but insisted that it was due to bomb damage. Lily said he couldn't understand how the common people lived.
Another story she told was about Buckingham Palace was bombed. The King, George VI, and his Queen Elizabeth were offered to go Canada for safety and they said no, they wanted to stay with their people. After Buckingham Palace was hit, the Queen said, "Now we can look people in the face, because we've been hit too."
I hope these memories have created a brief snapshot of a time past for you.
To all of you, from those not living under the Nazi dictatorship that could so easily have happened, thank you.
For your courage, for your grit, for your battles, for your prayers, thank you.
I will not forget.
For tomorrow's future, you gave your today.
It's quiet on our neighbourhood; some of us came out to mark the 2 minute silence on the door, but nothing else planned. We have the red, white and blue up in our home in bunting and flags.
In my sister's neighbourhood, flags and bunting are only the start; a social-distanced street party of people sitting on their separate front lawns has been arranged.
It's not the way we imagined, but it's still going ahead. For now, at least, we 'never forget'. We will remember.
I'm currently watching the reflections of Rusty Waughman, a WWII veteran, on the BBC. He is thankful for the people around him, the children, the neighbourhood support. To him, this is what he fought for.
It's gladdening, and sad when I think that for the next major celebration, the centennial, there most likely will be no survivors of the War. My parents probably will not even be here to see it. It's sobering. It makes me hold every moment close to my heart. It means that I will continue to call my mother every day, and I won't go and hug her close so that I can continue to value every second of her life she spends with me.
For people my age, it's often their great or great-great grandparents that fought in the World War. This era is a lot closer generationally than that for me; my parents were both the youngest children of their parents, who had them at around 37, and my brother and I were my parents' youngest children.
It was my grandparents who battled through World War II.
Dad's parents, Morgwyn and Margaret
Mom's parents, Albert and Jennie
Daddy GG's parents, Herbert and Lily
(Tadcu) Morgwyn - a soldier on the Normandy beaches
(Mamgee) Margaret - a ATS corporal manning searchlights
(Granddad) Albert - a Navy able-seaman, cook and boxer present at the sinking of the Graf Spee
(Nanny) Jennie - a housewife and citizen
(Step-grandfather) Herbert - a soldier and prisoner of war
(Step-grandmother) Lily - a housewife and evacuee
Each of these had a hugely important role in their society - the supporting of the warriors abroad and the protecting of those at home.
I have a few stories from the War handed down to me by my parents that I would like to share with you.
Morgwyn:
Morgwyn signed up to join the Armed Forces at the start of the War; because he volunteered, he could choose where to go, so he chose the Royal Corps of Signals.
He was part of the Combined Forces that went to Dunkirk and was part of the British Expeditionary Force, from September 2nd, 1939 - March 31st, 1940 - the evacuation at Dunkirk. Morgwyn became a driver for the RCS and senior military figures as he could speak mostly Welsh and broken English, an ‘officer’s batman’, and was one of the drivers for John Vereker, Lord Gort in France.
During the evacuation, whilst in France, Morgwyn was driving a vehicle which was transporting an electric transformer on the back to an evacuation point, when the vehicle was strafed by the Luftwaffe. The lorry went off the road; the transformer harness broke from its housing and pinned Morgwyn to the steering wheel. At this point, he passed out. When he woke up, the other service personnel with him had left him. He no longer knew where he was, as there were no road signs - these had been taken down to confuse and misdirect the advancing Germans. Despite speaking no French and with Germans everywhere, he managed to make his way to the Dunkirk beach and boarded a ship; while on board this, he had a fall into the hold and sustained a lifelong back injury from this.
His lasting memory of France was seeing the French spitting at the British forces as they evacuated; the French regarded them as cowards.
When, in later years, the Jones family attended Hermon Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Bridgend, Morgwyn served as a deacon there with another man named Randolph Churchill. Randolph was captured during the War and the Germans thought he was Churchill’s son.
Morgwyn was a predominantly Welsh speaker. His mother, Winifred, spoke only Welsh, so she and Morgwyn would talk to each other in Welsh. Margaret spoke only English.
Margaret told her children that she and Morgwyn didn’t want them to learn Welsh because of all the stigma that Morgwyn took. As he couldn’t speak English until later in life, he was regarded as stupid. Due to both his back injury and his poor English, his military service record diagnosed him as a retard. Because of what he went through, he didn’t want his kids to learn Welsh.
Margaret:
Margaret served during the War in the ATS, Auxiliary Territorial Service. She became a corporal.
All I know of her service is that she operated searchlights during WWII. During one air raid, she was moved from the searchlight she was manning to another one close by. Shortly afterward, the searchlight she was previously on was bombed, killing the operator.
Albert:
Albert signed up to join the Royal Navy at the commencement of WWII and became a gunner, barber and a ship's cook. In his 'downtime', he possibly organised boxing clubs on board ship; for certain, he became a lightweight champion in the Royal Navy.
Due to his role as a ship's barber, he was known as ‘Cuts’ Cunningham in the Navy; thanks to his role as a ship’s cook at sea, he learned to cook with whatever was available, even becoming a notably better cook than Jennie after the war. Yvonne recalls that he used to cook a few recipes at home from his time in the Navy - most clearly, he would cook what he called Pot Mess, which was really tasty - he used to shove bits of everything in in.
Albert was deployed on many ships throughout the War. Two we are aware of include HMS Dispatch and HMS Mermaid. He was at the sinking of the Graf Spee in WWII; he wasn't allowed to, but he sneaked a photograph!
He used to sit Yvonne down when she was little and talk her through the photograph album - the 'war' album. A photograph of the headband that went around his Navy cap was also in there. He used to tell her about the guns; she remembers that he was annoyed at the war films when they came on television because they weren't true to life.
Later in life, Yvonne visited HMS Belfast and saw a clip of how the guns used to fire, how they used to recoil, men stripped to the waist loading and firing them. It was the first time she had seen a realistic video that represented what Albert told her.
Near the end of his life, Albert shared one more memory; it brought him to tears even then. He was due to come home on leave and the wife of one of his Navy friends had just had a baby, so Albert swapped his leave with him, so that his friend could go and see the newborn. Later, he heard that the ship transporting his friend home, which would have been transporting Albert home, had been blown out of the water. There were no survivors.
Albert wrote a brief record of his time on HMS Mermaid for his grandson Simon's school report, detailing his experience of the disaster which engulfed the Empire Patrol:
The war in Europe had ended a few weeks earlier; the war against Japan was being stepped up and we were returning to Alexandra to pick up a floating dock and escort it to Trincomalee in Malaya. We had handed over our escort duty of troops and supplies to other frigates and destroyers, made our way up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal and as dusk approached tied up alongside the jetty at Port Said and were preparing to close down when we were hurriedly told to prepare to go to sea again.
A large passenger ship full of Greek women and children evacuees was ablaze from stem to stem and they were abandoning ship. They were four or five hours sailing time away. We steamed ahead at full speed and about 2am we were in the vicinity. The tide had drifted some of the survivors quite away from the ship, which was named the Empire Patrol and consequently we were ploughing amongst them. We immediately slowed down and put on our searchlights. It was pitiful. They had been in the water six or seven hours; some had died and some were face-downwards, drowned, because their life-jackets were not put on right. Other little mites of three and four years old unconscious or too weak to lift their arms and the older women also too weak to use the scramble nets. One woman was dead with her arm holding a baby a few months old to her chest; the baby was still alive and after a few hours aboard was gurgling with joy.
We rescued 49 survivors alive and laid the dead along the decks and later in the day we buried them at sea.
We put the survivors aboard HMS Devonshire who had also come on the scene and rescued another seven passengers. We found out later that HMS Trouncer had come in from the other side and picked up 420. This was really good news.
While all this was going on we were approaching the Empire Patrol and when we were close enough a boarding party was put abroad and although she was burning fiercely a tow rope was attached and we began to tow her gently back to Port Said to beach her on the sandy shore. But it was not to be, for as the shore came into view she started to turn turtle and hurriedly we cut the tow rope before she pulled us under the water as well. She slowly disappeared under the waves and we returned to base.
This is a very minor incident in fact, probably insignificant in the travesty of war and although involved in incidents more serious and violent, this one is at the back of my memories because of the innocents and tiny tots involved.
A/B Cunningham (Gun-layer) L.R.3 HMS Mermaid
Jennie:
Jennie had met and married Albert shortly before the War began. In 1939, just before war broke out, Jennie gave birth to their first child, a son. One can only imagine the state of mind she would have been in as a new mother, her three-year-married husband heading off to join the Navy, in a hugely populated area heavily bombed by the Nazis. The only memories she shared of this time is when she heard the air raid sirens, she would grab her young son, and, following Government instructions, hide under the stairs for protection. Food was rationed, and Jennie had to stand in massive queues to obtain their allowance. She wished she'd married the butcher! Along with other war-time women, Jennie found that stockings were in scarce supply, so followed the new fashion trend of dying her legs with tea to pretend they had stockings.
Yvonne thinks that the women of WWII must have been absolutely amazing, as the men that they married never came home or came home completely changed.
Yvonne's Memories from the mid-late '50s/early '60s - these contain a snapshot of life just after the War, including what it could have been like for Jennie as a housewife then:
My dad bought me so much chocolate because it was rationed for the War - it was only unrationed in 1953, just before I was born.
I remember sitting making rag-rugs ten years after the war. Even though we had a new house and we weren't living in the slums of Handsworth, we had quarry tiles, oil cloth and rag-rugs. No one had carpets. If some clothing or material wore out, it was cut up in strips - we had robust materials back then, like corduroy and tweed. We used to sit around to make these; every year, we had a new rug. We'd make a new one for the front room (which you only used for when you had company and for special occasions - it was in the 70s when having a big living room was the rage), move the old front one to the living room and the one in the living room went out - got rid of it. To clean the rugs, Mom (Jennie) used to take the rug, hang it on the (washing) line outside and beat it with a paddle.
Everything was washed by hand in the dolly washtub, then would be rung out through the mangle. I remember the temptation to poke my fingers into the mangle hole (which you should never do!). After this, the washing would be hung out to dry on the line. In the winter, it would freeze solid; when brought inside, it would be placed in front of the range and you'd see it sort of melt. We had the black range in the back room and I remember Mom heating up the metal iron for ironing. All the time, she'd have two irons working, one to iron and one to heat. To test whether it was hot enough to use, she'd spit on it.
In the mid/late 50's, they put the gas pipes in and we had a gas cooker, a little blue and white cooker about two ft sq cube, two burners on the top and it was on little legs.
The first fridge we ever had was a gas fridge; it was a second hand fridge.
Then, when Johnny started work, shortly after, he bought Mom a spin dryer.
Yvonne's Memories from the mid-late '70s/early '80s:
We used to take washing to the launderette at first. We bought our first automatic washing machine when I was pregnant with Sam; we sat down to watch the washing machine, and it filled up with water and then emptied. I said, "I'm sure it's supposed to go around!" It turns out it was a faulty machine and had to be put right.
We had our first microwave in 1981; we used to put an egg in and watch it cook. You get used to technology very quickly but it was absolutely fascinating when we first had it.
When Simon was little, you never had any television until about 1pm? Then you'd get the news, followed by 'Watch with Mother' , which was a kid's programme. The television would go off until 5pm and then go off again at 10pm. The BBC would do one show and ITV the other.
When the television would go off and the tube would cool off - it became transistorised later in the '70s - you could watch the dot on the screen shrink until it was around the size of 5p, and then we'd watch it for around half an hour until it disappeared. When the first colour tellys came out in the 70s, they were absolutely huge and really expensive. They used to put school programmes on. Then there was the test card - you could tune your television contrast and brightness against that picture of a girl with her hair in an Alice band holding a toy - there was an OXO board behind her.
Yvonne's Memories of Working with an Ex-Prisoner of War - a Snapshot of the Change:
When I started work, I worked for an ex-prisoner of war, who was kept in the Japanese prisoner of war camp. He was skin and bone; they kept him really starved and he learned to be very thrifty with food from it.
He started his business, who used to supply a rather eminent company; he made their quiches, Danish pastries, chocolate eclairs, all confectionary. One day I got the cheese out of the fridge and it was mouldy, so I binned it. He got it out of the bin, cut the mould off and told me to use it.
Another time, we had margarine wrapped in boxes and plastic wrapping, which after unwrapping, I threw in the bin. Once again, he got it out and made me scrape out about an ounce of marge off the plastic.
Herbert:
Herbert was already enlisted in the Army's 2nd Battalion (Buffs) Royal East Kent Regiment when the war started, so instead of releasing him, he was kept in. The 2nd Battalion was part of the British Expeditionary Force sent into France, but when the order to retreat was given, Herbert was too far inland to get back to Dunkirk. As there were various bits of regiments scattered too far inland, these were brought together under the command of Major General Sir Victor Morven Fortune, who was placed in charge of holding up the German advance. The end came for Herbert when he and his company were on two roads; they knew the Germans would come down one and waited on it. Someone informed the Germans about the British waiting in ambush, so the Germans came down the other road, came up behind the British and took them all prisoner.
Herbert spent the majority of the war in prison camps, including Stalag 20b, Marienburg, but this at least kept him physically out of harm's way. He didn't like talking about the War later in life, but he did tell young George one humorous anecdote that stayed with him.
Towards the end of the War, the POWs were guarded mostly by old men or young boys, as all able-bodied Germans were at the front. The barracks they were in comprised of a long wooden building where prisoners stayed; there was a mess room and beyond that was the dormitory. At night, they would all have to leave the mess room and be locked in the dormitory. The prisoners were getting Red Cross parcels at this time, and amongst the items given were cigarettes. The prisoners could hear the Germans outside, so they made a hole in the wall so they could see what they were doing. To their surprise, they saw one of the Germans, an old man, rooting through the ashtray, digging out the dog-ends to make himself a cigarette.
Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners were not allowed to do certain tasks, but they were used for some events. Part of what Herbert and his fellow prisoners had to do was to fill in bomb holes made by the British bombers. To do this, they had to go to quarries to get material. One day, the old man was guarding them; the prisoners suddenly had a bright idea. One of them was carrying a pack of cigarettes; they approached the guard and offered him a cigarette if he would do something for them. On hearing it the guard looked around, saw no one, got into a dip in the quarry and then raised his arm, saying 'Heil Churchill!' Each time he said it, the prisoners gave him another cigarette.
When the Allies arrived and started advancing on the camp from the west, the prisoners were matched eastwards. Then the Russian forces came from the east, forcing the Germans to march their prisoners westwards, backwards and forward.
This last event happened before Herbert was taken prisoner. To boost morale, like Vera Lynn travelling around to sing to the troops, the 2nd Battalion used to have boxing competitions and boxing rounds. Their champion wasn't available, so they asked for volunteers; Herbert decided to volunteer. He kept getting knocked down, but every time, he kept getting back up. In the end, he got a little medal for being a brave loser.
Lily:
Lily's oldest son Mike was age 1 and she was pregnant with Bob when Herbert was taken prisoner. As the war progressed, she and the children were evacuated to Bedford. During the time they were in Bedford, one of the young boys managed to sneak into a training camp nearby and somehow swallowed a bullet! He was only 3 at the time. Lily anxiously took him to the doctor, who told her not to worry as it would come out naturally. A few days later, while he was doing his business, there was a clunk; the bullet had worked its way through his system - in a non-damaging way.
Another story from the training camp involved the soldiers there throwing bits of chalk out of the window; the boys came home and told their mother they'd found a chalk mine.
Later on, she and one of her sisters decided to share a flat; although they had got along well when they were younger, since both had been married, they didn't get on so well as they were used to having their own homes.
Lily thought that Churchill was a brilliant leader during the war; after Dunkirk, when Herbert was missing and she didn't know if he was dead or alive, everyone was anxious and dejected but Churchill spoke as if Britain had won a great victory, instead of being defeated. Lily said it really raised morale.
After the war, Churchill came to visit the East End; he wouldn't believe the East End were slums, but insisted that it was due to bomb damage. Lily said he couldn't understand how the common people lived.
Another story she told was about Buckingham Palace was bombed. The King, George VI, and his Queen Elizabeth were offered to go Canada for safety and they said no, they wanted to stay with their people. After Buckingham Palace was hit, the Queen said, "Now we can look people in the face, because we've been hit too."
I hope these memories have created a brief snapshot of a time past for you.
To all of you, from those not living under the Nazi dictatorship that could so easily have happened, thank you.
For your courage, for your grit, for your battles, for your prayers, thank you.
I will not forget.
For tomorrow's future, you gave your today.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)