June 1944. On the morning of June 6 we all knew that the ‘Second Front’ had been opened. It was ‘D. Day. The invasion of Europe, Incidentally, it was called ‘D’ Day because it was the day we had all been waiting for. ‘D’ for ‘Day’
I was in a very worried state when I went to work because I knew that Stan would be in the thick of it. In fact, they landed at Ouisterham in Normandy on that day, June 6., not before a nasty half hour when their landing craft developed a fault and they were virtually a sitting target out in the Channel. Everyone was discussing the news and one woman said “Its about time too they’ve all been having a good time messing about in England.” I felt very evil towards her, particularly as her husband was safely at home and working in the factory. She was a very ignorant and stupid woman.
Within a few days I received the standard War Department postcard ready printed with sparse details like, ‘I am well. I will write soon’.
I felt much better when I got a proper letter. When waiting for the bus to go to work, (I didn’t always cycle) we often saw the postman. He was going down Wesley Avenue and then round into Shady Grove. If it was Ernest Heaton’s turn for the round we used to run across to him from the bus stop and he was so good he would patiently sort through the pile of letters to see if he had any for those of us who were catching the bus. Mr. Watson would never do it, he stuck firmly to the rule, and ‘mail must be delivered to the address on the envelope’.
Regular contact was soon established and I was able to send parcels, tins of coffee, and also cigarettes. It was possible to get Rothmans cigarettes in cartons of 100. The coffee was for bartering. Eventually there was talk of ‘leave’ from France. This was very exciting. I planned a surprise. Before Stan reported to the Army he had put the car on blocks in the garage at Vale View, and deflated the tyres, so I thought it would be a good idea if, when he came home the car was ready for the road.
It had been reported in the papers that a small number of petrol coupons would be available for service people coming on leave from Europe. So I contacted Norman Wright the owner of the garage where Stan had bought the car. He was wonderfully co-operative, and agreed to come to Porthill on the Wednesday, the week before Stan was due home. I had the day off from work and Norman duly arrived. He was very happy to be involved in the plot. There was a nasty moment though, when I took him a cup of tea he was sitting near the garage, his face as white as a sheet. The car had slipped when he was getting it off the blocks and it had caught his shinbone. I was afraid his leg was broken, but he was sure it was not. He let me bathe it and though it looked awful he carried on after a rest. He blew up the tyres, put oil and water in, and even a gallon of petrol to get us Newcastle to claim the petrol coupons. He started it up and it was perfect. He would not take any money from me, but during the following week we called at the garage so that Stan could thank him and make him accept some money from him. Stan was very impressed by my surprise for him. We had some lovely trips out including going to see Joan Rudland who had by this time left Radway Green to join the Land Army. She was at a farm in Eccleshall Staffs. We cried buckets when we met and she came for an hour or two with Stan and me.
I managed to get away from Radway Green on ‘medical grounds’, with Dr Lynd’s co-operation!
I then went to work at ‘Boyce Adams’, a grocers in the village. Their main shop was in Hanley. The manager was a Mr. Dockeray and his daughter also worked there. The less said about them the better. A girl called Mary also worked there and we got on very well. She was a Londoner, her husband was in the Army and she had a little boy, she was staying in Alsager indefinitely with some people called Crisford.
I used to go out every Tuesday collecting orders. Customers would give me a list of goods to be delivered on the Thursday. (The van came from Hanley for this purpose). Some of them would pay the previous week’s account, if they did not want to come into the shop. One such customer was a Miss Hewlett. She lived in a large house in Fields Road; the family had an ironmongery business in Tunstall. In the December of 1944 a battle was going on in the Ardennes, and we were all very worried, those of us who had men there particularly. I called at Miss. Hewlett’s as usual on the Tuesday, and as she was paying me she was talking about the war news. I said, “My husband is somewhere in that area”. She looked at me in total astonishment, saying, “Oh you don’t look old enough to be married,” then as she gave me the money; I think the amount was five shillings and five pence. She gave me two half crowns and a sixpence. As I gave her the penny change she was seized by an enormous fit of generosity. “Oh no”, she said, pressing the penny into my hand, “you must keep the change, especially as your husband is in the Forces.” Flushed by her reckless act she hurriedly closed the door!
Christmas 1944. Stan sent a photograph taken in Brussels. He was so handsome then. I sent an enlargement of a ‘polyfoto’ I had had taken in Lewis’s in Hanley. Spring 1945 and the news looked good. We could really feel that the war in Europe at least, would soon be over. The week ending May 7, Stan was on leave, we went to the White Lion at Weston, Mum and Dad came with us, everyone was tremendously excited by the prospect that the end of hostilities in Europe would be announced on the Monday.
Stan and I took Nora to Oswestry on Monday to celebrate with Noel. Kath did not want to come with us. Joe had been on leave a few weeks previously, as had Noel. However he was allowed out of camp for the evening. We tried several pubs, some were closed because they had nothing to sell, we did find one in Whitchurch and although there were crowds of people inside and similar crowds outside hoping to get a drink, eventually, we joined the throng. The atmosphere was great, everyone so happy and smiling. Stan and Noel joined the long queue to try to get us all a drink, it would only be weak warm beer but we didn’t care. As they disappeared into the queue, two Americans came and put an arm round Nora and I, saying, “Say, how about you ditch these guys and spend the rest of the evening with us?” We smiled and told them firmly they had ‘no chance’. We did tell Noel and Stan when they came back that we’d given it some serious thought! In August 1945 the war in the Far East was brought to a horrifying conclusion by the dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. However, it was another year before Stan was ‘demobbed’. Joe and Noel were out a little time before.