CHAPTER 12
Life settled down after that. It was strange to find ourselves with a proper billet; stranger still to find that we had a servant, in the form of an unsmiling local woman.

We popped over into Denmark a couple of times when we had a weekend pass, and I was struck very hard by the contrast between the Danes and the civilians we had seen in Holland. These people were well-fed indeed, even when compared to what the people at home were like.

We had the Army Education Corps around all the time now, as well as the Kinema, and the strangeness continued. Ivan had one of the Danish islands, for a start, and the rumour mill was turning at full speed. Were we off to Burma, or were we about to start up once again with the Russians? All kit was in a state of readiness, watches stood and formalities retained, and there were these earnest officers-by-default giving us lectures about what we were now entitled to now Winston’s lot were out.

That wasn’t all they told or showed us. I had thought Belsen was bad, but Jesus Christ! The more I learned of what they had done, the less sympathy I found in myself for the people I had killed and wounded over the last year. Harry, though, he just sat and wept in the darkness, and he wasn’t the only one. Industrial, that was the young tutor’s word. Belsen had apparently been all about neglect, but those other places were factories that people entered and smoke left.

At the same time, some lads were being demobbed. It was truly weird.

Two months went by, then three, and then there was a call for the obligatory and traditional hollow square. We were still mixed up with other units, so it was a collection of all arms that stood to listen to some donkey-walloper full colonel. Mr Nolan was in front of us, so we were a little bit careful about our behaviour, right up to the point where he looked over his shoulder with a grin.

“I know what this is about, boys! TEN-SHUN!”

The colonel climbed onto a packing crate in the middle of the square, looked around at us and smiled.

“Stand at ease! Stand easy; you may smoke”

Harry had a gasper lit straight off. “Fucking Burma…”

Mr Nolan hissed quietly for silence, and our colonel carried on.

“I will come straight to the point, men—“

“Told you so”

Another hiss from Mr Nolan, and the senior officer continued.

“In the last few days, two bombs of a new type have been dropped on Japan. Each bomb, in its own right, has destroyed a large city. Each bomb, gentlemen, has destroyed, on its own, an entire city. In addition to the bombings, Generalissimo Stalin has informed our nasty little friends that the Soviet Union is now at war with them and their army is now attacking the Japanese in Manchuria. It is beginning to look, men, as if this war is finally coming to an end. Our leaders have issued an ultimatum: unconditional surrender or, as I am sure you would heartily concur, their home islands will be levelled. We await the Japanese response. That is al. Oh yes; cheering is now officially endorsed. A rum ration has been arranged”

He was right, and after we were dismissed there was a Bedford with Bob at the back, the jars of something nicked off the matelots, a great pile of tin mugs and a lot of grins. Men laughed and slapped each other on the back, swapped addresses, made promises they hoped to keep. Photos were shown, or simply taken out of wallets and stared at. When the issue was done, the five of us found a quiet spot in the sun and yarned. Ernie was ecstatic.

“Know what this means, boys? Ada’s going to say yes!”

Bob raised an eyebrow. “Ada?”

“My, er, fiancée…”

Bill hooted with laughter. “How long has that been going on?”

Ernie was a little pink. “We got engaged the day I left for Pompey. Her mam, she says happen as she won’t be a war widow if we leave it till after hostilities, aye? Real ray of sunshine, her mam”

Harry had a rare smile. “So, that Belgian lass you had in that hay loft…”

“Aye, well…”

“And those two French lasses you boasted about!”

Ernie’s face fell. “Sort of thing been worrying me, like. All them Yanks back home, all of us over here…”

Bob squeezed his knee. “If she had the eyes to pick you out, lad, she has the heart to stick with it”. Hang fire for a bit”

H returned with what was left of a jar of rum. “Fill up lads, and a toast, aye?”

We waited as he poured.

“Firstly, lads, to Ernie and Ada. Long may they be together, and may they be as happy as Ernie’s news has made the rest of us. Ernie and Ada!”

“Ernie and Ada!”

Bob looked round at each of us in turn. “Lads, we’ve come through it, it looks like. I wasn’t sure… sod it, lads. I really thought at times we wouldn’t, aye, especially when that fucking…sorry, it’s the rum. When Ginge shot that bloody Tiger. I really thought we were dead and burnt, just then. So, to Harry, whose driving was without par. To Ernie, who had the right one up the spout at all times. To Ginge here, whose shooting was so, so good. To Bill, who has a kick like a bloody mule. Aye, Bill, you missed that bastard in Belgium a couple of times and kicked me!”

Bill roared with laughter. “Didn’t say owt at time, did you?”

Bob grinned back. “Happen I were a bit busy, lad. To us!”

Harry looked up from his mug after that one, and just said, very quietly, “To Wilf”

That sobered us, but we did our best to put that right. The next morning, they retired Ollie, and we were the owners of a shining new Comet. Ernie and I looked at the main armament, then at each other, and shook our heads. NOW we got a weapon that could actually touch the enemy! And the only enemy we had surrendered on August the fifteenth, thank God.

Summer edged into Autumn, and then into Winter. We had a Displaced Person’s camp next to us, mostly Jerries but with a mixture of other people gathered from all over Europe. We sorted out a Christmas party for the kids, even the Jerry ones. A bairn is a bairn, a kiddy is a kiddy. You can’t blame them for what their dads did, nor should you. I was full of optimism back then. It was a new world, a new society. The war was done and now we could gather up the rewards. The five of us were together again after the party, so as to avoid silly splits with things like the messing arrangements, and Ernie was watching the little ones. Bill noticed.

“You and Ada after kids, Ernie?”

A sharp nod. “We weren’t sure, like, what with war and bombing, but it’s so much brighter now. Better world for a new life, aye? Who you got at home, Bill?”

“I have my eyes on a lass I were at school with: Mavis Bradley. If she’s still about, well, I might just follow your lead, Ern. I mean, she’s been writing steadily, so I have hopes. Bob? Ginge? We know Harry’s half Rolls-Royce, like”

I was a little embarrassed, but gave him back a grin. “Nobody for me, really, at least nobody I’ve said owt to. There’s a girl, though; her dad has a pub out towards Tadcaster”

Bill was laughing again, a sound becoming more and more common as the days grew shorter. “A lass with a pub! I like your attention to the important things in life, lad!” Bob?”

Once again, that gentle, sad smile. “Happen as I haven’t really found the right one yet, lads”

Bill was still chuckling. “You’ll probably find her working in the VD clinic! Er, sorry, bit too quick with my gob there”

The gentle smile stayed, but I could feel the sadness in it, and I understood. We all knew lads who had lost someone at home, from the Blitz or the doodlebugs, and I really suspected that Bob was one of them. Leave it alone for now, I told myself. If Bob needs or wants to talk, he will.

New Year’s Eve came and went, and there was snow on the ground. I gave thanks again for a proper billet, remembering those freezing days when the Germans had counterattacked so viciously, and as always my mind’s eye held the image of a man in the snow, back arched and heels drumming. I was lost in thought, walking down a street near the local HQ with Bill, when a jeep pulled up and to my astonishment a naked man was thrown onto the roadway. There was a Bedford behind, and a dozen or more MPs. Bill muttered darkly “What the fucking hell are those monkeys up to?”

What the monkeys were up to was kicking the naked man, who I saw was handcuffed, while screaming “Raus, raus you cunt”, One of them drove the butt of his rifle into somewhere near the man’s kidneys, and he screamed. Bill started forward, and two redcaps got between him and the prisoner so quickly I didn’t see them move.

“Leave it, private”

“With all due respect, Corporal, what the bloody hell is going on here?”

“Nothing to worry about, lad. Just a wanted war criminal on his way to be interrogated”

“You’ve already interrogated the shit out of him! What the hell is he supposed to have done?”

Bill stepped back, and the two MPs turned to follow the rest of their detachment. The corporal called back over his shoulder.

“Name’s Hoess. Ran a place called Auschwitz. And our boss there, he’s Jewish. Got any rope?”