...given the chance, we would do our bit to rid ourselves of the unwanted occupiers of our lovely country...


We Shall Fight On The Beaches...

Chapter 11

By Susan Brown

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This is an incomplete story that I have always meant to finish but never got around to it. I do not like to leave a story like that so I have, at long last, finished it. I will be publishing the rest of the story over the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Previously...

He looked at me, stood up and smiled sadly.

‘I do not know why I have told you all this, but thank you for listening. I have to go; I am on duty and the Feldwebel will have my guts if I do not do my patrol as I should. Auf Wiedersehen Fraulein.’

With that, he walked off around the corner.

I never saw him again.

It left me wondering why he had chosen me of all people to talk about the things that were worrying him. I supposed that he could not talk of such things to fellow soldiers in case someone blabbed and told his superiors.

So, all was not well among the Germans. That was good, but I felt so sorry for the boy, he may be a soldier who could if ordered, kill others, but he was still just a scared boy. It reminded me that there were what I called normal, I might say decent people on both sides.

And now the story continues…

There was just a small detachment of soldiers in our village and we rarely saw officers. The shocking case of the girl and her family in Looe all made us feel that we could not, at present, do much damage to the enemy. That didn’t mean that we were in any way happy with the situation and I knew for a fact that given the chance, we would do our bit to rid ourselves of the unwanted occupiers of our lovely country.

Whenever I was out, I looked to the skies for our Hurricanes and Spitfires, but after the one that I saw a while ago when fighting two enemy planes over the sea, there was nothing except German planes, which we saw occasionally. Being so far down the country meant that we were in somewhat of a backwater.

I hated to think what it was like in places like London and Manchester. What information we did have was grim, to say the least. The anti-Semitic nature of the Nazis meant that many Jews were rounded up and placed in camps. This was also the case for those poor people with disabilities, mental and physical. Rumour had it that many of these people were killed and that included women and children. As for the places where the atomic bombs had been dropped. I couldn’t imagine what it was like in those heavily populated areas.

We felt so frustrated and guilty that we could do nothing about all the atrocities, but we were powerless, at that moment.

We were sitting at the kitchen table on a Monday evening when Nan looked at us. I think she could tell that resentment against the enemy was getting to us all. We rarely laughed now.

Nan said, ‘We must be patient. One day we will get our own back. Until then, we hold our tongues and do not give rise to any possible reprisals. We want to lull them into a false sense of security. I won’t tell you much about it, because the less you know the better, but we now have access to the wider resistance and things are afoot.’

‘What’s a foot got to do with it Auntie?’ asked Helen.

We all laughed as Nan explained.

‘It means that there are plans about what is going to happen.’

‘Then why didn’t you say so!’ she replied huffily.

‘Anyway girls,’ continued Nan, ‘I can now tell you that there is a coordinated resistance through Great Britain and there is, at last, more secure wireless communication available. Some of our boffins have been able to jam the Germans from tracking our radios and transmitters and are using frequencies that the Germans somehow cannot trace. I’m not sure of the technicalities but it seems to work at the moment. Soon we will get more information about what is going on locally and nationally, but we have to be patient.’

“I just want to kill the Nazis,’ said Claire suddenly and then burst into tears and left the room.

‘I’ll go after her,’ said Alison, getting up from the table.

That sort of ended our impromptu meeting and I just went outside for a breath of fresh air. It was getting quite cold outside now winter was approaching and I was wearing a cardigan over my blouse. I stood by the harbour wall, holding my skirt down in the wind and looked out to sea. There were a few ships out there, but it was a bit misty and I couldn’t make out whether they were warships or merchants.

I could hear the chiming sounds of the rigging in the boats of the harbour caused by the wind. It was a nice almost comforting sound.

I scratched my left breast absentmindedly. It was itchy. I was glad to say that I was slowly developing my breasts now. They weren’t large, little more than bumps really, but I was so pleased that, at last, the pills were beginning to work. I had also noticed that I was getting a bit shapelier in my body and my bottom appeared to be a bit more padded. Ethel said that she had noticed it too, so it must have been true.

Also, I was a bit moody at times and occasionally snapped at my sisters and sometimes cried for no good reason. The doctor said it was normal and that I shouldn’t worry too much about it.

I wondered for some reason about the German soldier I met a while back up on the headland. I hadn’t seen him again. I supposed that he had been sent somewhere else. Strangely, I meant him well. He was forced into this war like many others and I hoped that he would come out of it unscathed.

Maybe I should be guilty about feeling like that, but he was human after all. I’m not sure I would feel the same if he killed anyone though.

We were back at school, one afternoon. Mrs Westbury was attempting to teach us the German language. This was one of the subjects that we were forced to learn against our will, but we had no choice in the matter. I think that Mrs Westbury did not want to do this either as she was normally the English teacher but her late husband was German who died after the Great War. She was therefore almost fluent in German.

The door of the class opened suddenly and Albert Roberts, the school secretary came in. He looked around suspiciously.

‘What do you want Albert?’ Asked Mrs Westbury rather testily.

‘Just checking up on what you are teaching.’

‘It’s none of your business Albert, you are merely the secretary, but it’s German.’

‘Ah good. I have been asked by our liberators about…’

‘Liberators?’

He looked at her.

‘Yes, liberators. Things are much better now that we are under the protection of the Third Reich…’

I could see some danger in this as there were mumblings around the room, Mrs Westbury looked livid and she snapped the chalk in her hand without noticing it. Alison looked like she was going to say something stupid.

I had to do something. It could turn ugly very quickly.

‘Mister Roberts?’

He turned to me looking a bit annoyed.

‘Yes, what is it girl?’

‘How is your dog Kurt?’

‘Erm what?’

‘I heard that he was not well.’

‘He is fine now. Erm right, I haven’t time for idle talk. Keep working hard and you will be a credit to us all. Heil Himmler!’

He saluted using the hated gesture.

We sort of waved back at him. There was no way that we would do that salute properly!

With that, he nodded and left us.

‘Prat,’ whispered Mrs Westbury to herself. Of course, we all heard and laughed.

‘You never heard that, did you children?’

‘No teacher,’ we said in unison.

I often wondered what had happened to the men and boys from the area who had been spirited away to the warren of tin mines to escape the enemy. I did know that they were being moved regularly to prevent capture.

I asked Nan about this.

‘Don’t ask where they are Carol. All I can say is that they aren’t in Cornwall anymore.’

‘Oh, they’ve gone, are they safe?’

‘As far as I am aware, for the moment yes. You must understand that I am keeping you away from any knowledge of these things because, if the worst happens, what you don’t know, you can’t tell.’

I understood this but me and my sisters were getting a bit fed up with not knowing what was going on. I knew that Nan was part of the resistant movement and we were unhappy that we were not more involved. We might be young, but after all we had been through we thought that we had a right to be more involved.

Alison, who was acknowledged to be the most hot-headed of us all continually complained about this. Given the chance, she would grab a machine gun and kill everyone in a German uniform. It was only the fact that we had heard of terrible reprisals meted out on anyone seen to be enemies of the state, that kept her from doing something stupid.

We all wanted to do something, anything to get our own back on the enemy and cause them as much harm as possible but we knew that our hands were tied at that moment. We all prayed for the day when we could get our own back. We had all suffered from the war and German occupation. Only time would tell if and when we could get our own back.

I often thought of my mother and sister. I loved them so much and their death left a void in my life that would never be filled. I wondered and hoped that they would be up in Heaven, wherever that is, with my darling Daddy and that they would somehow look down on me and approve of who I was now – a girl.

Normal life for me was, I suppose on reflection, a bit boring. We went to school, came home, did chores around the house, and all the other mundane normal things families carried out. But things weren’t really normal. We were not allowed to travel, even to Looe. We had to carry our papers at all times. We were constantly stopped, searched and questioned about our movements. The air of suspicion was palpable and it was obvious that the Germans hated us. The only nice German I encountered was that boy up at my favourite bench up on the headland and he was nowhere to be seen.

There were regular spot searches on all the cottages and houses as our occupiers tried to find incriminating evidence of possible insurrection or civil disobedience.

There was the case of the Russian author, who had lived in Polperro since the end of the Great War. He had a house overlooking the sea. It was a lovely house and I had visited it once with Nan. He was a gentle old man, but still quite spritely. He told us what it had been like in Russia before he moved to England. Anyway, one day, very early in the morning, his house was raided and he was taken away. A radio transmitter was found, together with a powerful telescope. He was accused of crimes against the state.
We had no idea what happened to him and never saw him again. His lovely house was taken over by the German Commandant and his small staff.

Such was life under Nazi occupation.

On a personal note, I had long been accepted by the others that I was a girl. Physically, I was no different from my sisters. I regularly saw the good doctor and she was pleased with my progress. I was happy that I was a girl but so wished that I did not have a penis. This was the one sign that I was not like a normal girl. At first, I was worried that I might be found out. An ongoing nightmare was that I might be arrested by the Germans and be strip searched. Then I realised that a girl like me was apparently unimportant to them. I was young, small and a girl as far as the enemy was concerned and not worth investigating. Such was the attitude of the occupiers. They were much more concerned with adults, especially men. They considered that girls and women were the weaker sex and that was a mistake which I hoped they would regret one day.

By necessity, I began to get to know a bit more about the human body and the differences between boys and girls. I had an interesting if embarrassing conversation with Nan and it was a bit of an eye-opener. I now knew what Mum was trying to get at with the birds and bees conversation we had. I wish she hadn’t beaten about the bush and just told me as it is!

It was soon obvious that there had been problems regarding my testicles. They had not descended and on examination by Dr Arnold, it turned out that they weren’t in my groin or abdomen.

‘Not unheard of, they may have been small and undeveloped or did not have the correct blood supply when in the womb. Short of surgery to try to find them, I have to assume that they are not there. It might explain why you are developing well as a girl, especially your breasts and fat distribution. Having no testicles means that you are not producing much testosterone apart from in your adrenal glands and without getting too technical, that means that the natural oestrogen in your body, together with the pills you have been taking indicates to me why you are developing female characteristics faster than expected.’

‘Is that good?’

‘It wouldn’t be if you wanted to be a boy, but as a girl, I would say that it’s more a good thing than a bad one, although there are certain health conditions that might cause you problems in the future; but we’ll worry about that if or when that might occur. Anyway, I want you to only take your pills once rather than twice a day and we will see how things go.’

I wanted to argue about that. The sooner I was as fully developed as a girl as I could be, the better as far as I was concerned, but the doctor knew what she was doing, so I would do as I was told but keep a very careful eye on my development.

I had a heart-to-heart talk with Ethel and Glad about my breast development and they said the same thing. That all girls wanted their breasts to grow as fast as possible but everyone was different. Ethel boasted that her breasts were one size bigger than her sister's. Glad didn’t like that, but we all had to agree that it was very unfair especially as they were twins and looked like peas in the pod other than that!

I quite often went to what I considered to be my bench around the headland, out of sight of the village. I never saw the young German soldier again and I did wonder what had happened to him and whether he would ever see his home again.

One day, I was sitting there looking at the sea, which was grey, reflecting the sky. Overhead, seagulls were making their normal noises. There was the chug-chug of a trawler engine as the boat approached the little harbour with some of the seagulls finding the catch of some interest. The sea was a bit choppy and I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks down below.

It looked like it might rain and it was colder as of late. I was wearing a pretty sky-blue dress with a slip underneath, necessary as the dress sort of clung to me otherwise, and a royal blue cardigan. Next to me on the bench was my raincoat, just in case. I was in a sheltered spot so the wind wasn’t a problem but judging by the choppy sea, it looked like the weather might take a change for the worse, sooner or later.

I often went off by myself as living with several boisterous, noisy children wasn’t always all that great. I suppose I was the quietest of my sisters. Even Helen, now that she had found her true self, was getting more outgoing and the shy little boy I first knew wasn’t evident in any way shape or form anymore. I was happy for her.

I, on the other hand, was a bit of a navel-gazer, as Nan called me. As I sat there, once again, I wondered what was going on in the world. We were getting tantalising snippets of information from the outside now, but nothing concrete and a lot of it was contradictory. I just didn’t know the truth of things and I tended to ignore all this so-called news. If I had believed everything, the war would soon be over, and America would at last have entered the conflict. Russia would have risen against Germany with the help of China of all countries.

There were so many stories and I just didn’t know what to believe. To have your hopes raised and then shattered was almost too much to bear.

That morning Alison had put my hair in a French plait. It was just long enough and I loved it. Looking down at myself wearing my pretty dress made me wonder what Mum and Sally would think of me now. Would they like me better than when I was John?

I would never know and I got a bit weepy thinking about them and how much I missed them and my Dad.

Dad, he was someone who I loved but saw very little of as I grew up. He was a long distant lorry driver and spent much of his time on the road. Then he joined the army and I saw even less of him. When he was home, I remembered him as a kind gentle man who made me giggle. I loved it when we went to the park and he pushed me and my sister on the swings. He supported the Queens Park Rangers football team and he put me on his shoulders sometimes so that I could see the match better. I wasn’t that interested in football but I loved those times with Dad and I cherished his memory.

I felt a few spots of rain and, sighing I got up and put my raincoat on. I hurried back before the deluge and just managed to get back in time before the heavens opened with accompanying thunder and lightning.

In the hall, I took off my damp raincoat and hung it on my hook by the side of the door. Going into the kitchen I could see that the girls were playing snap loudly.

‘Where’s Nan?’ I asked.

‘Out,’ replied Alison, ‘SNAP!’

I shook my head. Nan was often out doing something or other and she kept those things very close to her chest.

Sighing, I went upstairs to the bedroom and took off my cardigan. Looking out of the window, I could see that the rain had stopped and there was now some blue sky showing in places.

Down below a small patrol was marching down the hill. I noticed, in passing that one of the soldiers was out of step with the others. The corporal would have his garters for garters when he noticed that!

Looking up in the distance I could see what was probably a Junkers Ju 252 or 352, I wasn’t sure as it was still a bit misty. I had made it my business early on to recognise enemy planes as well as our own. I don’t know why but it beat train spotting!

The plane was heading west and I wondered what it was up to, then shrugged. I would never know.

I went over to the mirrored wardrobe and looked at myself and smiled. It was a reflection that I would never get used to. I was seeing a girl, a pretty girl maybe. Not wonderfully beautiful but still, quite pretty. Was I vain? Maybe, but what girl doesn’t like to think of themselves as pretty even if they are not?

I wanted to wear makeup but wasn’t allowed to, nor were my sisters. We were too young evidently and makeup makes you look older according to Nan. We weren’t to draw attention to ourselves. I suppose it made sense, but that didn’t stop us from complaining about it.

I went down to join the others and eventually got lost in a game of Monopoly, which, as usual, I lost. I had no head for business, but I couldn’t be perfect at everything could I?

That night, in bed, I wondered what Nan had been up to that day. When she came home she wouldn’t say anything. She just put her index finger up against the side of her nose, whatever that meant.

I fell asleep eventually.

Something woke me up, I wasn’t sure what it was. I was thirsty.

I got up and padded over to the door, let myself out of the bedroom and quietly went downstairs. I shivered slightly as I was only wearing my rather thin cotton nightdress and was in bare feet; not very warm.

In the kitchen, I fumbled for the light switch and blinked at the brightness when the light came on.

I picked up a glass from the cupboard and went over to the tap to pour myself a glass of water.

I heard engine noises.

Looking up I saw three lorries, army lorries, going past at speed. I had no idea what was going on and hoped that it wasn’t bad news for us. It had been relatively quiet for a while. We had gotten used to the unwelcome occupation and the heavily restricted lives we were now leading. It had become the new normal. The last thing we wanted now was a new set of things to worry us.

After drinking the water and not hearing or seeing anything else going on outside, I yawned and went back to bed. It started to rain again and there was a pitter-patter of rain on the windows. In the distance, I could hear thunder and then saw occasional lightning light up the sky. Bad weather never bothered me much unless I was out in it. I was tired and soon went back to sleep.

I kept waking up. Alison was snoring, but it wasn’t that. Noises were coming from outside. Eventually, I got up and looked out of the window. The others were fast asleep and I wished that I could join them, but somehow, I couldn’t. It wasn’t that unusual to hear noises outside but there were a few shouts and the running boots. There was a lot more activity than usual.

I was sleeping top and tail with Alison on the single bed, so I got up without disturbing her and looked out of the window. There was a lot of activity on the other side of the harbour. I could see lorries with their headlights on and lots of soldiers milling about. I yawned. I had no idea what was going on and nearly went into Nan’s bedroom to ask her opinion as to what was happening but she had had a long day and she badly needed her sleep.

It wasn’t that unusual for the Germans to move about at night, but not in such numbers. Perhaps they just wanted to do things in secret, although, with the noise they made, I don’t think that it would be a very successful way to go about it!

I yawned and suddenly shivered in my thin nightie, deciding that I really should be wearing my dressing gown, and decided to go back to bed in the hope that things would quieten down.

Soon, I was getting back in my warm bed, hoping that my cold feet might warm up quickly. I sighed as Alison was still snoring and dead to the world. I wished that I could be like her! However, after a few minutes, I thankfully fell asleep.

I woke up early, as I often did, and decided to get up quietly and get dressed. I was the only one up and about in the cottage as it was only 6 o’clock. How the others could sleep until 8 o’clock or later, I would never know.

I had left clothes to wear the following morning on a chair and swiftly and quietly I slipped on a pair of my knickers and vest then put on a skirt, slip and blouse. Then I slipped on some nice, warm, long grey woolly socks and finished the look off with a cardigan. Then, after putting on my shoes, I slipped my coat on and after brushing my hair, I placed my red beret over my hair.

I was ready to go.

I slipped out of the bedroom, trying not to make a noise as one of the floorboards tended to creak a bit.

I let myself out of the cottage and as quietly as possible I shut the front door and went down the few steps and into the lane. It was getting close to autumn now and there was morning dew covering everything. I could even see a slight misty cloud as I breathed out.

A few of the trees were dropping their leaves and the sun, just rising looked hazy in the cold air.

The sea was calm and I could see a couple of ships on the horizon. As I walked down the road, I wondered what I would be doing that day. It was Sunday, supposedly a day of rest, but we would be going to church later on and then, who knows. At least we didn’t
have to go to school. I didn’t mind school, but having to learn German and being forced to have false history lessons written by our occupiers was not something I or any of my sisters and friends enjoyed.

All was quiet with only the sound of seagulls breaking the silence.

I frowned.

Something was wrong and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I walked on, passing the butchers and bakers and then further down, the fruit and veg shop. All those shops opened spasmodically due to a lack of stock.

Going along The Coombe, I passed the post office on the left and then The Ship pub on the right. Still nobody about.

Then I stopped.

By now there should have been soldiers milling around. There always was, day and night. There was normally at least one or two soldiers at the junction of Big Grn and The Coombe, but there wasn’t anyone.

I saw someone walking their dog and coming my way. It was Mr Pearce, the school caretaker with Molly, a Labrador who was soppy and as gentle as a lamb.

‘Hello Mr Pearce. Do you know what’s going on?’

He took his pipe out of his mouth and smiled.

‘Hello young Carol. I’ve been trying to work that out myself. I passed the town hall a few minutes ago and I couldn’t see any Germans. The door was open and I peeked in. The place is in a mess with papers strewn around the floor and it looked like it had been vacated in a hurry. Also, the car park at the top of the village is empty.’

‘Empty?’

‘Yes, no German trucks, jeeps or cars.’

‘So, they’ve gone?’

‘It looks like it. I’m going home and then I’ll contact a few people. We need to know what’s going on.’

‘The Germans have gone?’

I must have sounded stupid. He had just told me that and I wanted definite confirmation.

He laughed.

‘Clean out your ears Carol. That’s what I said!’

I went up to him and impulsively kissed him on his stubbly cheek, and then gave Molly a scratch behind the ear.

‘I must tell everyone!’ I shouted, ‘bye!’

He said something laughingly but I didn’t heed him. I just had to tell everyone.

I ran back home faster than I had ever done and breathlessly let myself in.

I skidded to a stop when I saw Nan in the kitchen sipping her inevitable cup of tea.

‘Hey Carol, what’s your hurry? Do you want a cuppa?’

‘Nan!’

‘Are you all right Dear, you look quite flushed and out of breath.’

‘Nan.’

‘I hope that you haven’t said anything silly to the Germans. you know that they don’t have any sense of humour…’

‘NANNY!’

‘No need to shout Dear. I’m sitting right here not down by the harbour…’

‘They’ve gone.’

‘Gone; who’s gone?’

‘The Germans.’

‘Gone where?’

‘I don’t know.’

She had me sit down and then I explained what I had seen and what Mr Pearce had told me.

She looked at me thoughtfully. She didn’t seem at all surprised about this and I wondered how much she had kept from us.

‘Stay here. I need to speak to a few people. Don’t say anything to the other girls. Mind you, knowing them they won’t be up for ages.’

‘Can I come with you?’

She looked at me and hesitated.

‘All right, you deserve that. Let me get my coat on.’

A few minutes later, with the cottage still silent, we let ourselves out and Nan led the way up Talland Hill. It was steep. I had never been so far up. The lane was very narrow and I must admit that I was a bit out of breath after a bit. Nan must have been fitter than me as she showed no signs of exertion as she strode on.

After a while, she turned left. There were several cottages there and she made her way to the end one.

She knocked three times then twice then once.

After a few moments, the door was answered.

A man answered the door. I didn’t recognise him. He was about sixty I would say with thick white hair and was still quite handsome and athletic looking.

‘Hello Rose. I was expecting you, but not this early; and who is this?’

‘My granddaughter, Carol.’

He moved forward and shook my hand.

‘I’m Tom. I've heard of you Carol, of course. Rose can’t stop talking about you. You are very pretty if you don’t mind my saying.’

I felt my face go red. I wondered if he knew everything about me.

‘Hello.’ I replied, shyly.

‘Come in,’ he gestured and stood aside to let us through.

There was a short passage and then I found myself in a bright sitting room with views over the sea.

‘Cup of tea?’ he asked us.

‘Yes please Tom,’ replied Nan.

I was more interested in finding out what was going on but the other two were acting as if nothing was happening and the visit was a social one.

Eventually, we were all sat down and Mr Blake spoke up after a sip of his tea.

‘I imagine this visit is about the Germans leaving?’

‘Yes,’ said Nan, ‘they’ve disappeared.’

‘Well, it’s true. I had confirmation at 6.30 this morning from one of the operations people.’

Nan turned to me.

‘There’s a network of clandestine operators and agents throughout Great Britain.’

‘Don’t ask how we have been in contact,’ said Mr Blake, ‘it’s still top secret. Just take it for granted that we have an information network that the Germans have not been able to crack and this helps us to keep abreast of things.’

‘So have they really gone?’ I asked.

‘Yes; as we speak, the Germans are preparing to sign an armistice and will lay down their arms.’

‘What caused them to give in?’ I asked.

Nan spoke up.

‘There have been whispers about the state of affairs in Germany for some time. I couldn’t tell you about this as I was pledged to secrecy, loose talk costs lives remember? I know a lot more than you regarding all this Carol but was sworn to secrecy. You can tell her if you are able Tom.’

He shrugged.

‘It will be common knowledge soon enough. We had a BBC broadcast yesterday about the state of affairs. The fact that we received the transmission and it wasn’t blocked by the Nazis, is significant.

‘Richard Dimbleby informed us that the BBC had received verified information that just over a week ago, Himmler and most of his trusted High Command in Berlin were killed in an explosion at a meeting, we believe that it was caused by a planted bomb. You would have thought that they would have learnt from the attempt on Hitler a few years earlier. Anyway, it appears that certain German generals had been very unhappy about the state of affairs for some time and had secretly started to support the overthrow of Himmler and his henchmen.

‘Why were the German generals doing this you might ask? It appears that many key senior officers had been removed and summarily executed on the orders of Himmler. He evidently believed that they were plotting against him. Himmler himself was, of course, head of the armed forces and the SS were deemed to be not answerable to anyone other than Himmler and his cohorts and this meant that there was a lot of resentment from the regular forces who did not like the way things were going, especially as their losses in the field were far higher than reported.

‘Also, there had been unexpected incidences of heavy resistance in many occupied countries and this was causing many problems. In addition to this, the SS hierarchy treated the regular army, navy and air force with contempt and there was a great deal of resentment, especially from the regular army. It appears that the SS regiments were a bit shy of fighting and were nowhere near the conflict zones when things got hot.

‘Himmler, who was becoming more and more unstable than before, decided that he wanted to bomb America into submission in a mad attempt to take over more countries, even though, as I say, he had problems with the countries he had already conquered and his forces were becoming increasingly overstretched. He was always worried about America and was getting obsessed with the idea that they might attack at any moment.

‘On advice from his so-called experts and fuelled by his paranoia, he deployed three Messerschmitt Me 264 bombers that had, in secret, been specially adapted for a special long-range mission. The mission was to send those bombers across the Atlantic with a payload of atomic bombs. It would have been a one-way trip, so effectively a suicide mission for the crew. People in the know believed that the targets included Washington and New York.

‘He thought that the bombings would mean that the United States would capitulate and then he could effectively extend the Third Reich even further and tap into the resources of that vast country. Little did he know that America was secretly arming itself for a possible attack and now also had atomic bomb capability. They had been able to deploy it for some time, if and when needed.

‘Here is where it gets very interesting. The Americans had secretly developed an extensive new enhanced radar system and they were able to track and pinpoint the bombers in the mid-Atlantic and beyond. It appears that certain senior officers in the German army were made aware of the bombing mission and had informed contacts in the USA of what was happening and the Americans were well prepared to repel the attack. All three planes were shot down by the American Air Force well out into the Atlantic. Regrettably, one of the German planes exploded on impact with the sea and an atomic bomb went off. We do not know if the American pilots survived the resulting explosion as there is a no-go zone within fifty miles of the area due to possible fallout.

‘As a result of the foiled attack on American cities, America immediately declared war on Germany. Now, in addition to this, Russia turned on her German invaders and there had been bitter fighting in and around Moscow and Leningrad with huge losses on both sides. As far as we are concerned, much of our navy, who had been in hiding in a secret location, probably in one or more of the deep Norwegian fiords in the far north awaiting developments, have destroyed large numbers of German ships at Scapa Flow and Kiel.’

I was finding it hard to understand all this and it was difficult to take all this information in but I had a question.

‘What were we, the British, doing whilst all this was going on?

‘Good question. A SAS regiment somehow appeared from God knows where and managed to get into Buckingham Palace, where the German Command for Great Britain was based. They killed or captured the occupants including the Governor-General, Gottlob Berger. In Liverpool and Manchester, similar operations were carried out almost simultaneously and effectively, the high command was crippled and made ineffective.

‘Additionally, the remaining uncaptured aircraft of the RAF, once again from secret locations, managed to strafe and bomb various airbases of the Luftwaffe in our country rendering the Luftwaffe effectively inoperative. The enemy were unprepared, to say the least, and as you might have guessed there was a level of coordination by everyone. The idea was to hit the Nazis as hard as possible in the shortest space of time and it appears to have worked. I only thank God that the enemy was unable to intercept all the signals and messages.’

‘What was the German Army doing whilst all this was going on?’ I asked.

‘Good question Carol, this hasn’t been confirmed but we believe that members of the German regular army were told to stay in barracks by their generals and not to interfere. There must have been collusion between us and those Germans who were sympathetic to our cause, probably due to self-interest, and very much against the SS High Command, who were a law unto themselves. After the successful attacks by our people, the regular German army turned on the SS divisions and forced them to surrender. It appears that there was a lot of bloodletting, killing and the settling of old scores. Other occupied countries also had similar things happening. As I say, it appears that it was all coordinated. How the German High Command didn’t have a clue as to what was going to happen, we may never know but probably due to their arrogance; perhaps they thought that they were invincible.

‘Also,’ said Nan, ‘It’s incredible that so many different parties and countries managed to cooperate without letting the cat out of the bag.’

‘I suppose Rose, that it was because we all had a common enemy. I would be surprised if the is so much cooperation in the future. Anyway, the Americans, which it appears was not as hard up as we all thought, had been building up their forces in the event that they needed to defend their borders. It appears that they have had their own atomic bomb capability for some time and after declaring war they threatened to bomb German cities.’

‘All this, we feel, made Himmler’s position untenable following all the setbacks I’ve just mentioned and he was considered to be increasingly unstable and a liability and that led to his death and those that still supported him. To the end, he was convinced that he was winning even though everyone except his very close cronies knew otherwise. The result of the assassination changed everything. The new hastily formed German High Command ordered all forces to return to bases in Germany and immediately cease any fighting. They were aware that America had the capability to lay Germany to waste. That is why the German army is leaving as fast as it can and leaving much of its equipment behind.

‘It appears that Germany has far overstretched itself and is close to bankruptcy. The German mark is worth next to nothing and they spent too much on fuelling the war effort. They bled the occupying countries dry. Some of this information is speculation, and some of it is true. I’m sure we’ll get to know the truth at some stage but in the meantime, judging by the fact that the Germans have retreated, we are now free again.’

‘So it’s over?’ I whispered.

‘I think so. We still have German forces in this country but they are leaving as quickly as possible. All our POWs are being released and hopefully, things will get back to normal, whatever normal is now. However, it will all take some time. The Germans have left a mess that needs sorting out.’

It would take years probably to find out the truth about what exactly happened and Nan and Tom only told us what they thought they knew from the information that she was given. After the dust had settled, it turned out that the German Army, Navy and Luftwaffe were all complicit in the overthrow of Nazi Germany and much of what happened in the few weeks before the collapse of the German War Machine was heavily co-ordinated between the various interested parties.

All this is now history I suppose and this journal is not the place for it. This is a personal story and will leave it for others to fill out the gaps that I have not mentioned. The world is still in turmoil and I don’t know what will happen. I just hope that the various leaders will see sense and not let such things happen again.

Two days after the Germans left, it was almost as if they had never been in Polperro. All the hated flags had been pulled down and we were able to go where we liked when we liked. Men and boys started to filter back home and there were heart-warming reunions throughout the village.

We had had it lucky. The larger towns and cities had suffered a lot more than we did. There were many instances of hardship in those places, with little food and support from the state. Cruelty was rife. Many were killed or interned and families were torn apart.

There was a certain amount of retribution for those who supported the Nazis. In our village, it appeared that Albert Robbins the school secretary fell off the cliff near my favourite spot, by accident, of course. He will not be missed.

We still went to school as it was something to do, but we didn’t need to learn German and their biased view of history anymore which was great!

It was lovely to see some of the fathers return from the conflict and they had some harrowing tales to tell. Also, the men and boys spirited away when we were invaded came out from hiding and their return made for some very happy families. I only wished that I could have my family back, but that wasn’t to be. At least I had Nan and my new sisters and I was much luckier than many others.

As far as we were concerned, we just wanted some sort of normality. Glad and Ethel wanted to find their mum as did Alison, but things were up in the air and of course, Helen, Claire and I had nowhere else to go as we had all lost our parents. Claire never spoke about it in all the time I had known her and I didn’t want to pry. It was her business. All I knew was that she was an orphan like me and Helen.

A week after the Germans had left was a special day for me. It was my birthday and I was fourteen!

It was decided that we would have a party to celebrate both my birthday and the end of the conflict.

It was decided to have the party in the Methodist Hall as many other kids that we knew wanted to join in, mainly because there would be yummy food like jelly and blancmange on offer. It would also be a good excuse to wear our best clothes, well, what we had anyway.

Nan and some mums were busy cooking and preparing all morning. The party was to begin in the afternoon. I was excited. I had never had a birthday party before and loads of people were coming to it!

It took me ages to choose what dress I would wear, even though I only had a few, but in the end, I chose my pink one with tiny yellow flowers and I wore a white slip underneath. I was also wearing my first bra which gave me some welcoming support. I had my hair in a simple pink ribbon headband that looked lovely. All in all, I was very happy with what I had chosen.

All the others had gone out of their way to look pretty and I especially liked how Helen looked in her peach-coloured dress and matching ribbons in her hair. She had really blossomed.

We had a lovely time at the party with a few games like pass the parcel and musical chairs. I cut the cake with fourteen candles and blew out the candles with a wish that all my sisters would be happy.

We were tired at the end of the party with all the shouting and running around. It was early evening now and we were all stuffed full of nice food; now somehow, a little more available since the Germans had gone. We made our way back home, chattering excitedly about the party. It was lovely to have such a nice time after the recent doom and gloom.

We sat in the living room for a while talking about nothing in particular. Nan was in her favourite chair by the fire, which wasn’t lit because it was quite warm. She had her obligatory cup of tea in her hand. I was full of cake, blancmange, lemonade and cream soda, so I didn’t feel the need for anything else.

There was a knock on the front door. I was the nearest so I got up to answer it. I noticed a few crumbs on my dress and I quickly brushed them off. I then opened the door, smiling.

There, in front of me was my mum and Sally as large as life.

Everything went black…

Please leave comments if you have the time. Oh, and if you can, please do the kudo-thingie...thanks! ~Sue