Life in the immediate post war years was hardly one of reward for the victorious British. The country was exhausted and broke and everything seemed colourless and not particularly exciting. There seemed little to spice up life into a memorable peacetime mode. Rationing of food still remained, a starving Europe had to be fed, and clothes were very limited in style and material. When, as a thirteen year old boy, I had grown out of my first sports jacket I was greatly disappointed when I found that my father had bought another of exactly the same style and material.

Mrs Pat Brunsdon and her family moved to Axminster in the early sixties where she worked in a radio and record shop and later in the town’s TIC.

Grand Admiral Doenitz, the mind behind the submarine war against the Allies and who had been made Commander of the German Navy in 1943, was made leader of the German nation after the death of Adolf Hitler. On the instructions of the new fuhrer General Jodl, Chief-of-Staff of the German High Command, attended the HQ of the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, on the morning of May 7, 1945 and signed the documents of an unconditional surrender. This marked the end of the war in Europe. It was fascinating, therefore, to read press reports of the time about two men from Lyme Regis who figured prominently in the historic career of the last of the Nazi leaders.

One of the memorable events of the early part of the victory year of 1945 for the children of Uplyme primary school was the start of a daily delivery of hot lunches. Cooked in the canteen of Axminster secondary school the food was ferried over by van in stainless steel containers. One problem, I can remember, was that the vegetables had a distinctly metallic flavour, but it was certainly an improvement on the tin oven on top of the large classroom heater in which pasties could be heated or, if the wind was in the right direction, potatoes could be baked. Somehow it seemed to be part of the reward for the coming victory which was becoming an assured thing.

On December 3, 1944, stand down parades for the Home Guard were held throughout the country. Each member was given a certificate of service and was allowed to keep their uniform and boots. Operational since 1940 over one and a half million volunteers had served in the force, all either too old or too young to serve in the regular services. Answering a radio appeal given by Anthony Eden 400,000 men volunteered in the first two weeks. All they were issued with to confront the enemy was an armband. Noel Coward observed this fact by writing and singing a song entitled ‘Can you please oblige us with a bren gun?’ Ancient rifles of American and Canadian origin were later issued until supplies of modern equipment were eventually organised.

With the introduction of America’s Lend Lease Program in 1941 colourful new tractors began to appear on British farmland. At the time work on the small farms of the West Country was mainly horse-drawn, any tractors in use being, most probably, a Standard Fordson being driven by a Land Army girl, a dull green machine with a folded potato sack on the seat to provide a bit of comfort. Now names from the great plains of the American West were shipped over the Atlantic, Allis Chalmers, Farmall, Oliver, Massey Harris, Case, John Deere and Indianapolis Moline. All can be found in vintage tractors parades of today. Odd to remind oneself that the final payments for all that machinery was made just a few years ago in 2006.

With the end of the U-Boat threat exotic fruits, like bananas and oranges, began to reappear in the shops. Bananas were distributed on an area by area rotation system announced in the local press. A shipment of Seville oranges arrived but most had to be dumped because of the unavailability of sugar for the making of marmalade.The Board of Trade announced a special importation of children’s Wellington boots from Canada. The Board decided that they must first go to smaller retailers in villages and market towns as country children were to have priority.

In The Autumn of 1944 the numbers of prisoners of war being brought to the UK was increasing rapidly. Marked with the letter P sewn onto their trouser legs, white, grey and black patches were also added to signify the strength of their Nazi inclinations, white being the goodies, blacks being the baddies. German officers were mainly kept in camps in Scotland and it was the train journey of some which caused great upset to a Somerset  peer of the realm, Lord Poulett,  whose experience was reported in the local press.

During the war our small village of Rousdon had a searchlight battery to the west, anti aircraft guns and mine fields on the cliffs to the south and a Royal Air Force signals establishment to the east where a caravan site exists today. Tall radio masts and interconnecting wires warned that it was a place not to be talked about. We befriended a Welsh airman from here who would turn up to do the garden and repair broken parts of the chicken runs which had fallen into disrepair since granddad had died.

The first German prisoners of war I saw were with a platoon of British soldiers relaxing for a break and a Woodbine cigarette just up the road from our house. One of the soldiers told me that the job of the POWs was to go ahead of the marching patrol and set up a pretend ambush. Being brimful of anti-German sentiment, as you were in those wartime days, I felt this to be a bit dangerous for our soldiers and excitedly quizzed my Tommy friend about those two Huns. He suddenly alarmed me by shouting across to one of the Germans saying “Hey Fritz, little matey here wants to know how Adolph’s getting on”. The German beckoned to me with a crooked finger saying “Kommen sie hier”. I scarpered off down the road as fast as my 9-year old legs could take me, much to the great merriment of the soldiers.

On D-Day plus one allied soldiers in Normandy, exhausted by their first day of battle, turned on battery operated radios supplied to their units, to hear the first sounds of the Allied Forces Network. Introduced by a recorded message from the supreme commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, the AEF comprised American and Canadian broadcasting services, together with and the services of the BBC to bring to the troops the comfort of popular music and news from home.

With the invasion under way there was undoubtedly a feeling of excited interest in the classroom. Headmaster ‘Charlie’ Freeman had fixed a Daily Telegraph map of the invasion area to the wall and gradually small flagged pins showing Stars and Stripes, the Union Jack and the Canadian Maple Leaf inched inland. As British troops approached Caen however there was a stall in the movement of the Union Flag.

After delivering assault troops onto the beaches of Normandy surviving landing craft returned to embarkation ports to pick up reserves and equipment. It was on one of these returned vessels  a war correspondent  witnessed the loading up of one of the complete hospital outfits bound for the forward areas of the invasion. Officially described as an evacuation hospital the personnel included nearly forty US Army nurses. The hospital was so complete that it could be operating within an hour of its arrival at its destination.