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G0TEZ > HISTRY 19.10.05 22:39l 101 Lines 3929 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 7477-GB7FCR
Read: GUEST
Subj: WW II and after, puzzled?
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0MRW<DB0ERF<DB0FBB<DB0IUZ<DB0GOS<DB0RES<ON0AR<GB7FCR
Sent: 051019/1734Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:7477 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:7477-GB7F
From: G0TEZ@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : HISTRY@WW
This bull can only really mean something to a "Baby Boomer" like me or
older, so don't bother if you're younger.
I decided to send it at WW, mainly because it involves Germany and
America,
Canada too. I don't know about 'down under'.
During WW II ordinary people had to go without a lot of things, like food
because imports were restricted due mainly to the activity of U Boats.
During WW II, several million Americans, Canadians and other nationalities
were unwillingly living in the UK.
I haven't thought of the following until a few years ago. I don't knoe
why
it never crossed my mind.
A story I have told from time to time is the one about my first bar of
chocolate. It was given to me by a German prisoner who was working on our
land in 1946. Cocolate was one of the things we didn't have during WW II.
My mother made a substitute using cocoa butter (we were farmers) and corn
flakes. This bar of brown substance made us suspicious at first because of
it's colour but, when the German PoW ate some we tried it. He had received
it in a Red Cross parcel and it was labelled 'Chokolade' or similar.
Just a minute.
We werent to get chocolate until 1951 so how did this PoW have some?
They were supposed to be starving.
Why was he still a PoW, when the war was over?Why hadn't he been sent
back. Some PoWs were here for a few years and not by choice.
A similar point applies to a lot of Americans. A lot did leave ASAP,
selling off all sorts of ex military equipment, which is how we got a
cheap Case tractor among other things.
I am pretty sure the Americans and others wanted to get home within a week
of hostilities ending. There were plenty of ships going that way. I know
that some did stay to set up bases aimed at a possible threat from the
USSR but these would not be the conscripts.
Excuses were made about not letting the Germans go home but they had had
plenty of time to check out their sympathies. I don't think the majority
of ordinary Wehrmacht and Lufwaffe personnel were likely to be any sort of
threat
To a young boy in the late 40s and 50s all this seemed normal. Lots of
foodstuffs which were restricted needn't have been.
As I mentioned in a previous bull, my family, like most country families,
did not go hungry. Killing an animal without a permit was illegal but
plenty of people did it. A lot of hens seemed to 'lay away' under hedges
so
egg and bacon for breakfast may have been a dream for city dwellers but
not for us.
My father died in 1967 so whatever 'crimes' he may have committed during
and after the war can't be held against him.
In any case, like a lot of people he worked very long hours, farming and
making Spitfires for low pay. Who remembers 'post war credits'?
He did live to get his.
One more item which was in short supply for some strange reason was
clothing. I dressed in mostly ex WD jerseys and uderwear until in my
teens.
A dispatch rider's rubberised greatcoat was very good in bad weather.
I don't know whether anyone can tell me why this happened. my personal
belief, after years of watching governments at work, is that we were
getting ripped off.
Maybe similar things happened in other countries. Maybe there are ex
soldiers who know why they weren't sent home. Maybe wives who wonderd why
Elmer didn't come back as soon as the fighting stopped.
I have only given these things some thought in the last ten years. I wish
I had wondered about them around 30 years ago when my elders could have
explained it.
This isn't something prompted by TV programmes. Thirty years ago, we
didn't get swamped with 'history' programmes about WW II. We just got war
films.
One last point, especially for Brits. Apparently ration books are highly
collectible. I don't know why, so you can still make a bob or two if you
kept one.
All the best from - Ian, G0TEZ @ GB7FCR
Message timed: 17:44 GMT on 2005-Oct-11
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