Danny stops to reflect.
Looking back on the war years, I've always been struck by the speed with which "wartime" became our normal way of life in Britain; after the first few months we could hardly remember a peacetime existence, and quickly adjusted to the changed circumstances in which we found ourselves. Even all the privations (rationing, the blackout, the shortages, the dried egg and bully beef, the bombing) became just part of the day-to-day existence. I imagine we youngsters probably adapted sooner than the older generations, but many of those also had vivid memories of '14-'18, and had seen it all before. Britain simply "settled down" to the new job. ("Don't you know there's a war on ?" was common parlance).
When I came home, (and thank God for that), my first impressions were strange . Everything seemed to be just as it had been five years before, when I'd gone off to war. It was as if time had stood still, and I had never been away. Now the people might be a bit older, but they were all the same. Liverpool was knocked about a bit more, but it and Southport were just the same. All my old suits (luckily !) fitted me still. My old bike only needed the tyres pumping up. My old job waited for me - I think I actually went back to my old desk and chair. My workmates were the same bunch of WW1 veterans, a bit more grizzled than I remembered them.
But I wasn't the same as I'd been five years earlier:
The problem was that of the "Office Boy Major", which followed both World Wars (and probably all wars). Your gangling office boy goes off to enlist. He comes back six years later, inches taller, heavier, a battle-hardened Major. Kipling's old cavalryman, back from the wide open veldt of the Boer war, put the point well in "Chant Pagan":
"Me that 'ave been what I've been -
Me that 'ave gone where I've gone -
Me that 'ave seen what I've seen -"
Every one of us would have a different story to tell:
"Tell me, my Lord Northumberland,
How went the day with you ?"
"Hither and yon" the Earl replied,
"As ever a fight must go.
For some fought well, and some fought ill,
And some struck never a blow". (Kipling: The English Way)
And some slept beneath their headstones, and some were broken in mind or body or both, and some had been captives, and some had come home laden with honours. With a tiny number of exceptions, all had done the duty to which they were bound by their Commission or Oath of Attestation - that Oath which will for ever set them apart from the civilian. ("Any man", said Dr. Johnson, "thinks more meanly of himself for not having borne arms for his country").
And through all had run a great golden thread of comradeship.
That's enough. back to the story next time,
Danny42C
All present & correct.
Last edited by Danny42C; 27th Nov 2012 at 17:21.
Reason: Typo