Danny is off to Pastures New again
I'd heard of people returning from 2½ years in Germany with just: "bitte", "danke" and "auf wiedersehen", and not much else. I resolved to set my sights higher than that. On the market at the time were small paper booklets of "Hugo's German Grammar". Each one of the series dealt only with only one aspect of the subject; they were quite cheap, and it avoided the rather intimidating effect of being faced with one weighty tome. As I've mentioned before, we were not exactly rushed off our feet in the Truck, and it did help to pass the time. Always a natural "swot", when I landed in the Bundesrepublic, I could at least make sense of signs and simple text, even if fluency would only come later.
Now I have to think hard over the question of dates. We were told of our posting around the end of November, and I sailed end of March - early April. I know we were still in Hayling at Christmas, for I remember it snowing, which was unusual down there. But the sequence of events must have been something like this:
In the New Year, it would have been nice if my famiy had been able to come out with me, but no quarters were available So my wife, our daughter Mary, and "Sally", reluctahtly had to be taken back to her Yorkshire home to await my securing accommodation for us in Germany. I still had 'Mickey', but no longer willing to trust it over winter roads for that distance, hired a Bedford "Dormobile" for the journey. Returning alone to Hayling, I did the "marching-out" at Bembridge Drive and moved into the Mess.
Now the last act would be the disposal of "Mickey". It was sadl - like selling a much-loved faithful dog - but it had to be done (and no other of our cars would have a name). A buyer wasn't all that hard to find among the nav studes (who had at least seen it running around the Station), we shook hands on £50. His cheque came back for re-presenting once or twice, but finally the ball dropped into the pocket. "Mickey" didn't owe us a thing. Right at the end, the buyer was away from Thorney for some reason, I asked one of his mates how he was getting on with it. "Well", was the reply, "it's his first car - and we think it'll be his last !"
And then I was on my way to London, Liverpool Street Station, Harwich and on the good troopship "Vienna". This rolled, groaned, shook and rattled through the night to the Hook of Holland in the morning.
Now I am going to "shoot a fox" from the years after retirement from the RAF (when of course there will be no more story - it will end when I hand my F1250 in). Fourteen years later I am earning a modest crust with H.M. Customs & Excise. My mentor was a Nigel L. He had been a Captain in REME (I think), and perked up over my mention of the "Vienna". It seems he had had a lot to do with the vessel: it had been sunk (mined ?) at least twice in the war, lifted, each time the holes plugged with concrete and been returned to service. So I suppose it was entitled to groan a bit.
He told another nice little story: Some time in the late '50s one of our tanks had got badly bogged down somewhere on the Hanoverian plain, and all efforts to get it out were failing. A road ran nearby; along came a big, glossy Mercedes and stopped to watch the fun. "Move along", growled the Warrant Officer i/c recovery party, "there's nothing to see here".
A big, glossy business man (complete with cigar) got out, and in perfect English explained that his Panzer had got stuck in this exact hole in '44. "You'll never get it out like that", said he, "This is the way we had to do it". He gave full details of the method. "Well", thought the W.O., "we're getting nowhere as it is, it's worth a try, what have we got to lose ?"
They tried it, and it worked. Two former enemies parted with expressions of
mutual esteem.
And I must squeeze another one in (and then no more). My District chief, ("Surveyor of Customs & Excise "), Jack R., turned out to have been a Sergeant in the 81st (West African) Division in Burma. All the old names came tumbling out - Maungdaw, Buthidaung, the Tunnels, the Ngaukyedouk ("Okeydoke") Pass (through the Arakan Yomas). Jack confirmed that the troops were very appreciative of the Vengeances' efforts, for it was always difficult and expensive in lives to winkle the Jap out piecemeal from his well dug-in lair: far more efficient simply to excavate the whole lot at once with four tons of HE.
H.M.C & E went out of the window for quite a while.
Goodnight, all,
Danny42C
Old soldiers never die.