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The Second Front (June 6th 1944)
The year I was 21 – and it was a very good year for me. I was enjoying life in London – the frequent trips down to Maidstone and all the wonderful friends I was meeting.
We all had known for some time that the invasion of the continent was imminent. USA had been pouring troops into U.K. for some time. U.S. uniforms were everywhere. My cousin Margaret met and married a U.S. officer. He was a flyer. They earned so much money they used to live on their marriage allowance alone and were able to bank their pay entirely. The pay was very different for us. As LACW Brooke-Wright I only got 2 pound 10 pence per week. This was doubled and added to when I received my commission. The joke was I worked far harder and longer and under greater pressure as an L.A.C.W. than I ever did as an officer.
The day – June 6th – I received a letter from wee Jones. It was written from “somewhere in the South of England” It told me he had been training with a glider unit for some time. The drill was that his Stirling Bomber would tow a glider across the Channel. It would fly in low and release the glider at a very accurate position and height. The glider was full of soldiers. They had been told 50% casualties expected. No evasive action to be taken and it had to be released at a low height. Before they flew out in the early hours of 6th June, they had each been allowed to write two letters and so he wrote to me. Army Assault Barges had been
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prepared for some months and on 6th June the Allied Armies poured out and across the Channel. There were 3 or 4 landing spots. 2 Americans, I think, 1 Canadian and 1 British of course the rest is history.
I was touched by the sincerity of Roy’s letter but didn’t retain it. In actual fact on D. Day, I think the Stirling/Glider sqdns hardly lost a plane.
I had a couple of days off at this time and I had arranged to go down to Marlow on River Thames and see Steven. I stayed at a lovely old inn in quite one of the most beautiful parts of the English Countryside. Steven came over from Medmenham in the morning and we walked along the River Thames to another little inn where we had lunch. I remember looking up to the sky and seeing it dotted everywhere with planes (I believe they had been painted with special identifying paint for D-Day). At the time, neither of us knew the 2nd Front was stating.
I came back to London that night and the Buzz bombs became more frequent. When we were in class we could hear them coming and dived under our desks. A week later we were all sleeping under the stairs of our house. In amongst all this activity some of us were invited to join a fellow RAF course of Air Force offices for a party (June 26th). We had a great time.
But on the night of the party Thurloe Court (down Exhibition Rd) had
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a direct hit. Four WAAFs were killed – sixty in hospital and 30 in sick bay. They were all day digging them out. I remember going to their funeral and it was a sad occasion – these 4 seemingly narrow, slim and small coffins. I don’t think any of the relatives were able to be there and it looked so impersonal, detached and lonely.
Within 2 days the Buzz bombs were raining down on London all the time and we were more under the tables than sitting on our chairs.
The crux came on July 3rd when a Buzz bomb had a direct hit on our adjoining house in Princes Gate. The South Africans were on one side and the other side (which was bombed) housed number of our WAAF course. A number of them had been sneaking away at night and going elsewhere so there were only a handful asleep. Most were pulled out immediately but Vera was buried for 4 hours and when they got to Alice she was already dead.
When the bomb fell I was in bed. All the other girls were sleeping “out”. I saw the huge 12′ window cave in like Rolf Harris woodjum board he plays. Next thing, I am under the stairs and I do not remember how I got there.
That day the authorities told us that our Signals course (18 now) were going to be sent north to Cranwell. So we packed etc. The next day I went to the funeral and caught 5:18pm train to Maidstone with
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a 7 day leave pass in my pocket.
It had been a grand 7 months in London. I have theatre programmes of “Mr Bolfry” at the Playhouse – “The Dancing Years” by Ivor Novello at the Adelphi – (I went to that show with Robert Martin – now a dashing pilot in the Fleet-Air-Arm and flying Sea-fires)
I went many times to “Sadlers Wells Ballet” – saw Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at the New Theatre “Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilde at the Westminister Theatre and on June 9th 1944 – 3 days after D-Day I went to the Royal Albert Hall to hear Sir Adrian Boult and the London Symphony Orchestra (40th Anniversary Concert) playing:-
- Wagners Meistersingers
- Bachs Suite No. 3 in D
- Mozart Overture – Magic Flute
- Elgars Variation on a theme – Enigma
So:-
July 4th – 11th spent at Maidstone a week’s leave.
