Personal memories of VE Day shared

Indeed, plans for the celebrations and the public holidays that would follow the announcement had been drawn up for some time.

The one uncertainty was the precise timing of the event.

As it was, most anticipated that May 7 would be the day.

When pressure from Stalin and Truman delayed Churchill's official announcement by 24 hours, London and much of the country went ahead and started the celebrations anyway.

For many, especially those in the services, it was a day of resolve to finish the job and end the war in the Pacific.

For some, the day passed almost unnoticed, and for others, particularly those caught up in the tumult in London, it was a day never to be forgotten.

These are some of their stories.

Remembering where we were when the news broke

Eve Fielder (83) of Salisbury moved to the area when she married her first husband, Fred Chant, who came from Whiteparish, in 1940.

Their daughters were born during the war, Rosemary in 1942 and Diane in 1945.

Both pregnancies were memorable for different reasons.

In 1942, Eve was living in Fisherton Street.

"I was coming back from the town centre along Fisherton Street and was crossing the bridge by the County Hotel.

"All of a sudden, a plane came in very low which made me look up," says Eve.

"Sure enough, it was a German - we could see the swastika. It was machine gunning and then dropped a bomb near the gas works in Gas Lane, then it came back.

"I was pulled down by the infirmary by two American soldiers.

"It machine-gunned into Bath Brothers the greengrocers and then the blessed thing came back.

"Len Price who kept the butcher's shop (now Dauwalder's) pulled me in there."

She was nine months pregnant when VE Day came - Diane arrived three days later.

"I was pregnant with Diane on VE Day.

"We were living in a remote place near Andover.

"We had a wireless but the batteries had run out and we didn't even know it was all over.

"It was the postman who told us.

"I think we probably went in and made a cup of tea on the strength of that - Mum was a great one for tea, it was her answer for everything."

Former Salisbury mayor Olwen Tanner (73), who lives in the city, probably remembers the same incident, diving into Timothy White's when the German plane strafed Fisherton Street.

"By VE Day, we had a radio.

"My mum heard the news and told us," says Olwen, who remembers a street party in Hamilton Road.

"When the Americans arrived, they used to have dances in the Market Square and me and my friends would go down and watch them jiving and jitterbugging."

There was more jiving and jitterbugging in the Guildhall Square on VE Day.

Janie Brewster of Downton, who was then a South Wilts schoolgirl living in Castle Street, remembers: "My sister and I said let's go down and see what's going on in town.

"There were two tannoys up on top of the Guildhall piping music and several service people, a few Yanks and one or two nurses were dancing.

"They were jitterbugging but I'm afraid I did lots of Victor Sylvester stuff."

John Pendle of Wyndham Road says his parents told him the war was over.

"They took me to a VE Day Party in St Mark's Road and my face ended up covered in chocolate blancmange."

Margaret Hardiman (86) of Salisbury was in charge of the army's education programme for the ATS.

"I was in London in the war office and travelling round the country at lot, so I don't remember much about VE Day, I'm afraid," she says.

"It wasn't an anticlimax but we knew it was happening - we were expecting the war to end.

"VJ Day was much more important because my husband (who I was engaged to) was going to Burma, so we didn't quite feel the war was over on VE Day."

Married to a family doctor, Mary Houghton Brown (88) of Whitsbury was living just outside Bath at the outbreak of the war.

Evacuees were sent to their village quite early in the war.

"By the time we got to the church, there were two little boys left. We took them both. Tony was 10 - he was a lovely boy. He stayed with us and we enjoyed having him so much, but Derek, who was five, was very unhappy and missing his mother terribly. His mother had been evacuated to Somerset with her baby, and we managed to get Derek to her.

"When Bath was bombed, people streamed out.

"My husband and a neighbouring doctor picked up as many as they could.

"We had a mother and her three children - the eldest daughter had a baby too - staying with us."

Later Mary's husband was called up and she went to stay with her parents in Bulford.

"I don't really remember VE Day - just a sense of relief. We must have heard it on the radio."

David Lever (74) remembers street parties all around.

"We lived in Rampart Road," he says, "and somebody lit some newspaper in the middle of the road and the next thing there was a huge bonfire."

There were similar celebrations in Cold Harbour in Amesbury where Freda Dudek remembers a street party. "There were trestle tables up and every family brought some food," she says.

Colleen Walker and her sister Mona of the RBL Women's Section both lived in Wilton.

"There was a torchlight procession up to Grovely Woods and then we probably went to the fish and chip shop and brought 2d worth of chips and scratchings and you had a job to eat them."

"There were lots of Americans still about but we weren't allowed to go out with them."

Long-awaited victory arrives as thousands celebrate in London

BUCKINGHAM Palace proved a magnet for many a Londoner on VE Day.

Among them was Norma Marshall (77) of Fordingbridge, who got there under pedal power accompanied by her younger brother Moshe.

"I was 12 when the war started and was evacuated for a brief time, but I lived right in the centre of London in Bloomsbury during the Blitz.

"There was no school open so we kids had a fantastic summer.

"My brother and I had bikes and we cycled to Lords - cricket went on regardless while a few kids and old men watched.

"We decided we wanted to go to Buckingham Palace on VE night so Moshe and I cycled to the Mall and started moving towards the palace with our bikes.

"It was packed but every so often people would say 'make room for these kids', and our bikes were lifted over heads and we got nearer and nearer.

"After a lot of struggle, we got to the railings and saw the King and Queen, the two princesses and Winston Churchill.

"It was extraordinary, euphoric - we were so thrilled at seeing Churchill.

"You've got to remember that as civilians we were under a very strict regime of censorship and knew very little about the horrible things that were going on, but there was a lot of camaraderie.

"You took bombing in your stride and there was great kindness and a wonderful, incredible sense of humour all the time."

Lorna Bramwell-Davies (91) of Downton was married with a two-year-old daughter when the war came to an end.

"My husband Ronnie was home on leave and we had dinner at L'Aperitif, the place behind Fortnum and Mason.

"Then we went and had a look at the crowds outside the palace."

Joyce Wilder, a member of The Royal British Legion's women's section, said: "On VE Day we won a chicken in a raffle in Acton and when we got it, it was like a scraggy pigeon.

"We went up to Trafalgar Square. We were doing the conga around the station and a policeman came along and told us if we didn't behave we would be put in jail.

"About eight of us dragged down the Mall.

"Somebody lifted us up so we could see the King and Queen.

"We got home about 3am, nobody wanted to leave."

Jean Biddle (77) of Frogham was 17 and waiting to go into the WRNS.

"I went up to London to Buckingham Palace.

"We saw Churchill sitting on the hood of his car waving his cigar and the King and Queen and the princesses came out on the balcony.

"We all went mad - it was just fantastic.

"Thousands of people all being very happy.

"Everyone talked to everyone and sang songs, people climbed up lampposts.

"We had waited for it for such a long time."

Low-key event for the armed forces

FOR those in the armed forces, VE Day was just another day.

Martin Sparks (84) was in the Royal Navy as an instructor at HMS Raleigh at Torpoint.

"I think we heard about it on the radio but it was coming so we all expected it," he said.

Another Royal Navy man George Nottley (82) was aboard HMS Enterprise going to the Far East.

"It was announced by the skipper as far as I can remember," he said.

"We were still going out to the Japs and we couldn't celebrate, but by the time we got there, it was near enough over and we brought back Jap POWs."

Tim Doyle (84) was a corporal in the RAF serving at Cardington in Bedfordshire.

"We heard it on the grapevine," he said.

"Some poor devil got himself on a charge because he went and rang the firebell.

"We just went out in the evening and had a drink - that was all."

Stories wanted for project

PEOPLE living in the area of the Mere & District Linkscheme are being invited to write their memories of the end of the war for the Mere Literary Festival's 2005 Community Project.

The information will be collated and form the basis of an exhibition and archive material for Mere Museum.

There is also the possibility that a booklet to include memories and photographs will be produced.

If you live in Mere now, it doesn't matter where you were at the end of the war, or if you lived in Mere at the time but live somewhere else now, your memories will be welcome.

If you have memories to share, leave them at Mere Library or send them to Mr and Mrs G Chapman, Duchy Cottage, Clements Lane, Mere BA12 6DF by July 3.

Make sure your account and any photos (which will be returned) are clearly labelled with your name and address, in an envelope marked MLF.Memories.