VICTORY IN EUROPE … AND A NEW THREAT
DURING the last few days of conflict it seemed the enemy fired everything they had at us; it was like Normandy all over again with some very, very near misses.
At one point before the official surrender cam e, I was reconnoitering the area on my motorcycle just north of Ede at Veenendaal and ran into the town square of Wedderveen.
This was still occupied by the Germans and it was a scary and very disturbing feeling to see fully armed enemy troops in the square, totally ignoring my presence. I stopped there for about five minutes then decided not to chance it any longer. I returned to Ede and the unit moved off eastwards to the German border.
When the German surrender finally came, at the time we now celebrate as VE Day, I was with my unit at the 219 Battery HQ that had been set up in a farmyard just inside Holland on the Dutch-German border.
I remember it being very quiet and a few officers sitting around, probably having a few drinks. Several of the blokes wanted to set off a few rounds in celebration but the officers put a stop to that.
After a few more days our unit moved east into Germany and Iremember seeing the road sign for a place called Hitler.
We then moved on to Osnabruck where we sleppt on a deserted railway station platform. It was here that a notice was pinned up informing us that arms collected from the Germans were to be reissued to them to resist Russian attacks!
This was an unbelievable thing to witness: after all the Russians, and we, had gone through in the last your years as allies!
This is absolutely true and I wonder who issued such an order, and why at that moment?
More Things Remembered next weekend