Story 1: No tank you. Story 2: Oh Happy Day

Story 1: I was just over three years old at the end of May 1944 or it might have been early June - anyway it was just before the D-Day landings. Every summer my mother took me to my paternal grandparents house in Lee on Solent at the end of Southampton water. My grandmother ran a boarding house which was always filled with sailors as it was only a few hundred yards from the main gate of HMS Daedalus, a Naval air station. Playing in the garden that particular day, I looked out over the garden gate at the front of the house and was much surprised at what I saw. Our road, about three hundred yards long, had tanks parked nose to tail on both sides for its full length. The crew of one of the tanks parked by the gate saw me. I was told later they were all Canadians. A long way from home, and with an uncertain future, the sight of a small child must have struck a chord with them. For they picked me up and and lifted me to the hatch of the tank, assuming a little boy would be excited at the idea of actually getting inside a tank. But far from it! I can still remember my reaction: horrified at the whole idea of actually going inside a tank and flailing as best I could with my arms and legs.

Quite taken by surprise the soldiers hastily put me back onto the pavement. Recalling the experience, I have often wished I could have met those soldiers and apologized for my behaviour.

Story 2. I woke up one morning in 1945 at our house in Sandown, Isle of Wight, drew the bedroom curtains and looked out of the window. For once it wasn't raining. But the sight of so many people standing on the pavement and spilling across the road quite surprised me. They all looked very happy and were talking animatedly with each other. The other surprising sight was that every house seemed to be festooned with flags which included at least one Union Jack. At that point my mother entered the bedroom so I asked her why so many people were out on the street looking so happy.

"Why darling," my mother told me, "it's because it's your birthday." I of course believed her. Well it WAS my birthday: the date that day was 8 May 1945.