Currently here in Europe we are living in turbulent, worrying times. In Germany there is Alice Weidel and the AfD party who must be thrilled knowing that they cannot be ignored anymore. There is Orban in Hungary riding roughshod over the constitution, Erdogan in Turkey altering the status quo and here in the UK we have Reform controlled by Farage who is in cahoots with Donald Trump who, it appears, rules by decree. This demonstrates the far right on the march.
So what happens when these people are not confronted, challenged at the earliest opportunity. What happens when we think it will go away it’s only an aberration? I want to tell of one man’s experience and what his generation were tasked to do because British, French and American politicians, in their rush to punish Germany for World War One created the climate which led to World War Two. One could argue that the second war kicked off on 28 June 1919 in Versailles and not on 3 September 1939 with the Nazi invasion of Poland.
One man’s experience
Sometime during February 1941 a young married family man received a letter from His Majesty’s Government inviting him to take part in the destruction of European Fascism. This invite was not, initially, met with any degree of martial glee, he was not enamoured with the prospect of possibly making the ultimate sacrifice at all. But on reflection he decided that the country going to war was, reluctantly, a necessity.
He was a staunch, active trade unionist and a member of the Tom and Jerries (Transport and General Workers Union). He actually attended meetings and used his vote. He earned his family’s living as a delivery driver for a local grocery business and, it was working class men like him who instinctively recognised the Nazi threat. On enlistment he joined the Royal Corps of Signals and spent the first couple of years’ service in and around Dumfries in Scotland. The unit was involved in intensive training and became an integral part of the 3rd British Infantry Division.
Early in 1944 the division was moved south in preparation for D Day. The division assaulted Sword Beach on 6 June and my father was at war. Within his family much has been said of his inability and refusal to talk of his experiences. My mother, however, was told of one incident, and once only – he never mentioned it again, which haunted him for the rest of his life. The army was across the Rhine and advancing in the Osnabruck Bremen area. The order was if you stop for a brew move at least 50 yards from the trucks, the German army would have the area zeroed in with mortars and artillery.
The section had a 19 year old replacement, a lad from Huddersfield, and on a break the boy said, ” I have left my tobacco tin in the cab”, He arrived at the lorry more or less at the same time as a German shell, and was killed instantly. For whatever reason, of all the horrors he had seen over the previous months, this was the one instance which angered him most for this was April 1945 and the war’s end was only days away.
The war in Europe ended and with the ending of hostilities the division was taken out of the line at Bremen, they had to re-equip and prepare for a new posting to Palestine. They arrived in the Holy Land late 1945 and served in the country for most of 1946. Three close mates were killed, two died during an attack on a train carried out by Menachem Begins’ Irgun Zvai Leumi gang and, my father’s then boss, a W.O2 (Warrant Officer class 2) died in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem when it was bombed by Jewish terrorists. The unit spent weeks in 1946 digging corpses out of the rubble.
Outside of a small area of South Wales, nobody will have heard of this man, he was not a General or a be-medalled Field Marshall, he did not write learned memoirs but it was men like this who fought and died horribly to keep us safe. I can only speak about my dad, did he want to go? No he did not, but there was no option, regardless of the reasons that caused the rise of Nazism, Hitler and his gangsters had to be disposed of. During 1944/45 the division took part in the breakout into central France, Falaise through Belgium,, Holland and the battle of the Rhine crossing, this was their wartime CV What that generation was asked to do demanded courage, common or garden guts, of a high order!
He was eventually de-mobbed and became a bus driver. There were domestic problems at home and my mother told me that he was just not the man she married. My sister, who nursed all her working life and retired as a health visitor, told me she was convinced he suffered with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it went undiagnosed back then of course.
“Lives taken away from them”
On receipt of his campaign medals he told my mother “can’t be bothered with them, all those boys did not give their lives, they had their lives taken away from them”. I have thought long and hard about sharing those words of his but no account of this man’s experiences would be complete without a mention of what, to him, was a profound conviction.
When I was told this I was shocked but now I believe he damn well earned the right to free speech and should there be any armchair “patriots” out there going apoplectic I remind them he earned that right on the front line as he earned their right to disagree with him. I could not care less what populists think, in life and death, I am proud of him and, as his son, I wear his medals on Remembrance Sundays.
He died in January 1959, he collapsed in the street on his way to work and modern medicine tells us if it had happened today he would probably survived. I suppose 20/30 Gold Flake fags a day didn’t help but still young, he was just short of his 46th birthday.
So, how do we thank those men today, let us consider what is happening in America today. Is an independent free press being meddled with, is the judiciary being interfered with, is Trump promising to solve all problems, is the flag all important? If you answer yes to this, start worrying, this is how 20th Century fascism started with a leadership causing division and dissatisfaction, by promising people the earth. Good guys don’t always win, our freedoms have been bought with blood and that, in itself, should tell us, in Trump’s world, losing out has a fearful price. Many years ago George Orwell told us the best one word for fascist – “Bully”.
Trump’s might is right? As they say in our independent courts where truth reigns. I rest my case.
Motivated by —
Lance Corporal (acting paid) E.W.J. Jenkins
Royal Corps of Signals. 1913-1959 (my Dad)
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