The Find an Old Friend Blog

Help your parent find an old friend

2010-04-26T09:42:00.002Z

Your Mum or Dad didnt grow up in the internet age and many havn't caught up with it and never will do so they could need your help.

Tell them they can come to me at www.findanoldfriend.co.uk with your help and reunite with all the people they have lost touch with.

They may have a wedding anniversary and have lost touch with a bridesmaid or a best man that were at their wedding , or they may have a special birthday coming along where an important person in their lives could be missing ,

You may have a Mum or Dad who would be so happy to have your help to find old friends in their lives .

They could want to find old schoolfriends or colleagues and this would never be possible without your assistance .

We can find all these important people in their lives for next to nothing .

I look forward to your call either by phone or Email

Kind regards Robin

I wonder how shes doing now .

2010-04-20T19:28:00.002Z

Hello there!

"I wonder how shes doing now " Thats the most common theme at the moment. Numerous people of both sexes are wondering how their old flame is doing .

This means nearly always we have to find their current married name and sometimes they were born way back in the 30s and 40s so they could have even married twice .

Even if you only know the approximate age and place of birth as well as the full name and they are by now a "golden oldie" theres every chance they can be found by www.findanoldfriend.co.uk if they are alive and well .

This is because www.findanoldfriend.co.uk has all the links and special accounts needed for the job embracing the details of everyones lives .

So dont worry about your old flame any longer , just contact us and it will cost you next to nothing .

You would be surprised how many people say when they have been located " Oh I have been looking for you for ages "

Some are quite shy about the reason for the search but you can be sure that whatever you tell me is the reason for your search, your email will never go beyond my PC.

And please remember its entirely free for me to check up whether the search is feasible in the first place.

Look forward to your next request

Kind regards Robin

Kevin lost touch with two sons from his first marriage

2009-11-06T17:11:00.002Z

Hello Mr Brown, Im pleased to let you know about my two boys.

I have good contact with them , in fact John is now living with me .

Adam is a little slower but getting there .

I just wanted to thank you for your time and efforts.

YOU MADE AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM COME TRUE

Many thanks Kevin S

A new family is created

2009-11-06T16:50:00.002Z

Dear sir

Only last week I asked you to help me trace my first love --Manuela R, who had my daughter in 1978

Late last Saturday night you gave me her address.

I spent all day Sunday writing a letter to her.

I posted the letter on Tuesday so that she would receive the letter on Wednesday

LAST NIGHT SHE SENT ME THE LONGEST TEXT MESSAGE I HAVE EVER SEEN

After marrying in haste they quicly parted and she eventually settled with a man but they never married .

He passed away 4 years ago and Mannie has been on her own ever since.

Our daughter is now 31 and is due to give birth herself within the next 7 days .

Mannie had said she had read my letter over and over and had cried all day long .

She is so pleased that I got in touch and we are going to stay in contact..

I have suggested a series of letters. texts and phonecalls for a few weeks and then if we feel the same we will meet and she agrees.

At 11pm last night she sent me a further text that simply said "goodnight" and I did not sleep a wink last night.

All is well that ends well ,

Thank you my friend for your help and interest. Peter J

A repeat client finds another old friend in Austria.

2009-11-06T15:12:00.002Z

Dear Robin

I had a wonderful surprise this morning --a card from Marianne in Austria.

She was very apologetic for having replied so late, which is due to her having been quite unwell and in and out of hospital.

She does remember me and says it was a great surprise to get my letter as she is not on the internet !

She suggests arranging something with friends for further communication, although I would be very happy with the lost art of Snail Mail

I am really delighted to have had this response , and thank you for another positive outcome.

Kind regards Adrian

ALTHOUGH PEOPLE ARE MORE EASILY FOUND IN THE UK THAN EUROPE DUE TO THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE FACILITIES I am happy to search anywhere.

Jacqueline finds her old boyfriend through his sister

2009-11-06T14:42:00.003Z

Good morning Robin

I can't thank you enough, (please dont blush--with many hugs and kisses to you ), thank you thank you thank you.

The letter you wrote Theresa followed through, she phoned her brother yesterday and gave him my contact details, within seconds he phoned me, it was all very exciting.

I gave him my skype address and within minutes we were chatting over skype until sometime past 11pm.

We are both a lot older but the friendship remains. Now we have more than one contact number and have promised to stay in touch, thank you very much again for a lob well done

Sincerely Jacqueline

My Dad has found two old friends

2009-11-06T14:20:00.004Z

Robin I thought I would update you . you have now reunited three old friends , thats right , the first one on the list you sent my dad was his second friend.----------all three of them intend to get together in a few weeks .

Thanks so much for your help , without you and people like you, friendships would never last .

My dad is really amazed and very happy to be back in touch with his old pals. Cheers Robin

Best wishes Karen

IN THIS CASE THERE WERE MANY NAME MATCHES FOR THE PEOPLE WE NEEDED AND KAREN WORKED WITH ME TO CONTACT ALL THE OPTIONS .

In some cases this is inevitable with common names . Quite often someone can only be found by the process of elimination

Georgina found her old school teacher Frances for old times sake.

2009-11-06T14:06:00.002Z

Dear Robin

Just to update you , I went to Louth and met up with "Miss"

We had a lovely couple of hours , chatting , drinking tea and looking at old photos.

She hadnt changed a bit , facially exactly the same , just the hair was different--white!

I told her how I had found her and she was amazed when I told her about your website .

We plan to get together again and I will be staying in touch this time and linking up with two other "old girls"

I hope you are well as this is probably the last time you will hear from me . !

I thank you again and send you good wishes for the future. and keep up the great work that you do bringing people together

Best wishes Georgina

86 year old mother finds missing cousins in Essex

2009-11-06T12:29:00.002Z

Hi Robin

Well I cant thank you enough---I have just finished speaking to my cousin and it was really great after all these years 37 to be exact .

I have learnt where all the rest of the family are and am so pleased after all this time we will be able to contact one another again . My mother is 86 this year in March and I have arranged with my cousin that we are all going out together on that day as a surprise for her -------she will be really thrilled.

Once again I thak you from the bottom of my heart and must say that it was £30 well spent.

My sincerest regards Janet Turner

Finding Ronalds sister whom he had never met

2009-11-05T18:28:00.002Z

Ronald wrote me this little letter which is rather special -------------

Dear Robin

Thank you for your letter and finding my sister when I told you she was born between 1940 and 1943

When I was three I was put into a home because my mother had 4 children which she could not look after because my father went AWOL during the war and her money was stoppeed.

So I did not know my youngest sister but I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ron

This search was made a lot easier by the fact that Ron had an unusual surname and that made it easier to find his sisters marriage and new surname.

ITS NICE TO CHANGE A PERSONS LIFE FOR THE BETTER.

Catching up on 35 and 51 years for RAF pals

2009-11-05T17:46:00.003Z

Dear Robin

Many thanks indeed for a first class result in tracing my old friend Richard .

We made contact today after 35 years and I have now made arrangements to meet and spend some time together.

What with this and your previous success in tracing my old RAF colleague, whom I had not heard from for 51 years , this last 12 months have been quite exciting.

Once again many thanks and who knows when I may call again

Kind regards Brian

REPEAT REQUESTS FROM PEOPLE ARE QUITE COMMON

THEY KNOW MY SERVICE IS SECOND TO NONE

Linda finds Elaine with the help of a neighbour

2009-11-05T17:32:00.002Z

Linda tells me about her happy ending .

" Dear Robin, I am so thrilled . Just got home from work and found a message fron Gina on our voice mail.

And a wonderfully long email also . You were right, she was indeed our Gina.

She was thrilled and absolutely surprised to hear from us . she had moved from the address I had written to but is still in Plymouth and an old neighbour kindly passed our letter and photos on to her.

After all this time, to make contact again was wonderful. Elaine and her husband had moved to Tenerife for some time .
I always knew she liked it there. "

Thank you SO very much , All the best Linda

A nice christmas present from last year.

2009-11-05T17:13:00.002Z

Lynns story is typical of many who contact me at this time of year.

She writes --------------

" BINGO Robin! I've found my friend Valerie . I cant believe it and its all thanks to you .

While I was out last night my son took a message from a gentleman who passed on a phone nbr that turned out to be Valerie's sister in London, He didnt say who he was but I suspect he is one of the neighbours.

I have just spoken to her and Valerie came back just a month ago to live in this country after being inn Germany for years.

Her sister is ringing her now so I am expecting a call very soon , Best wishes and have a lovely Christmas . Lynn

SOMETIMES YOU CAN DRAW A BLANK BUT ALL IS NOT LOST AS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT RELATIVES CAN SAVE THE DAY.

I made Julie's day

2009-11-05T17:02:00.002Z

Dear Robin

I finally got to meet my old friend Dianna again yesterday and it was almost as if we had never lost touch.

What a lovely surprise to find out she only lives about 40 minutes drive away from me so we have lots of opportunities to catch up with the missing years.

We will most certainly make sure we will not lose touch again and I would like to thank you for your help in renewing this most valued friendship.

Regards Julie W

YOUR MISSING FRIEND COULD BE SITTING THERE MUCH NEARER TO YOU THAN YOU THINK.

Poor Mario from Holland

2009-11-05T15:50:00.002Z

Mario so wanted to please the person he was going to marry in Holland but had a big problem .

He came from South America and his dutch wife to be wanted to find an old english friend to invite her to the wedding.

She had fallen out with her sometime ago and really wanted to make it up.

But as you can imagine looking for someone with a name like Geraldine Smith in London was something of a nightmare.

Poor Mario came to London on his own but didnt know where to start and went back empty handed and then they found me so I had a headache too .

I got him the list of all the matching names and their addresses and they remembered the street in Camberwell SE London where she had last been seen .

Mario came back to London and went to the right address but she was out , however just at that moment he asked someone else about Geraldine as they came out of the same building and eventually he was able to hand her the wedding invitation.

I was as pleased as he was as he had me worried for a bit. Lets hope it was happy ever after .

Anita was amazed

2009-11-05T15:38:00.002Z

Anita wrote " I am so grateful for your help and amazed at how quickly I got the information I had been looking for, for years.

Thank you so much , I shall try to contact Hazel in the very near future " Kind regards Anita.

My reply provides the key to many a successful trace.

"Thank you for your kind remarks Hazel.

I know it sounds odd but the more unusual the name is , the easier it is to find the right person on the internet.

She was in fact on the electoral roll. I hope you give her a big surprise. "

Kind regards Robin

A very big reunion

2009-11-05T15:29:00.002Z

John from Victoria Australia couldnt believe it after so long .

He wrote " Many thanks for your help in locating my old army buddie Arthur .

WE LOST CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER IN 1948 after serving in India and the Sudan together.

I feel like Livingston must have felt when Stanley found him .

All the best to you and thanks again John

Helen wanted to pay in advance

2009-11-05T14:21:00.002Z

Helen in the states was looking for her father. She wrote -----------

Hello Robin

Thanks for your quick response , I wanted to send the payment because I think you provide a very wonderful service in a very honerable way , unlike the many unscrupulous companies out there, which you will of course be aware of .

I replied ----------------

Dear Helen

"Thank you so much for your kind donation to the service and I will do all I can to find out about your father.

People dont usually send me money until I've oked the search is feasible ."

This search turned out to be a difficult one due to it being a very common name and it is still ongoing .

Searches for unknown relatives are the most important of all searches and whatever the situation I always keep going as long as possible .

For this reason I have purchased a new website domain www.missedfamily.com to specialise in this type of search.

This starts early in the new year.

A thank you from Anglesey

2009-11-05T14:10:00.002Z

Thank You's come from anywhere, the beauty of the internet makes it possible to help anyone wherever one lives.

A happy client from Anglesey writes to say---------------" Please find enclosed a cheque for £20 for finding our old friends Chris and Barbara and once again thank you very much for putting us in contact with them again.

We were last in touch at their wedding in 1972! One more thank you very much indeed

Best regards Ioan

Another old flame found

2009-11-05T12:21:00.002Z

Dear Robin

Bridget J has finally contacted me last weekend and she is the bridie I have been searching for all these years .

You were spot on with your research and correct first time.

I would recommend your service to anyone and everyone ; Thank you so much for helping me

Kind regards David

Dennis just wanted to put his mind at rest .

2009-11-05T12:05:00.002Z

Some people just want to know their old friends are doing OK without wanting to contact them , especially if they are old flames.

This is what Dennis said -------------

Thank you for your help in finding Maria for me . You did a remarkable job and I am sure she is the right person.

After much consideration I decided not to contact her as it appears she has had a difficult time finding happiness.

She has only been married a few years and I would not want to intrude on her life at this stage .

Thanks again Robin You did an outstanding job .

Kind regards Denny

Peter was a typical ex-service person looking for an old pal.

2009-11-05T11:52:00.002Z

Peter wanted to know what had become of his RAF friend from his days in Singapore.

He had been his best man when he had married a local girl 48 years ago.

Unfortunately his friend was already dead but I managed to trace his widow and daughter through overseas marriage and birth records of his DAUGHTER.

This is what he was kind enough to say.

Robin,

I AM HAVING LUNCH WITH BARBARA AND HER DAUGHTER ON THE 13TH OCT.

THE LAST TIME WE ATE TOGETHER WAS 48 YEARS AGO .

YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE STAR !!!

PETER G

A happy client

2009-11-05T11:13:00.002Z

Philip is an english person who has settled in Austria and is typical of the Brits who like to keep in touch with old friends now he is overseas.

Please read his very words --------------

" Searching for a lost friend or relative can be a harrowing experience , as many of you well know and one always comes across these "so called" people who offer their services to you only to be told there were extensive costs and with no guantee of success.

My own personal search had already lasted four and a half years .

Then I came across this website run by Robin Brown and I was extremely interested by his openness and honesty.

I contacted Robin Brown and gave him as much personal details as I could , (which was very sketcy indeed) only for Robin Brown to contact me within 48 hours with the good news he had possibly found my lost friend .
An extremely reasonable fee was paid to Robin Brown and I was given the details of where to contact my friend .

THE REST IS HISTORY

I can, without any reservations whatsoever , fully recommend the very quick, professional and reasonably priced services offered by Robin Brown.

THANK YOU ROBIN

ITS BEEN AGES

2009-03-01T17:47:00.002Z

This is your webmaster Robin Brown of findanoldfriend.co.uk and I want you to read my excuse for not having posted a blog for nearly a year.

WHY HAVE I HAD NO TIME TO POST A SINGLE BLOG OVER THE PAST YEAR.

To tell you the truth I feel quite sorry for all the people who do nothing else but post a blog every day . The reason for that is they are unlikely to be as happy as I am since I am reuniting every type of missing person.

Some will say that since I had time to enjoy a couple of very short holidays in 2008 I could have done just a few blogs, for on my desk the pile of lovely thank you letters and emails from happy reunited people was constantly growing . Well Im sorry I really didnt have time as like anyone else I needed a complete break.

Every day when I wake up I know there are new people wanting to talk to me and I am thrilled by the endless circumstances that compell them to contact me and vicer versa

Some only take a few moments and others go on and on for ages .

THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE VARIETY OF PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE . HERE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS FOR CONTACTING FINDANOLDFRIEND.

Sadly many of them are caused by the breakdown of family responsibilities over the past 30 years leading to more misery later on.

There are many who are looking for half sisters and brothers , there are parents looking for children now grown up and missed for years and children trying to find who their blood parents were later on in life after they had been adopted in many cases . Only in recent years has technology and legal improvement made this possible .

There is the girl who is trying to find a boyfriends parent and the man looking for his girlfriends parent .

After this sad area comes the romantic enquiry. Many people who have lost their spouse after half a lifetime suddenly want know what happened to another hearthrob in their earlier life.

Never have there been more people starting a new relationship late in life and often they turn to old memories and old flames.

There is now an incredible number of people who although quite comfortably married for many years they want to just know what happened to so and so that they went to school or college with and lost touch because they have moved from the area .

Quite a lot of people lose touch with some person who was a best man or a bridesmaid at their wedding and when they get to an important anniversary they just want to see them again.

Another area of enquiry are those brought about by the massive emigration from the UK to North America and Down Under during the 60s and 70s with very cheap government assisted passages. I was working in the tourist industry in London in the 60s and wrote out hundreds of their tickets in handwiting long before computerisation.

Whole families were broken apart and lost touch resulting in endless enquiries today

Then there is considerable number of ex-service people looking to meet up with old colleagues now that technology makes this much more possible.

Due to the large number of British forces having been stationed in Germany for a lifetime now there are very many people looking for one time British contacts again that took place long ago and not so long ago .

Not least from all the general areas of need for my website there is the ever growing number of mothers who were unable to keep in touch with the fathers of their children .
The children now 18 or more want their mothers to find where their fathers have gone and it makes me very angry to think of all the unhappiness caused by people without any standards .
Quite often this cant be done for lack of proper information.

There are of course many other odd ususual enquiries like the person who borrowed something and now cant remember where the owner is to give it back. And the enquiries I have from the most exciting unusual places like the Falkland Islands . St Helena in the South Atlantic . Iceland before they went bust and even Greenland where there are small coastline communities.

These are some of the reasons for not having done a blog for nearly a year and I hope you will forgive me .

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VISIT.

Kind regards Robin

Peter finds his old flame and even a grandaughter through FINDANOLDFRIEND

2008-03-28T10:57:00.002Z

Dear Robin

Only last week I asked you to help me trace my first love Mandy, who had my daughter in 1976.

Last Saturday night you gave me her address, and I spent all Sunday writing to her.

I posted the Letter on Tuesday after the Easter break so she would get it Wednesday.

Last night she sent me the longest text message that I have ever seen.

After marrying someone else in haste they had parted quite quickly and she eventually had settled with another man but had never married.

He had passed away four years ago and Mandy has been on her own ever since.

Our daughter is now 31 and is due to give birth herself within the next 7 days.

Mandy said she read my letter over and over again and had cried all day long, she was so pleased I had got in touch and we are going to keep in touch.

I have suggested a series of letters , texts and phonecalls for a few weeks and then if we still feel the same we will meet.

At 11pm last night she sent me a furthe text that sinply said "goodnight"

I did not sleep a wink last night, all is well that ends well

Thank you my friend for your help and interest Peter.

UNIVERSITY MEDICS meet up again after 40 years.

2008-03-03T15:04:00.002Z

Dear Robin

Have met up with Wendy and we had lunch together last week,

I met her husband and she told me some things that had happened in the past 40 years.

I will call and see her everytime I can when I am in England and it was fantastic to see her again

after all these years.

Many many thanks Robin and we are trying to get some of our old friends together before the

end of the year

Your service was fantastic and I dont know how to thank you enough .

Kind regards Mike.

New Dad !!! Thanks to Find An Old Friend!

2008-02-25T12:32:00.003Z

Every year many parents find their children for the first time and children discover their missing parents for the first time.

Back in 2004 I was specially happy for Natasha because the surname of her father was Jones so it could have been like looking for a needle in a haystack,

Fortunately he had one of those unusual welsh christian names and it was not difficult to single him out.

Another thing that was so pleasing for all concerned was the fact that her father had never married and he had no other children so when she showed up it was a wonderful new world for him.

I quote now from what Natasha said to me.

"Hi Robin

My dad phoned me shortly after my boyfriend emailed you, we talked for about 15 minutes and it went really well. We agreed to stay in touch, but take it slowly at first, it was strange because he works with a few people I grew up with , small world !!!

I cant thank you enough for what you have done to help me , this is a life changing thing and my head is still spinning.

He has never married and has no other children, and hes going to phone me and arrange a meeting when we have come back to earth again.

Again thank you so much and I will keep you informed as to what happens

Natasha xx

A Missing Family Always Need To Be Found

2008-02-25T12:00:00.003Z

Dear Mr Brown

This is Barbara and I just want to say thank you for helping me find my family.

My grandfather is already dead, which is quite disappointing but my grandmother and father are fine, and were delighted that I contacted them because they had no way of contacting me.

Thank you very much sir, and God bless you for having such a kind heart

Take care Barbara

Surprise Old Friends Are Always Welcome On Your 80th Birthday

2008-02-25T11:46:00.003Z

Dear Robin

I am very pleased to tell you that my father's 80th birthday party was a great success.

Made more so by the surprise arrival of my father's old friend Arthur.

He is 82 years old and in fine fettle--we provided a taxi for him both ways.

My father was very emotionally overcome on his arrival and departure---they have now vowed to keep in touch

They spent a lot of time going over old times and it was really super to see.

Many thanks for all your help in this worthwhile cause---I wish you every success in the future

Best regards Rob H

Finding Childhood Sweethearts at FindanOldFriend.co.uk

2008-02-15T12:24:00.004Z

MANY OF THE TRACES I DO ARE FOR CHILDHOOD SWEETHEARTS.

Life has run through a normal course but there are often people you never want to forget.

I was lucky as I bumped into my first serious love by accident as a travelling representative but this does not normally happen.

You can be left very lonely in the evening of your life and finding an old flame can mean much to you.

My most recent involvement with such a person who came to findanoldfriend spoke to me as follows:

"Let me tell you that finding Eddie for me has brought us both a lot of joy as he was my childhood sweetheart and we have rekindled that love we had so many years ago, and we see each other quite often.

He really needs a lot of support both physically and emotionally and I will always be there to do this as I am a professional carer, so Robin many thanks ------YOU HAVE MADE TWO PEOPLE VERY HAPPY."

Found Old School Friend After 50 Years

2008-02-03T14:45:00.000Z

Thanks to Findanoldfriend today was a special day for Brenda in Scotland

She wanted to know what had happened to her old school friend Gloria from when she grew up on the south coast 50 years ago.

I found that her old friend actually married really young at 18 thanks to finding her birth details as well to obtain her middle name.

Middle names are really essential to make sure you identify the right person as she had a popular surname.

When married she had an even more popular name and so it would have been almost impossible to locate her if she had not still been living with her husband intact today.

SO MANY THINGS COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO HER IN THAT HALF CENTURY

The odds were certainly stacked against her being found.

Believe it or not the couple were still living near the same town after half a century.

We hope that Brenda can now make it south for Gloria's big celebration.

EVERY SEARCH IS WORTH TRYING

Former Australian Flying Doctor Looks For His Nurse Using Find An Old Friend

2008-01-30T17:23:00.000Z

Former Australian Flying Doctor looks for his nurse.

There are an amazing variety of reasons for coming to findanoldfriend.co.uk

I quote from his letter:

Dear Robin

I wish to confirm our communication by E mail regarding your efforts to search for a friend of mine whom I have not contacted for 35 years.

Her name is Jill --------- and she was married to John. Jill was a nurse and I last heard she managed a nursing home somewhere in the North of England.

I was 36 when I last saw her, when she flew with me on our Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft in Port Hedland in the north of Western Australia.

I am now 71 and retired, so she is probably around 60.

Her mothers address was, and the last known address I have for her is in Teeside England and I have quite forgotten her maiden name.

Since I am writing my autobiography I would like to include a photo of her with my aircraft, To do this I wish to seek her permission, otherwise I will have to reorganise my books layout.

I would not like her to have it sprung on her by surprise thus opening a legal can of worms.

Something which may help in her identification is she still maintains contact with one ------------ in Western Australia.

I thank you for your endeavours on my behalf etc etc

P.S. The first names are fictitious.

FindanOldFriend.co.uk Puts In An Extra Hour To Find Your Old Friend

2008-01-26T18:56:00.000Z

Have you wondered why we had stopped blogging in the past for findanoldfriend.co.uk. The answer is simple and it is just that there is such a demand for these services. For seven years I have been on my keyboard giving a prompt one to one service which is quite often 7 days a week and 8 hours a day.

From now on however I am going to put in an extra hour daily so you can see just how many lives I can change for the better.

Keep them coming

Robin Brown

your webmaster

A Lady In Canada Finds Her Old Friend In The UK From 30 Years Ago

2008-01-26T18:55:00.000Z

I recently received this email from a lady in Canada, this was my reply and her original email:

Hi Marika

Thank you so much for kind message and I hope you will come here sometime as your friend has a sister and other family who would like to meet you.

Wishing you a long and healthy life Robin

23 Jan 2008

I am Oliver Fonsecas aunt and I would like to thank you immensely for locating Vince for me. I can hardly contain my excitement and feel like a gushing schoolgirl. Vince has already got in touch with me and three decades seem to be slipping away.

Thank you very much for your help. It is much appreciated and I will definitely recommend your services to others WOW!

If I ever visit England I will cetainly drop by to visit you and meet you in person and thank you once again.

Bless you

Regards Marika

missedfamily.com

2008-01-20T11:11:00.000Z

As webmaster of Findanoldfriend I clearly want to find everyone for everybody and have succeeded in a high proportion of cases but my heart always goes out to those who cant be found and especially to those who will never be able to find their missing loved ones , friends and family.

There are many reasons for this and here are some of them-------

They are in areas where internet facilities cannot reach them or they simply cant be found because they have specifically taken action not to be found.

They have passed on but records to this effect cannot be reached such as even in the UK there are no records yet of births death and marriages on the internet for Scotland and N Ireland.

What a disgrace this is due to short sighted bureaucracy making it so much harder for people to even access their own family records in those areas.

Sometimes one is unable to find someone due to the large numbers involved with a common name more likely when no middle names can be involved

There are many reasons why some people will never be found unless one is lucky enough to enlist the help of a friend or relative of theirs who knows what has become of them.

It can be a terrible thing for many people not to get a closure on a search.

I HAVE FOUND AND HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT FOR PEOPLE TO TALK TO OTHERS WITH A LIKE PROBLEM ABOUT THEIR SITUATION IS A GREAT HEALER.

Therefore for this reason I have purchased an internet domain www.missedfamily.com to help every one in this frustrating situation.

On this site we will collect together all the unsuccessful searchers and they will be able to share each others stories and give each other emotional help.

I look forward to hearing from you if you are interested in this project and you will even find other ways of carrying on the search from others in like situations .

Please tell me of your interest and contact me on www.findanoldfriend.co.uk

I always have your finding needs at heart.

Kind regards Robin

Finding Old Friends Even When They Are On The Move!

2006-05-17T15:36:00.000Z

Hi

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog, but today I get a chance to show you that when you are searching for old friends you must bear in mind that people do move around. This can make things difficult at times, but definitely not impossible as I can prove time and time again. This email from Helen shows that with a little bit of patience and luck you can find your old friend.

Until next time.

Take Care

Robin

Helping you to find your old friend at findanoldfriend.co.uk

From: Helen R*********
To: Robin
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 9:25 AM
Subject: RE: Elizabeth O********
Hi Robin,

Great News!! Elizabeth contacted me yesterday on her birthday! She has in fact moved back to H****** and has not been at the address you gave since November last year. Luckily the girl that she was living with, as you stated was a V*** ********, still lives there and notified Elizabeth that she had some mail to be collected. I was starting to lose hope that she would contact me as had sent 2 letters with no response. I am so grateful for all your help in finding my friend. Thank you again.

Regards

Helen R*********

Mother Finds Her Son Through The Help Of FindanOldFriend.co.uk

2006-04-29T20:53:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to tell you about a mother who loses touch with her son when he gets into drugs but through a miracle when she contacts findanoldfriend.couk we find he has got his life going again.

Through my friend finding service you will always get a sympathetic service from us, whatever your circumstances - I'm here to help!

Here is my last email from the mother in question:

From: "Shirley *********"
To: robinbrown @ totalise.co.uk
Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: Findanoldfriend.co.uk Find Now ! Page Submission

Dearest Robin,

I have met up with Richard and all is going really well, he is coming to lunch tomorrow with his girlfriend claire who he is marrying next year. He looks really well and has totally turned his life around after receiving a drug and rehab order two years ago, he is now drug free and I feel as if Ihave my son back. I will never forget your kindness and will be top of our christmas card list for many years to come.

God bless you.

Shirley x

How I Helped Find an Old School Friend

2006-02-24T13:11:00.000Z

Hi there,

Just think I could find your old friend in just a few days!

This morning I received an email from someone who I have just helped find her old school friend.

Please visit my site find an old friend if you require help searching for your old school mate.

All the best

Robin

____________________________________
From: "cams *****"
To: "robinbrowwn"
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: Your Service (Absolutely Superb)
Dear Robin

Apologies Ifor not getting back to you regarding the results of the information that you provided me about my old school friend Natalie.

I have been So Busy Catching up on old times with her... That's right, I have found her and it is all THANKS to you.

I would like to thank you for your superb Service that you provided for me. Professional, Honest, Trustworthy, Personal, Effiecient and 110% Effective. This was all in done in only three days of my first contact with you.

I will now be telling everyone about your service. And please feel free to add my email to your testimonial page so that everyone can see what a wonderful person you are.

God Bless & Take care

Best Wishes

Cams

Finding An Old Friend Can Be A Great Valentine's Gift

2006-02-17T10:10:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Just to say that finding an old friend for someone can prove to be a great Valentine's gift - as Jonathan explained in his recent email to me.

With Mothers Day approaching in the UK you may want to consider this way of giving a gift!

All the best

Robin

_____________________________________

From: "Jonathan M*****"
To: "robinbrown"
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 7:15 AM
Subject: Re: Fiona Day ref 2304

Thank you so much Robin its Jonathan here Linda's boyfriend I have just spoken to Fiona Day, but Linda will only find out tomorrow that I have been in contact with her, THANKS TO YOU!! its going to be her valentines gift from me to her.

I can't think of a better gift that I could have given anyone.

Thanks again

Jonathan

Finding an Old Friend in Australia!

2006-02-06T22:35:00.000Z

Hi there,

Sorry it has been some time since I last posted , I've just been so busy in the New Year!

As ever I always have many stories to share. One of the best happening yesterday when I helped an American man in his early sixties find a woman that he had last seen when he was 20. In fact she was found living in Australia, so it made it all the more challenging - but we got there in the end.

Don't forget if you're still looking for a long lost friend, I would more than happy to help you.

All the best and speak soon.

Robin

http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk

From: *************
To: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 1:34 AM
Subject: Lynne *********

Dear Robin:

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent it in the bay area with my wife and all my kids and their significant others. We all had a great time. When I returned back to Roseville, there was your letter stuck in the door, most likely left there from my neighbor. The address was off one number 1335 vs 1334. After reading the letter, I was most pleased that the trail was getting hotter.
The best and most exciting news was when opening my E-mail just now --- you found Lynne !!!!!!!! There could not be a better birthday present !! Again your service is incredible, and I salute you again for your compassion and talents in chasing Lynne down. I await with incredible anxiety for your next message.

Thank You soooo much
Bob D*****

Long Lost Friend Found In Time For Party!

2006-01-15T17:49:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

The new year starts with me helping more and more people find long lost old friends. There just never seems to be a shortage!

I have pasted an email below from a very happy customer, maybe you will be my next!

___________________________

From: Nick ****
To: ROBINBROWN
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: David H****** ref ****

Dear Robin - I am very pleased to be able to tell you that we have just been contacted by the David H****** in B***** who has confirmed that he is the right one and is able to come to the party we have organised for my in laws 50th wedding anniversary - I know my father in law will be so pleased to meet up with him after a very long time. We would not have found him without your help so thank you. I will be sure to pass your name on to anyone else I hear of who is looking for someone.

Nick ****

___________________________

Don't forget to visit my site at findanoldfriend.co.uk if you would like me to find your old friend today.

All the best

Robin

Finding An Old Friend After 50 Years

2005-12-12T00:43:00.000Z

Hi there,

If you haven't seen an old friend for 50 years, why not contact me and see if I can help - like I did for Roger!

*****************************

Dear Robin

I must write to tell you that I had success, on finding Don Thomas on that last address you gave me at the "bungalow".

He phoned me yesterday afternoon. It is 50 years since I have seen him, we had a good chat, and have agreed to meet with another friend in the Spring. He also has a computer which is a little unusual for people of our age so we can contact each other.

Robin, thank you very much for your efforts.

As matter of interest what are the chances of finding someone who emigrated to Canada, and all I know is his name and the town he went to about 45 years ago ?

Kindest regards

Roger Garrett

Another Find An Old Friend Success

2005-12-02T23:50:00.000Z

Hi there,

Sorry I haven't blogged any of my successes for a little while.

Here is an email I received about a month ago from one very happy customer.

Cheers

Robin

__________________________________

Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 6:23 AM
Subject: Peter and Wendy Mullins
Dear Robin,

Further to an enquiry I made to Forces Reunited, in which I was trying to contact Peter Mullins, so that my fiancée could re-establish contact with his wife Wendy, prior to our wedding in October, you kindly replied to me on 30 August, giving 3 possible contacts for P. Mullins.

I am very pleased to say that the third contact you provided (the one who lives only 2 miles from yourself!), was the Peter Mullins that we were searching for.

Although business commitments meant that they were out of the country for our wedding, Wendy did come through to us in Wales for Andrea’s hen night and the two ladies have been regularly running up our respective phone bills frequently since!!

Andrea, my wife, was thrilled to be back in touch with her friend and it was wonderful for her that Wendy was able to join her on her hen night. Wendy also used to know several of the other ladies on the hen night, so was herself able to re-establish several friendships.

None of this would have happened without your help and we are very grateful to you for your help.

I am sorry it has taken me so long to write this note of thanks, but things have been very hectic with the wedding plans, the wedding, etc.

You can be sure that we will recommend forces reunited to anyone we know who have lost touch with friends from the past who have served in the forces.

Thank you again for all of your help.

Kindest Regards

Richard and Andrea Patterson

Helping Tara Find Her Old Friend

2005-10-14T23:27:00.000Z

Hi there,

Never under estimate the amount of information I can find out for you when finding your old friend. I think Tara was pleasantly surprised!

Cheers

Robbin

***************************************************

Hi Robin,

Wow! Thank you for letting me know what you found out. That's great that at least some of the bits and pieces of info I remember about Joe were righton! Ok, so he was born in Colchester not Liverpool I will make a mental note of that (are they close though?).

The man that Joe's sister married was also in the RAF and was Joe's roommate in Saudi Arabia in '02. I remember meeting him there and his name couldhave very well been Stuart (although I don't quite remember). The names of what you say are Joe's immediate family do sound familiar now that I see them. Hopefully this will bring us closer to finding Joseph. =D

Tara
P.S. Nice work!

Another Great " Find Your Old Friend" Testimonial

2005-10-06T20:11:00.000Z

Hi all

I guess in todays online world you will always have doubters - people who don't believe I have the capacity to find an old friend or family member. I guess that is just life! Anyway if you are one of these people and do require some confidence before asking me to find someone for you - please ask me for Peter's email address (see his email pasted below) . He is someone I have recently helped and in his words says "Please feel perfectly free to use me as a direct reference for your services".

That's a great testimonial

Thanks Peter!

_______________________________________________

From: "Peter Kallish"
To: "robinbrown"
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 6:22 PM
Subject: 10 out of 10 +

Robin

I wish I knew the correct UK turn of phrase to communicate my great appreciation and delight at your success. Not only on the basis of results, but I feel you handled my concerns and questions with patience and encouragement.

Please feel perfectly free to use me as a direct reference for your services in case any potential client has any doubt as to the quality of the work you do and would like to contact me directly.

Thank you so very much

Peter Kallish

Helping Lynda Find Her Old Friend!

2005-10-02T13:25:00.000Z

Hi all,

If you have any doubt whether it is worth contacting me regards looking for your old friend please take heart from this email. Everyday I help people find their old friends and emails like the one below are not uncommon in fact by reading this blog you will see they happen daily. Just visit www.findanoldfriend.co.uk and send me a message and I will do my best to help.

All the best and have a good Sunday

Robin

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 8:10 PM
Subject: Hello
September 30, 2005

Hello Robin,

What good news !!! I am in awe of your skills, and the fact you were able to trace Keith. My goodness I don't know what to say. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. After thirty odd years or so to finally know that someone could still be found. Vow !!! Thank you so much. You are an amazing man!

I would love to hear from him. Well, I knew he was around my age, but I did not know how many years older or younger. I'm glad he's settled down. What is he doing now?

Thank you for passing on my email address, I wonder if he has one too? I would love to keep in touch. It's nice to know he has been around the arctic, while he was with the Royal Marines. It's a part of Canada that not very many Canadians even get an opportunity to see in their lifetime - and I am blessed that I not only work here, but live here. It will always be a part of my life that has enriched me beyond words - both culturally and spiritually.

Do reply if you can, I would love to keep in touch with you.

Cheers and have a wonderful weekend.

Affectionately,

Lynda

More proof that I really can find your old friend!

2005-09-27T22:37:00.000Z

Hi there,

Yet another find an old friend success to share with you!

Cheers

Robin

**************************************************

Hi Robin,

Just to let you know that I've made contact with David thanks to your help. I wrote to each of the four you suggested and received a telephone call the next day. It happens that here in Carlisle this weekend is a by-annual reunion for Hadrians Old Boys where we are arranging to meet up again,the first time in 41Years!!

Once again Robin many thanks for your help.

Kind Regards

Robert Hobbs.

**************************************************

Speedy Service Finds Your Friend!

2005-09-16T15:47:00.000Z

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - been busy! Anyway its always a treat receive this sort of great feedback on find an old friend's speedy service.

***********************************************

Dear Robin,

I just want to thank you for the trouble you took locating an old friend of mine. The speed with which you came up with the answer was amazing. In particular I refer to Peter Derwent, your ref 1101. I was able to speak with him direct on the phone number you gave me, much to our both surprise.

I had tried to locate him via the Forces Reunited web site for about a couple of years, but as he does not have a computer and none of his family would have accessed that site there had been no replies via my email address.

Thanks again.

Don't bother to respond to this.

Best Regards,
Peter Bradshaw.

***********************************************

Cheers

Robin

Son Finds Father Just In Time For Wedding !!

2005-07-28T16:04:00.000Z

Hi there,

There are so many human stories and problems every day on this website and
www.forcesreunited.org.uk , fortunately some can be sorted in minutes.

The following text is typical of them.

A British girl has just married an American in the UK but the happy event is blighted by the fact that the groom doesn't know where his father is in the States to give him the happy news.
The name is fairly unique and the father was found very quickly through the tremendous resources of our link with the USA top finder site. Read the emails for yourself to see another happy ending.

___________________________________

----- Original Message ----- From: "Ursula LUCAS"

To: "robinbrown"
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 12:45 AM
Subject: e*** John L****

Thank you so much, through the US Search we have found my husbands
dad and he has spoken to him and will be calling him again tomorrow. He is well
and also very happy to have spoken to his oldest son. Thank you again.

U**** L ****

----- Original Message ----- From: "robinbrown"
robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 8:58 PM
Subject: e*** John L****

Dear U****

I have checked this with the best US site and found your Fther in law
to live in the town of Marquez in Texas and you have to pay the website a
charge of $39.95 direct to access the full address.

You can do this yourself by going onto my website and logging
onto the link for the USA which automatically gives you the USSEARCH website
and paying yourself by card.

You will have already paid Forcesreunited a deposit and we'll leave it
at that.

Please let me know you have been able to make contact OK

Best regards

Robin
www.findanoldfriend.co.uk

THE PERSONAL SERVICE FOR EXSERVICE PEOPLE.

I Cannot Thank You Enough In Finding an Old Friend

2005-07-06T01:13:00.000Z

Hello Robin,

I am now on the "web" and was pleasantly surprised to come across your site. I doubt if you will remember me but quite a while ago my son Dxxx wrote asking for your help in tracing some of his dad's army mates. You certainly came up trumps and I am pleased to say from your success,we now have many of his unit as firm friend who exchange visits and for the second time will be going to the annual reunion at Arborfield this year. Last year was John's 50th Anniversary (joined as a boy soldier in 54). If it had not been for your wonderful success with Derren's first request, I doubt if we would have bothered to continue searching and would never have made all these friends. I cannot thank you enough.

There is just one other who we cannot find RXXXX BXXX, but as details are very sketchy I hesitate to ask. John last saw him at REME 7th Armoured Workshops Fallingbostal Germany in 1961. He then transferred to a Tank regiment in Berlin and married a German girl. Not much to go on is there?

Again, thank you so very much, may you long continue to help people who I am sure are as grateful as myself.

Yours very sincerely

Jxxxx Wxxxx

The First British Bridge Across The Rhine

2005-05-28T23:13:00.000Z

Fellow sappers - This is for you.

To compliment my own personal story and the 60th anniversary of the end of ww2 read the official report at the time by the Chief Royal Engineer 8th Corps of how my colleagues hastened the end by bridging the Rhine.

"The planning stages for the Rhine crossing really started at the crossing of the Meuse on the German border. For the whole winter we had been facing the Germans on the opposite banks of the river, and plans for the frontal assault across it had been worked out in the greatest detail for a number of altenative sites. All recces were carried out on the ground, Sapper officers becoming quite expert in moving about on night recces, camouflaged in snow suits.

Eventually, however, a frontal assault was not carried out across the Meuse on our front owing to the rapid advance of an American Armoured Combat Group coming up from the south.on the opposite bank., and capturing Venlo. At a few hours' notice the 100 (Royal Monmouth) Field Coy built a floating bridge across the Meuse at Venlo on March 1st 1945. This bridge went well.

Before leaving the Meuse I must record how impressed I was with the efficiency and drive of the American Armoured Combat Group that captured Venlo. The armoured element of this particular Combat Group consisted of a coloured tank battalion. Their motto appeared to be "drive and shoot" and they certainly put the fear of God into the Boche that night in Venlo, driving and shooting tracer all over the town. I crossed the Meuse in the early hours of March 1st, with the bridge recce party, and made my way on foot (luckily we landed to one side of an enemyminefield) to contact the Commander of this U.S Combat group, where I had an excellent breakfast preceeded by a cognac and was present at his "O" Group immediately afterwards.

They had advanced 30 km up the east bank of the Meuse the day before, stopping at nothing , including anti-tank ditches, and captured Venlo during the night. The Commander had received no information of the progress of our drive from the north , and I gave him the latest information as I knew it; he then gave orders accordingly , with regard as to axis of advance, order of march and objectives to be reached up to 15 miles beyond Venlo, all of which were in fact captured by his Combat Group on that day.

Having successfully crossed the Meuse and started tackling rout clearances in Venlo, we took up positions in Germany and learnt that our next big task was to be the building of a floating bridge across the Rhine. It would be , apart from the Remagen bridgehead , the first bridge across and speed was essential. No dates,of course, could be forecast at that time, but it was obvious that there would be two to three weeks to prepare, as the enemy was fighting bitterly all the way back to the river. Soon detailed plans of the crossing were out and the bridge site fixed .Air photos, all available data and history of the river's behaviour were collected and carefully studied, and a tentative plan drawn up.

RECCES

Our infantry reached the river and took up positions some way back, patrolling the bank at night. Recces were only allowed by night and nothing was to be done that might attract the enemy's attention to that particular site. We had several good daytime" looks" at the river from Artillery OPs,and an officer was attached to the infantry coy holding the village at Wardt, some two miles from the river. He went out on two night patrols with the infantry , having a general look at the site and checking on a number of points. An enormous stroke of luck came when fog one morning entirely hid the near bank from enemy observation , The recce officer was able to walk almost unhindered , covering the entire site and approaches. No recces of the far bank were done, but from air photos and daytime observation a reasonable picture was built up.

PLANNING

The information gathered was very complete and enabled me to make a detailed plan of the whole operation. A scale model of the entire site and marshalling area was constructed . I briefed Coy Commanders, giving them their tasks in detail, and held several conferences to thrash out any points about which they had doubts. Later the scale model was loaned to Coy. Commanders , who briefed their officers and N.C.O.s with its help. All agreed that the model was good value.

TRAINING

The whole formation built two training bridges over the Meuse, duplicating as far as possible the conditions expected over the Rhine. Early on it was evident that the bottleneck would be anchor casting in the fast Rhine current. As a result of this training period , we evolved a good method for casting anchors, which consisted of establishing a captive ferry on baloon cable just upstream of the line on which the anchors would be cast. The ferry, one floating bay F.B.E ,powered with two propulsion units,carried anchors to the correct position, where they were cast. Cables,fixed beforehand to the anchors,were walked along the bridge while the ferry went out, and attached to the rafts as they came in to bridge. On account of the swift current Bailey Pontoon anchors had to be used instesd of F.B.E anchors, which we found had dragged on the Meuse.

ORGANIZATION

For the operation the formation was put under command 11 A.G.R.E who gave approval for all moves forward, and orders for the commencement of work. Within the formation the organization was as given in Appendix 1 and this worked most successfully on the operation. All bridge equipment,track stores, and other materials required for the construction of the bridge were held in a R.E concentration area some miles back. Three days before the operation everything was on wheels in this area, where it was then sorted into pre-arranged vehicle columns, each column being approximately 60 vehicles numbered serially in the order in which they would be off-loaded at the bridge site. This marshalling was carried out under the supervision of an officer from the formation.,who remained until all columns had left for the forward marshalling area. The call forward to the marshalling area was controlled by the A.G.R.E on demand from the C.R.E at the bridge control point. Personnel vehicles were handled ,as for stores and equipment , from an area within the main R.E concentration area. The careful pre-loading and assembly of the 167 bridging vehicles and specially loaded 3 tonners required for the operation ,paid a very good dividend. The bridge equipment was demanded several days in advance.It was allotted and brought into my Corps Field Park Coy. bridging dump. There a Field Coy was given the task of unloading , checking ,repairing, cleaning up and reloading all the equipment. This proved of great value as much equipment was damaged and needed repair. The pre-arranged loading of vehicles carrying stores other than standard bridge equipment involved much careful work. Anchor cables were well soaked and tensioned between lorries , carefully measured and marked according to the order they would be required in bridge, and put on the same lorry as the Bailey anchors with which they would be used. All this is rather contrary to the normal doctrine.of supply and moving forward of bridge equipment, but in the writer's opinion it is the only possible way of dealing with a large bridging operation, where nothing in the matter of the state of the equipment can be left to chance, and almost a "private army" of bridge equipment and specially loaded vehicles had to be assembled for the operation.

THE OPERATION

At zero hour (02,00 hours in our sector), with a small party from H.Q R.E I went forward to the site and established contact with "crossing control" to follow events and report back to 11 A.G.R E until they should they give the order to start. The drive up through Xanten was most interesting. The intense din from our barrage, accompanied by illuminated tracer and houses on both sides of main route through Xanten well and truly ablaze from enemy fire , made an impression I shall never forget. The marshalling area was signed and laid out , and phones connected up as the assault was going in. On our site the assaulting infantry were held up by strong machine gun positions dug into the flood bank, and for a long time they could make no progress inland. During the hours of darkness we walked the foreshore and building sites , and I fixed the exact position for the start of the bridge. An hour before first light advance parties arrived and started work. There was mortaring, 20mm fire and unaimed small arms fire from the enemy. With the coming of light , machine guns and 20mm canon fire made work difficult. Our neighbours on the left, building close support rafts, had to pull out suffering casualties, and we were ordered to cease work for the time being., In the meantime the main body was arriving and the equipment and stores were coming into our bridging and marshalling area, where they were parked on a pre-arranged plan in fields behind the floodbank. Enemy guns began to shell the marshalling area fairly consistently, and we had to have a wider dispersal of vehicles than had been allowed for in the original plan. Forward of the floodbank the site was unhealthy, being completely overlooked by the far bank, where our infantry had not been able to get on. After a discussion with C.E 12 Corps, I sent a recce party on the possibility of bridging some miles upstream, where the far bank had been cleared of the enemy. Bad approaches on both banks ruled out this new site. By 10.30 hours our infantry coming up on the far bank had pinched out the machine gun positions , and work started once more. With the cessation of aimed M.G and small arms fire , work went forward rapidly , though a trifle slowed by mortaring and shelling which continued until the afternoon. The first bridging vehicles arrived on site at 11.00 hours , at which time I crossed the river in a Buffalo with a recce party, and fixed the position at the end of the bridge and exits up to the floodbank on the far side. The anchor party got their cable across by Storm boat , quite a feat ,and established the anchor casting ferry. Soon the bridge was going steadily forward , raft building just keeping pace nicely with forming of bridge and anchor casting. In the meantime the approach on the near bank and the exit on the far bank , totalling nearly a mile of Somerfeld Track on Chespale over grass fields, was going smoothly. All traffic during building was run over the fields clear of the final alignment of the approach. Track stores for the far bank were ferried over in D.U.K.W s and Buffaloes, which were placed under our command for that purpose. A Buffalo ferry service for the infantry was being operated upstream of our bridging site and twice Buffaloes , out of control , broke the anchor cable , which had to be promptly renewed. Later I managed to get this ferry service moved downstream of the bridging site. Hundreds of Gliders and Dakotas , flying in low for the Airborn drop , made a most heartening sight during the morning. Work went on according to plan, and the bridge was open to traffic 23.30 hours , twelve and a half hours after the first bridging vehicles had arrived on site. The conpleted bridge was 1500 feet long. Once we had really got started the enemy opposition was negligible. there being no enemy air attck at all.. This gave us a false sense of security, which cost us dearly in subsequent bridging operations in.the campaign, particularly on the Weser and Elbe where we had a respect for the enemy's low-level air attacks.

Appendix 1
H.Q.R.E All recces and planning. staffing and running marshalling area and bridge control. Controlling movement of bridging vehicles to the off loading points.

100 Royal Monmouth Field Coy
Building trestle bays on both banks.
Building floating bays and warping them to the head of the bridge where they were handed over to 224 Field Coy . Temporary approaches to raft building sites .

224 Field Coy
Casting anchors. Taking over rafts at head of bridge, Connecting up the
formed bridge and fixing cables. Fixing landline anchorages. Operating ferry to far bank.

101 Royal Monmouth Field Coy
All approaches and exits on both banks. Ferrying across track stores to far
bank (using D.U.K.Ws) Providing an "Anti -Floater" patrol to secure any
out of control Buffalo or other heavy floating objects from damaging the bridge.

Last but not least our Coy !!
508 Field Park Coy
Signing the routes up and down for personnel and bridging equipment, Providing personnel rescue service on the water. Maintaining "Evinrudes" and prepulsion units. Fixing all signs on the bridge itself, including vehicle spacing signs. Lighting the bridge at night if necessary.

POSTSCRIPT
Appreciation of other arms of Engineer work:

The following letter addressed to me was received from Lt Gen Sir Miles Dempsey ,Commandinding 2nd Army , and was greatly appreciated by all ranks of 8th Corps Troops Royal Engineers.

__________________________________

To 8 Corps Tps Engineers HQ Second Army

29 March 1945

Dear -----------

The battle has been won and out leading troops are now , five days after the crossing breaking out from the bridgehead.. I want you to realise how much of this success is due to the work which you and those under your command have carried out. The crossing and bridging of the Rhine could not be described as an easy operation. It was, however, essential to success that the build up on the other side of armour. artillery, vehicles and stores should proceed quickly. Thank to the skill and energy with which you carried out the tasks allotted to you this was achieved, and I would be glad if you would tell all ranks how much I appreciate their splendid work.

Yours Sincerely,

M C Dempsey

Finding Old Friends - Another Success Story

2005-05-25T14:49:00.000Z

Hi

As I have stated before finding old friends can be a lot of fun, especially when you get results like this:

Dear Robin,

Hello again and thankyou for getting back to me. I am very pleased indeed, as I know that Sharon XXXX is Maekala's mother, therefore I know that it is definately her. I was last in touch with Maekala when I attended St Mary's Comprehensive School back in 1995 when I was fifteen years old. Maekala and I used to go to Whitley Bay Ice Rink on a regular basis and I would stay at her house in Benton at weekends. I cannot thankyou enough for the help that you have given me and I will be sending you the cheque for £XX.00 as requested by yourself in the post tomorrow morning.

Kind Regards

Mrs Lucy XXXXXX

60th Anniversary of the end of WW2

2005-05-09T03:17:00.000Z

A TRIBUTE TO ELAINE

Today we saw the excellent concert of celebration in Trafalgar square.

Sentimental memories abounded and reminded me of how little people finding we would have if it were not for those nostalgic thoughts of associations long past.

When the guns fell silent most of us had been in the thick of it and we were not celebrating in the UK at all but amongst those that were at home were the many people who had sustained us through it all.

Those days brought people into contact much more intensely than in peace time and then they seperated just as quickly.

Of those relationships were teenage first time romances with the girl in your home community that you couldn't give up but which had to exist from one short leave to another.

No normal single young serviceman wanted to be without his pinup. Noone wanted to be without relationships that had meant so much to them in their hour of need during short leaves.

"Find an old friend" is frequently hearing from people who want to know what happened to that sweetheart from so long ago. They subsequently were not relationships that stood the test of time for people were often so young and immature and unsuited to each other but nevertheless they helped so many individuals at the time who just wanted someone of their own age to care about them.

I really feel sad when it is impossible to find such a person after so long for practical reasons. I know how these enquirers feel and can understand their memories of long ago and they will always get a sympathetic word on this website: Findanoldfriend.co.uk

This story is in thanks to a girl I knew called Elaine Cresswell who was my forces sweetheart and she will not mind having her name on the web . In WW2 apart from my own family she was the girl I was fighting for.

Unlike the grammer school types I used to bike around with in the small town comminity of Herne Bay Elaine was different in that it was a really down to earth working class Medway towns atmosphere.

We were both only 16 when my Dad put me to work in Shorts aircraft factory in Rochester hoping to both give me a career and safety from conscription later into the armed forces. It gave me neither but it gave me Elaine because I lodged with family friends next door to her on the small council estate at Frindsbury overlooking the whole of the Medway area up on the cliffs.
I walked out of the factory in 6 weeks and it must have been very hard on my Dad but I found a friendship that has lasted due to a strange accident right to this very day.

She was a very straightforward caring person . Very uncomplicated but kind and loyal and I felt that she was my pride and joy in a very disturbing and uncertain world. Elaine was so proud of her little Sapper that she only occasionally saw after I joined up a year later and I was so proud of her as she was so brave about one of her brothers who had been killed as sgt navigator in a bomber.

Our respective families were very understanding and we were only teenagers. I was so lucky for 12 weeks that I did my basic sapper training only just over the river in Chatham and many were the hours that we sat on the local green near her home looking down on the view of Rochester Castle and the cathedral as the evening lights came on . It was truly romantic.

Then the church would ring 10 and I would have to trot down the hill to the bridge to run into Kitchener barracks before the half hour. Then for the next 4 years until I went to Berlin at the age of 20 Elaine and I would write to each other at least twice a week which is something like 400 letters each until we just grew out of each other and even lost touch for at least 30 years. We had even been engaged for 3 years so serious did it seem.

Everytime the post came in from Normandy to Germany I would eagerly long for that mail
Elaine had taken me safely through the war and I was so lucky to ever see her again. We met by accident about 20 years ago when I had to visit someone with my sales work who lived in the road where she had moved to after her marriage.

"Hello Robin", a little voice said and I couldn't believe it.

I walked over to her gate and was so pleased to hear she was married to another Sgt in the army and had two daughters and had been out to the Far East with him. I knew I had once let her down in a way but she never bore me a grudge and so I felt really happy that such a nice person had found happiness after all she did for me.

I was lucky as I hadn't needed a findanoldfriend website to look for what had happened to her.
Then we had the occasional phonecall and Xmas card until I heard her husband had had a heart attack and died so sadly when he was relatively young In the course of working in the area again I called on this little grey lady so we can still remain friends and I can commiserate with her and you know people look different but they still talk with the same voice even when they are older. It was just great to still have such a good friend from the war.

Elaine deserved much better but she still has a very supportive family in the area. I'm glad she didn't remain a Creswell very long and I hope she will enjoy reading this blog.

Like my dear wife Valerie of 40 years, she was a girl you could really trust and she really was my forces sweetheart.

So everytime I get a call to find someone from WW2 who might still be around you will know I really understand and share with you that need to remember the past.

Take care

Robin

A Tribute to 508 Field Park Company

2005-04-29T16:23:00.000Z

Read about the power of google and how someone found that their nephew who was killed om this very day 60 years ago was in my royal engineers unit unit.

As we celebrate the end of ww2 sixty years on let us remember how unlucky he was to lose his life for freedom only one week before the end.

Cheers

Robin

_____________________________________

Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 1:40 PM
Subject: 508 Field Park Company
Robin,

Forgive my unsolicited e-mail, but I have just come across your very interesting outline of life in 508 courtesy of "Google".

I have been looking for many years now, for the part that 508 played in the NW Europe campaign, because my uncle, Trevor Giltinan was a sapper with them, employed as a carpenter and joiner.

He embarked from the UK on the 20 June 1944 for Normandy and was killed in action 60 years ago today at about 1730 hours.

I have the notification of his death from the Royal Engineers record office in Brighton, together with a letter posted to my grandmother by a Major R.G.D Vernon R.E describing his last day, where he been employed repairing bridging on the River Elbe at Lauenberg, before being killed by an anti-personel shell that burst near him.

Trevor is now buried in the British military cemetery at Soltau (Becklingen) in Germany and it is my intention to visit his grave next year.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing your experiences with those of us still researching the details and not forgetting the sacrifices made by so many and especially for me, on this the anniversary of my uncles death.

Kind regards,

Terence Giltinan.

Congratulations, you hit the jackpot for me!

2005-04-21T13:01:00.000Z

Another successful search - finding old friends is fun!

_______________________________

Robin,

Congratulations, you hit the jackpot for me! I had a phone call this evening from YYYY's daughter, and she will see him tomorrow with the news, unfortunately YYYY had a stroke a couple of years ago so I hope the shock wont be too much for him, once again thanks for all your help.

Best Regards,

Yours Aye

ZZZ

_______________________________

Let me help you find your old friend by visiting findanoldfriend.co.uk

Cheers

Robin

You have done a great job for me

2005-04-14T16:26:00.000Z

When searching for long lost friends, especially late in life, you should always be prepared for unfortunate news. There is the positive side though when you can put closure on searches you have been making for a number of years.

Here is an email I recently received from someone I was helping find their old shipmate. I have deleted the names for their own privacy.

The email reads .....

________________________

Things have moved on in the meantime; I telephoned XXXXX immediately on receiving your advice by telephone on 3 February and, sad to relate, my old shipmate ZZZZZ died about ten years ago and had I been able to locate him early on in my search for him we should have had a couple of years at least back together again. However, I wrote a lengthy letter to XXXXX on 22 February as a result of which I received an e-mail on 8 March from one of ZZZZZ's sons who sent his thanks for giving his mother something to think about and she is working on a project of bringing me up to date with information about ZZZZZ. In fact I received a letter only a couple of days ago from XXXXX herself saying she has been unable to write before due to several commitments and that I shall hear from her again in April. Her son sent at my request a photocopy of a photo of XXXXX taken when he was in his 70s and I replied that he looked exactly as I remembered him all those years ago.

So you have done a great job for me in finally putting me in touch with XXXXX's wife........

Thank you very much for your help.

Best wishes

YYYYY

________________________

Don't forget I'm here to help you with your searches.

Cheers

Robin

Finding a "Smith" - Easier Than You Think!

2005-03-21T18:04:00.000Z

I often have to search for really popular surnames like "Smith", it's not always easy but as you can see below that success is definitely possible.

This lead me on to think where does the surname "Smith" orginate from.

I found this at genealogy.about.com

Definition: Derived from the Anglo-Saxon "smitan," to smite or strike, SMITH and its derivations are an occupational name for a man who works with metal (smith or blacksmith), one of the earliest jobs for which specialist skills were required. It is a craft that was practiced in all countries, making the surname and its derivations the most common of all surnames.
Surname Origin: English
Alternate Surname Spellings: SMYTH, SMYTHE, SCHMIDT

If you want to find the meaning of youR own surname, I recommend you visit here

Cheers

Robin

----- Original Message -----
From: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
To: L*** P*******
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: A***** Smith address

Hi Lisa

Good to hear from you and always a bonus to think we could actually find a Smith!

If you come back please refresh my memory you've been here before and it will be nice to talk to you again.

Best regards

Robin

----- Original Message -----
From: L*** P*******
To: robinbrown
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: A***** Smith address

Hi,

Just to let you know that I wrote to my friends sister and am now in touch with her -she doesnt live far away either! I would like to thank you for all your help! I`ll know to come straight to you if i want to get in touch with anyone else!

Thank you so much!

Lisa

Thanks a Million for Hooking me up

2005-03-19T01:26:00.000Z

From: "Tony S****"
To: "robinbrown"
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 10:47 PM
Subject: RE:T*** S**** H***** p* C****

Dear Robin,

I would just like to say thanks a million for hooking me up with
my mate H***** ,we have had such a laugh this whole week, we both
couldn't believe how fast you found him. There is another chap i;m looking for
by the name of D** H*****, son of C****** H***** last living in
K******, Surrey(i think). This is almost an identical situation and
would appriciate another search. yours very sincerely with kind
regards Tony. Thanks again

Yes, yes, YES, YES, This was the one!

2005-03-18T22:45:00.000Z

From: r*********@aol.com
To: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 2:21 PM
Re: p****** m********
Subject: Yes, yes, YES, YES, This was the one!

He phoned yesterday evening, and will write soon.

Many thanks for all your efforts.

I'll talk with my old shipmate in Lancashire, and see if we can drag up some more names to research.

Regards

R*****.

Thank you very much for finding Glenn for me

2005-03-14T22:52:00.000Z

From: stewart
To: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 6:10 PM
Subject: Glenn D*****

Dear Robin,

I just wanted to drop you a couple of lines to say thank you very much for finding Glenn for me.

He got in touch with me and it was like we had only talked the day before.

He is coming down to see me in a couple of weeks.

So I will sign off now, thanks again and keep doing what you are doing; it’s a real source!

Kind regards,

Stewart S*******

Meeting up after 10 Years!

2005-03-13T21:36:00.000Z

Original Message -----
From: *******@aol.com
To: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:50 PM

Subject: Re: Bernadette and D***** F******

Hi Robin,

Just wanted to let you know that Bernadette contacted me this weekend :o) and in the next few weeks we will be meeting up, this will be for the first time in about 10 years.I would like to send you a BIG thankyou, because without your help I would never have found her.

Sandra

I want to thank you for all the help

2005-03-10T02:24:00.000Z

Received recently----

----- Original Message -----
From: M*******@*********.com
To: robinbrown@totalise.co.uk
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 6:06 AM
Subject: Re:R****d *. S******t

Dear Robin,

I want to thank you for all the help you gave to me for finding Ron. I would
have spent the rest of my life wondering about him if I hadn't had your
help. My memory for him will be his memorial.

I read your website completely and you are a wonderful person-you have spent
your life helping other people. And the fact you have no fee is very unusual
in this day and age.

Again thank you for all your help.

Sincerely,
Marie M********

Behind Soviet Lines. (Part 11)

2005-03-04T15:18:00.000Z

Berlin was behind Soviet lines and we were only able to be there courtesy of a political agreement that was always in the balance. Our presence in the city along with the American and French in their respective sectors was always a risk as the tensions between East and West developed. As in all international affairs sadly it was the leaders who were at fault ,whilst those of us at ordinary levels got on fine. It was just as well we did as we were over 100 miles from the nearest main occupation British forces in Germany.

In order to locate and retrieve the fallen in the Russian zone we had little trouble so long as we obeyed their rules. We had to prepare well in advance and even our names and the registration numbers of the vehicles had to be notified. Red army officers called on us to agree final details. They were confronted by sgt Ken Wildman our russian interpreter whilst Major Albert Lange would give them all his widest of smiles.

As soon as I came back from leave it was August 46 and back in Berlin I was in the thick of it. Sometimes we were away to the south of Berlin and sometimes to the west and east and never knowing quite what we would find. On one occasion we didn't get away at all as the Soviets on the check point out of the city had noticed that a truck number was different. The intended truck had broken down and the CO had slipped in another hoping it wouldn't be noticed.

There were times when we had to live from the trucks, one was for us and one for the deceased, but now and again we were able to stay in a local gasthof and the local soviet commander would know where we were of course and come and play "mein host".

I had never eaten noodles before and never slept under a duvet and the music played russian tunes till we dropped. You had to unwind on a job like this and there was nothing funnier than seeing my little CO dancing the polka with the local Russian officer and toasting themselves repeatly. It was all a bit superficial but we had to get by.

The Soviets were very good at getting local labour to uncover the bodies in advance so thank goodness we didn't have to do that job ourselves. Albert made us laugh as he told the ruskies through an interpreter, as we affectionately called them , how he had operated in North Africa in bad weather. Sometimes he said he had sorted out a nice piece of cemetary in perfect order and the next day a sand storm would come along and you couldn't even find it anywhere and sometimes he said the opposite happened and you had to spend an extra day burying the poor fellows all over again as they had been left high and dry. We were not being disrespectful to our fallen comrades but having a mass wake so to speak and that joke certainly made our coarse Russian friends rock with laughter.

All the anti Soviet feeling where it existed specially between the local Germans and the occupiers was understandable in some ways, as the atrocities the Germans committed in their invasion of Poland and Russia were never made public, but many must have known about it. I could not condone the attitude that some Germans had when they spoke to us that we should be trying to throw the Soviets back with their help, Hadn't they had enough of war even now!!? The whole idea was disgusting and didn't they know we and Russia were allies and without their help we might never have beaten the worst criminals of the century.

I tried my best to not get involved in such discussions and treat every individual on their merits in Berlin and so one day when an old lady asked me near a cemetary in the Soviet zone if I could take a letter and post it to someone in Berlin I automatically took it meaning to do just that. She was arrested on the spot by our so called hosts and I had to give the letter back. It reminded me at once that I was not allowed to talk to civilians in the Russian zone and that they themselves were completely cut off from the rest of Germany.

As soon as we got back each time to our military cemetary in a wooded glade just off the Heer Strasse there was much work to be done for there out in the open I had to check out each individual and fill in a report with special reference to their teeth and then with a number on the report make quite sure that the same number tag was attached to the corresponding deceased. We were not like the Americans who put the fallen straight onto a flight to Paris where it was all done under cover in more hygenic conditions.

Then a small temporary white wooden cross was erected with the name to be followed by the lovely commonwealth war graves stone at a later date. Each time you were sure of an identity through the name tag and other means it was a source of great satisfaction with the knowledge that instead of someones loved one now being missing and presumed dead that individual was known to be dead and that the family could later visit the grave. For every day that I was in contact with a dead person I got a small supplement of about 20% of my salary.

I hope that this report will be read by younger people today who in their ignorance still actually worship wars. Those who enjoy re enacting battles and dressing up in the gear and buying weapons should remember it is the most negative stupid thing ever devised by human beings. Let them remember all the suffering and all the people who have to clear it up.

There were four teams of us on the go but at any given time only a couple were out and about and the others were doing the identity checks at base. You might find it hard to imagine but I never saw anyone depressed because we were here to enjoy life to the full aswell. There was a nice alsation dog probably left behind from a distroyed home and family and I took him out quite a lot. As soon as we got back we never had any other duties or had to go on guard as we had a few other lads to do that and the food amidst a starving city was super being brought in from Denmark as well as the UK.

We were earlier injected against cholera and other nasty things but I managed to put myself in hospital for a week with yellow jaundice and also at another time I got lice but otherwise I was never fitter thanks to lots of exercise and fresh air and also not smoking and seldom drinking.

Then with the fine weather that summer I got back to more canoeing and pony riding in the forest within the city limits. Late at night I would lie back on my real bed which was still a novelty and listen to Glen Miller and all the big brass bands from the american forces network on my recently liberated Blaupunkt radio. I had sent away for something to study to keep my brain going from a correspondence school at home and it nearly fell through because I could not understand it and concentrate enough and why I chose a subject called logic I just don't know. I should have picked on something like accountancy.

I went to Hitlers olympic stadium which was only a mile away and started running the 400 and 800 distances where only 10 years previous in 1936 the qames had been held before Hitler. Some days it was just great to explore the city on the S Bahn and U Bahn systems and every time was different and most of the time like a lot of us I was quite happy on my own. We could go almost anywhere in the city limits and if you travelled on the circle line you passed through all 4 zones so it was like going through 4 countries one after the other. Having said that we didn't go into the soviet sector itself for fear of running into trouble for it wasn't just the reds that might grab us but many criminal gangs that could have picked on us.

I did not have a female interest in the summer and autumn of 46 partly due to my first local close encounter in May during my first visit to Berlin which had given me a shock, and partly because I wasn't looking for a casual fling which would have been easy anytime in this city.

The Kaiserdamm was a fantastically long, wide and straight thoroughfare which was part of the East to West axis between the Heerstrasse and the Tiergarten and I used to love to stand right on the edge of the underground platform and bend over and watch the trains moving along miles away right up to Sophie Charlotteplatz and beyond because it was so straight.

It never ceased to amaze me how much english speech local girls had picked up in the few months since the British and Yanks had moved in from the applicants we had for our office work in the unit. They used to sit outside with their typewriters in the fine weather by the house and talk about the royal family as it was theirs as well.

My view was that they had been forced to learn it at school to help in taking over our country. There were always quite a lot of females on the streets in the evenings not because they were selling themselves but just because their lives in the dusty cellars and smashed up buildings must be hell and they needed a bit of open air in the warm evenings.

Young men like myself were indeed extremely vulnerable when we had so much to offer them in terms of a bit of friendship and a bar of chocolate. Not only that I had a tin of 50 extra cigarettes weekly due to my special duties which of course I never smoked

I always had the brakes on a bit not only because my previous long term english girlfriend had had a very high moral standard but because here I was now turned into an intelligence officer having had to report on several cases of war crimes where our dead were concerned. I had seen cases where the casualty had clearly been alive on descent by parachute and then had been hung. I had come to a decision that anyone older than myself was still an enemy and those younger were not involved in recent terrible events.

You could have seen hundreds of girls at that time and recent events had left them all looking as if you wouldn't want to get involved in a million years; but suddenly I saw a young neat and tidy person come up to me on that platform and she asked me if I was a station official knowing full well I wasn't. Oh! I thought the Germans have a sense of humour after all they had been through.

We went back to her mothers large flat near the law courts and I found she was called Felicitas Marcha. What a fantastic name I thought and she had a nice young brother about 12. I used to go there several evenings sitting on the balcony looking at life going on below and she used to get her young brother to queue for hours to get tickets so that we could go to the cinemas that were already showing British films like" The Lady in Black" with Audrey Hepburn I think it was. Well then I suddenly had my posting to go to Hamburg for nearly 2 months and she cried her eyes out and in the process told me someone else had made her pregnant before she knew me which really shocked me. I was glad to go away but felt sorry for her as in the aftermath of war many young girls were abused but I didn't ask her the details.

When I got back I actually went round to her home to see how she was but not because I intended to start anything serious, but just out of the kindness of my heart, and to my amazement I was told by her mother that she had got another boyfriend in RAF who actually wanted to marry her!

I got a sharp lesson in the fickleness of the Berlin fraternization scene and as I said, I was not rushing into anything. Felicitas was able to contact me later and tell me she had married the RAF and become Mrs Clark in Devon with her young child. I was very happy about that and he must have been a very good man.

At the end of the autumn I felt on a real high as I was promoted to war substantiated Sgt and I moved to the sgts mess in a large executive residence near the cemetary and in a pleasant road lined with silver birch trees which just ended into the Grunwald about half a mile from the other houses.

I had never seen such a bathroom and hadn't a clue what a bidet was, such was my lack of experience in my short life. I slept in a large front room with just one other member of the mess and out over the road through the trees I could just see where Fitzy was with a whole house to himself and a Romanian maid. All the officers now had female domestics and behind the scenes they were probably closer than that and who can blame them.

Fitzy my captain Fitzgerald was to be my close partner in crime for the rest of my life in Berlin and we got on so well that I nearly forgot to salute him more than once and he didn't mind. When I left the unit he gave me such a good reference as to make me blush. Everyone called him Fitzy but not to his face of course. We had a lovely waitress in our mess called Chrystal and she became very close to Sgt Johanson from Liverpool and later married him and lived happily ever after. She is still alive and he has sadly recently passed on.

It's a good time to mention that after some had been in Berlin for at least a year, many firm links were made with local girls, and contrary to expectations from people at home countless thousands of Anglo German weddings took place and several are still among my current friends. Hardly surprising then that in Sept the next year Ellen and I were amonst them.

Unfortunately for our children our marriage only lasted 10 years but I did my best. A good proportion of Anglo German have lasted until death do us part.

After another 10 day leave in October 46 I returned to the same house and was soon to enjoy my 2nd winter in Germany. The train journeys through the Russian zone of Germany were often full of incident. On this occasion I had been guard commander on the train and this meant patrolling the length of the train to make sure all was in order fully armed.The most common problem was when people actually lept onto the outside of a coach to hitch a lift when it was going very slowly and this actually happened to me and I had to put my rifle out of the window to shove them off and then fire a warning shot to their side. You had to be continually on the guard against a sabotaged track.

The black market was much in evidence now and every so often a man in a hat and a suitcase who looked like a gestapo agent would appear at our house and offer silk stockings and heaven knows what in exchange for cigarettes. I managed to get something more useful in the form of a pair of ex german army skis for the simple price of a tin of 50 players cigarettes. I didn't have long to wait for the chance to try them out but the small hillocks in the nearby forest were quite enough for me to cope with. It turned out to be an even harder winter than 1939/40 at home in the UK and when I went on my next leave I took them with me and it was just amazing.

I got out of the train at Liverpool street station and did what I believe noone has ever done before. It was frozen solid and I glided along all the way to Victoria through central London to catch my train to Herne Bay. During my leave the sea was frozen and I walked with them about 100 yards out from the shore and succeeded in getting my self photographed for the local press.

Earlier on my 21st birthday Dec 16th 1946 I had been able to phone home to our neighbours phone by booking it up in advance for half a crown in a services club. It was my first international call. It felt good to be the youngest sgt in Berlin at that time but I really had no intention of making a career in army and then be on the retirement list when I was in my 40s

The hard frost meant that no graves could be dug and for many weeks all activity was suspended but we had lots of physical training and made the best of it and I can't remember anyone getting into trouble. Except myself!! All sgts had to back in barracks for midnight and the other ranks 11pm. I was only a few minutes late but rather than look stupid I found I could get in the COS car and I fell asleep in it. As luck would have it, a jeep with two MPs came by and caught me just as I was walking the few yards to our front door at 0630 and charged me. They had to do something and so it went on my record that I was absent without leave for 6 and a half hours and it went on my permanent record I was severly repremanded. I told the CO he had left his car unlocked and it was just a formality as I had been just outside the building.

I found myself a Swedish girlfriend just before Xmas and the visits to her home were quite nice with a properly litup tree. Her family were neutral in the war but had been trapped in Germany but it was not something I really wanted to last.

I was often onto the creaky old 57 tram for the couple of miles from the house to the central city area but in the evenings I would walk back fast and feel really hot but fit even in January, and many a time I would have gone to a frozen tennis court to have a good skate. It was one evening in January that I went into a cafe after a skate and saw Ellen standing alone by the bar. She was trying to light a cigarette and I got up and lit it for her and she then said she had just been stood up by an airforce man and before that she had been given up by a soldier in the Northumberland Fusiliers called Norman Parker. She didn't have much faith in men anymore it seemed so I took her out for a meal.

I was very close to her and asked her to marry me after only 6 weeks. I simply felt I could do more for her in the world than anyone I could meet at home. She was smart and well spoken in english and beautiful and lived with a little sick auntie who was her legal guardian whom we tried but failed to get to England in 1948 before she died. Ellen was out of work but I was able to get her a typing job with the military police. Perhaps it was she who had typed out the MP report about my so called stop out all night which could have made her feel very uneasy because I wasn't with her!

Ellen had a younger brother living with her divorced mother in another part of the city and Ellen herself was in a place ironically called Wedding in the French sector. In the spring I moved back to one of the smaller houses where I had been before and I had a cosy little attic room where she would often come.

When my demobilisation was announced for June 1947 I signed on for another six months to give ourselves more time to plan things. I sent many letters and photos home about Ellen and all my family looked forward to her coming and she had a really good reception in Jan 48.
We had a splendid army wedding in the garrison church of St George on Sept 20 '47 with many of the unit there and all her family came later at the cafe Hubertus.

I had noone but she must have been happy and my unit was like my family. We spent the time til I left for home in November in the married forces hostel and because of the Berlin situation we never had a proper honeymoon. During that time and for a while afterwards Ellen's family were in contact with my unit colleagues who helped them a lot with food.

Not long after we were both back in the UK the Soviets blocked Berlin which was the one thing I had feared in case it had cut me off from Ellen. Many of you know about the story of the Berlin airbridge which saved the city from starvation but we had got away in time.

My married life is another story but it meant that one way or another I could never forget Berlin now, even though I was a single person for seven years from 1957 to 1964 and have enjoyed another successful marriage for 39 years after that. WHAT A LOT CAN HAPPEN TO A YOUNG LIFE IN ONLY EIGHT YEARS FROM 1939 TO 1947 OR SO IT SEEMS NOW 64 YEARS ON.

I would like to say a hearty "thank you" to all those who have read my little story and visited my website. Robin --You all deserve a medal.

These reports are dedicated to the memory of all the thousands of teenagers who made the greatest sacrifice in WW2 because they never survived to enjoy any adulthood.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-11.htm.The previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-10.htm

All the Best

Robin

A New Life in Berlin & Hamburg. (part 10)

2005-02-25T12:53:00.000Z

Berlin was built to impress and despite the fact that half the buildings were demolished on a massive scale there was still much in the very wide thoroughfares and open spaces that was to exhilarate me for the rest of my army service.

It was only just a year since the conquest by the soviet army and the population were rapidly trying to get back to normal so that with allied cooperation and supplies most of the main services were operating already including local transport and underground and entertainment.

I suddenly felt transformed into a more civilised world as I arrived in a tree lined cul da sac of houses that could have been one of our better UK council estates. There was no unnecessary red tape as I was ushered into a front room that passed for the COs office at 56 Graves Concentration Unit after having been given a meal that was more like eating at home. Before me stood two officers both of whom looked different to the usual types and I sensed that I had made a good move by volunteering to come here.

However I had little idea of what was ahead in terms of duties and I was just pleased to be in such a relaxed atmosphere.

There were several others with me from all over Germany and I don't think they realised either in their youth that they had elected to be part of a team that many would not want to be a part of.

It was that sense of boyish adventure and a change of scenery that really kept us happy, not an awareness that upon our shoulders would be the responsibility of giving peace of mind to many families at home.

Major A J E Lange Royal Tank Regt stood all of 5 foot 3 inches and was earlier from North Africa where being so small in a tank was a distinct advantage. He was soft of speech and educated with his printing firm background and a gentleman's home in Surrey and I at once felt I was more in the company of an uncle, rather than with a commanding officer. His 2nd in command Capt L C Fitzgerald Royal Irish Fusiliers was just as old and just as civilized and also spoke to me as if if I was a normal human being and not just a sapper under command to do a bit of dirty work. Both were in their 50s and this made them command respect from a mere lad like myself without all the military carry on.

The first thing you noticed was the number of sergeants and NCOs to the small total of about 50 souls in all who came from every branch of the service and every part of the UK.

There Highlanders, Paddies, Taffys, Cockneys etc. all from different regiments and kinds of units blended together as a team to do a special kind of work. There were few units like it in the services.

The cook was a real chef called Lazeretti from South Wales clearly with Italian blood in his veins and to crown it all after years of sleeping on floors and worse, here I was with a room of my own with hot and cold running water and a proper bath to hand and there were not too many of them in Berlin at that time.

To my surprise I was quickly promoted to corporal and given charge of some of the office work and specially the map room which was a real thrill because geography had always been one of my top subjects, This excluded me from the outside activities and the military cemetery for several weeks in May and June, instead of which I was helping to plan the journeys for others going all over eastern Europe looking for the fallen RAF.

The weather was so kind at that time and it seemed impossible to believe of all the carnage that had gone on here just over a year previous, but for the fact that a few rusting knocked out tanks still lay around spoiling the beauty of the forest of the Grunwald that lay all around us down to the Havel See.

Can you imagine what it would have felt like if you ever had had a free pass to go around London and London Transport and to enjoy all its entertainment, bars, cafes free of charge. To travel all around on the Berlin transport system without ever having to pay and to be able to buy almost anything with your cigarette ration which was worth many times more than your actual pay was just amazing. Well in fact it felt even much better than that because it was as if Berlin was trying to make up to us a little for the complete breakdown of our normal lives.

In actual fact one didn't need to spend much money at all because of the cheap facilities at the services clubs as well.

Then came a complete surprise as I was moved with a small detachment in July to a large country house next to a small lake at Ohlsdorf on the outskirts of Hamburg, a city I never thought to see. We were to support similar work here for couple of months where a large civilian cemetery here also enclosed one of ours.

The fallen from the RAF were brought in from outlying areas where they had been exhumed and it was my job to try and identify many of them. I wondered how I would feel the first time round, but it was OK. The next time you explored a corpse it was easier and it all felt so unreal and you felt sort of detached.

There were no real faces to be looked at as they had been in the ground too long and all I could say to myself was "There but for the grace of God go I".

But for these guys I would be living in slavery or dead. In the evenings I had to catalogue all the belongings I had found and I strung up all the money that they had carried to dry it out pretending I was a millionaire. It gave me a warped sense of satisfaction. Then we would all jump into a truck and explore Hamburg at night and feel human again except for one of the drivers who caused a real bother.

He had got himself really blotto and was supposed to drive us back.

Although only a corporal and with no experience of these matters I had to order him into the back of his truck and get someone else to drive else I would have called the military police.

When we got back he attacked me and pushed me into the large plate glass door at the front of the house. I fell and my hand went through the glass with a bad cut on my wrist and a medical officer had to be called. He told me I was very lucky it had not cut into my main vein for I could have bled to death.

The driver would have to go on a charge but in the morning he made such an emotional apology that I let him off with a severe caution myself, thankful once again to be alive and I didn't report him in the end. He was one of the chaps who had already been posted to the unit, as a sort of punishment for bad behaviour in the past in the hope that contact with the casualties of war would make him pull himself together! It had the reverse effect and he was soon sent on his way. My dear father never drank even when he was very low and for that I am truly grateful.

I will never forget him as it gave me a scar on my wrist that can be seen today and I jokingly still refer to it as my only war wound.

A few days later I was standing by a graveside and had an uplifting experience.

I turned round startled when I heard a female voice as this was no place for a woman in those days to my mind. It was a lady from New Zealand working for their press and she was on a assignment reporting on one of their heros who had been shot down .

We found him because he had the NZ next to his wings.

I should mention that most of the time we knew who we were looking for based on careful reports sent to us from RAF intelligence and I always had an airforce officer by my side to help me with all their insignia.

Quite often I took myself into what was left of Hamburg by walking to the local station and catching the electric train which just went through one station after another without stopping because there was simply not a building left intact.

My generation had grown used to such devastation but even then it was a spooky experience.

I had won a camera in an army raffle and it made me feel very happy and my old pal Billy Ward had managed to get over as he was still in this part of Germany and we had a good laugh. He had been very keen on dancing before the army and we chuckled about the way he had tried to get me to dance in the boat house back at 508 Coy. It was just as well that no one saw us and got the wrong impression and I did actually learn a few steps.

Coming back one night I had to pass through this vast cemetery late at night and I found the high gate on our side was locked up so I had to struggle over it in the darkness trying not to spear myself on the spikes 8 foot up and with visions of having to spend the night in the wrong company.

During this spell we had a Sunday trip to the sandy beaches of the Baltic resort of Travemunde which was very relaxing in glorious weather playing with local children and we were also joined by some British army girls which seemed quite strange at the time.

This was because I had just decided not to keep the same loyal girlfriend at home any more after 4 years, as the fraternisation ban had just been lifted in Germany and there were too many temptations all around me and life seemed too uncertain.

Typical of the man Major Lange came with us to Travemunde twice and looked such a mere slip of a man in his swimming trunks but always with a smile on his face.

We were not an army unit as such but just a team doing a job.

10 day privilege leaves popped up every 4 months or so and as my spell in Hamburg came to an end I went on a very welcome one, the first time as an NCO.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-10.htm. The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-11.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-9.htm

All the Best

Robin

Occupation Forces. (part 9)

2005-02-14T09:31:00.000Z

Only a few days after the war's end 508 company was moved to a static location into the centre of the narrow arm of Germany that leads to the border with Denmark called Schleswig Holstein. We occupied huts along the side of the Einfelder See which is a large lake a few miles north of Neumunster on the main road to the German port of Kiel. This area was relaxed and picturesque being full of lakes and downland but it was a bit of an exaggeration to find on the map it was known as "Little Switzerland" .

The main road was in good shape and was entirely cobbled with a high camber which made it tricky to both march along and drive .

I knew it was no good thinking about getting out as soon as it was all over as there were so many millions due for release who had suffered from the war much longer than I but I used to get depressed at times at thinking how I was going to start my real life.

But for a rather nasty Sgt Major who was keen to make barrack square soldiers of us again the village of Einfeld could have seemed no worse than a rather rigorous holiday camp.

Here we were to stay for a very long time with myself being the youngest at still only 19 and a half. Little did I know that in fact my army service was going to extend itself for another two and a half years , longer than I had just served to date and it had seemed a long-time at that early stage of ones life already. Of course there were people all around me who had served far, far longer and the situation was slightly relieved that I was going home on 10 days leave in July.

So many people had kept in touch with me for the past 10 months that I had been overseas that I had much to look forward to. My humble sappers pay of 21 shillings weekly (105 pence today!) had swollen my savings to the princely sum of £60 and I stood to attention on the quayside at the Hook of Holland to receive it in amazement.

I had never held more than a couple of pounds in my hand before and notes as thick as they were made then made a real wad. I bought a brand new Raleigh cycle for £12 so I could get round my friends and proudly put the rest in the local village post office at Eddington by my home just outside Herne Bay.

Once back again I felt pretty useless and the spit and polish seemed a pain and I did my best to keep out of trouble.There were still very few southerners in the unit but luckily there was my old friend Billy Ward and another from Canterbury called Eric Dixon and another older chap from Bromley called Willy Whitehead who at about 40 was like a positive grandfather to me. The worst chore to be detailed on morning parade was to clean and look after the huts themselves mainly due to the boredom. You were expected to go right up on the rafters and dust them down as well just like we used to have to do at Chatham.

There were no bunks as we slept on the bare wooden floors with mattresses with our weapons by our sides and the buildings were much the same as many in the UK and probably occupied by enemy forces shortly before we took over. One day the Sgt Major picked on me and said there was dead meat around those windows by which he meant there were still a couple of dead spiders. It will always stick in my mind because unbeknown to us at the time he was currently involved in a far worse crime and among other things he was later caught selling army supplies to the German black market.

He went missing and search parties including myself were hunting for him all around for hours. There were plenty of nasty characters around still on the run who could have done him in. I can't really say why but when he was found hanging from a tree in a nearby wood I was not all that surprised nor sorry. After all 1000s of starving people all around were dying daily in displaced persons camps for no fault of their own.

One of the other duties was infact to keep an eye on such a camp to prevent any riots or disorders if possible. We quite often went by truck to some shattered railway sheds that passed for shelter for near corpses and again there was nothing really intelligent to do so we played with the derelict locomotives on the bombed out railway lines and pretended we were going on crack expresses. I don't think I ever understood why continental steam engines had to have twice as many pipes around them as ours at home and look untidy at the best of times. They compared very badly to my own favourite King Arthur class that plied from London to Ramsgate and Dover.

On afternoon pass Billy Ward and I would go to the local town of Neumunster and browse around what was our first experience of a local town. It was just wonderful to be on the loose for a while although there was very little to do and very few people to be seen due to the extensive British bombing. You didn't really say anything to locals at that stage as no fraternisation ruled for the foreseeable future. Every now and again we had to clamber over piles of rubble to get down a street and we would have a quiet giggle to each other and say "We will have to report this mess to the Burgermeister" .

It was a very fine summer and the atmosphere by the lake became a bit more relaxed when we were off duty. Within the compound we had a boat house and a small pier with canoes and these we took out frequently exploring all around the lakeside which was vast and at least a mile across and many more around, with lots of inlets and bulrushes.

Those who took the risk of fraternising with girls from the local farm buildings had every opportunity to do so. I was a non swimmer really and in retrospect can't believe I took such a risk on the water but it was usually like a millpond and you felt quite snug on your own as the canoes were well made. I only once went straight across and stuck near the sides and you could hardly feel scared when you had had so much wet bridging training behind you on the river Medway and elsewhere. In addition to that I had done quite a bit of rowing on the sea at home and on local Kent rivers with my girlfriend, not to mention with my mother on the Serpentine in London.

It came as quite a shock then when we suddenly heard that my favourite Sgt Olgivie had fallen out of a canoe and been drowned. Those that knew him better told me that a few years later his sister was killed in a car crash and it was hard to believe that so much tragedy could strike one family without the help of the war.

There was welcome relief from the waste of time when educational classes were started and though it was mainly about current affairs and not linked to any qualifications, it was quite enjoyable. Not so good was the fact that I got a very sore face through shaving in cold water and my mother used to send me cream to put on my roar face. It was not well shaven one morning and I should have reported sick with it but instead I got on my 2nd charge of my service and landed up with a week of potato peeling and being confined to barracks for a week.

All our equipment and transport lay nearby in a big parking area and so it was very necessary to have a very alert guard at night two hours on and four hours off. As the winter came on they were a real pain of course and the quarter hours used to ring out far too slowly from the local village clock as we stood out there on the main road. No civilian traffic came by at night but every evening about 11 the small cycle light of a musician returning home from the local public house in the village used to approach and every time I had to challenge him just as if I had never seen him before. There was still a notice in German ironically from the old days telling everyone not to stop by the barracks and we were telling them just the opposite!. I still have a photo of that entrance reminding me of many dragging hours and cold nights.

Winter 1945/46 was severe and even though this was the mildest area of Germany being near the sea on two sides it was even harder than the previous bad one in the UK 1939/40. The entire lake was frozen solid for two months and it was quite safe to drive a truck on it as far as the eye could sse. The snow was always there but not all that deep so it didn't become a problem but the temperatures did. Truck drivers had to run their engines at least twice in the night to prevent them from being unable to start in the day although nothing like it had been necessary in the war.
I got hold of a pair of ice skates and kept myself amused and exercised for hours at a stretch. I also had a old box camera which took some good pictures still going strong today. We didn't go far at night from the big stoves in the huts. There were no cinemas or anything like that in this rural area. Someone noticed that I could put two and two together and I was lucky to find I had a new job when the stores office was expanded. There were two local girls and our corporal clerk Cpl Freak and an older German man who used to go on about how we should be fighting the Russians like so many did and how he went on such long walks every Sunday. I would have given anything to know what he had done in the war and he struck me as a typical ex Nazi.

One of the girls was quite the opposite and only about my age, and as she was my first contact with a local female and pleasant at that I always remember her name as Anneliese Hahn. She unexpectedly asked us both home to tea with her mother and I have to say so soon after the wars end I felt a touch guilty sitting there with the ban still on and with my long term girl friend at home who had lost a brother in the RAF. It was remarkable that the army took on German employees so soon and of course they were jobs much sort after in the days when hardly anybody had anything.
I actually wrote to her several times afterwards as she reminded me that this country still surprisingly had a future. It was amusing though to realise that the translation of the name Hahn was Cockerel. I had another 10 days leave to the UK in February 46 to remind me that all those loving friends and family really still existed and that sometime in the future another world awaited me now that I was 20. Demob had already begun for many but I didn't allow myself the luxury of looking forward to it yet. I only tried to find ways of sorting out my frustration.

We did have some laughs but not enough to make you feel you were living a worthwhile life. A typical incident that I will never forget was the time a rather lazy member of our section failed to get up smartly one morning even though reveille was now as late as 7am.

Two ncos transported him mattress and all outside and down to the end of the jetty from where he had to walk back in the freezing cold amid the laughter of the rest of us.

One day next May 1946 after a year in Einfeld I saw my chance when volunteers were advertised for to help a special unit in Berlin deal with the casualties of war. All I could see before me that mattered was the chance to go to the one place that symbolised the final goal whether you were British or Russian or whatever and the big change in my existence that would entail. I went on a special course involving basic educational tests and it was a great feeling to know that even though my education had effectively finished when I was only 15, I could still figure it out enough to get through.

I left behind some good friends at 508, the unit I had served with since Oct 1944 in the mud of Holland and which seemed a whole world away.

Robin Brown the tourist took over again as I joined the train to go through the Soviet occupied territory to Berlin. I knew no one where I was going but I knew that life was going to be far more interesting from now on and I would have a lot to tell the folks at home when I could sit by my favourite fireside again and toast my crumpets.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-9.htm. The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-10.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-8.htm

All the Best

Robin

The Final Conquest. (Part 8)

2005-02-09T15:40:00.000Z

508 Field Park Company was not one of those army units that could just pile into a column of tanks or trucks at a moments notice and be off.We kept and maintained much equipment used by all kinds of other royal engineer units, specially those dealing with bridging and road clearance and were always a few miles behind the action. I was very grateful that so far I had never been in as much danger as those sappers for instance who had to clear the minefields right up front or build bridges over canals and rivers to allow the main battle groups to advance.

Although the enemy had been only about 20 miles away all through the winter he was now almost completely thrown back behind the river Maas which formed the boundary of the 3rd Reich and there was only one time I felt in real danger, although no more so than many incidents I saw as a young boy in Kent which became known as "Hell fire corner". This was when I was out in an open field near Deaurne and I got noticed by a single unusual enemy aircraft. One of the few jets that had just come out, it swooped down to pepper us all with its guns and I was just lucky to rush behind a small brick fodder building to relative safety.Then it turned and came back the other way and so I tore round the other side and I laid low for quite sometime. Fortunately for us the luftwaffe had very little fuel, and although the allies had not made any jets it didn't matter as the enemy had too few to make an impact.

Because we had to carry so much equipment in the form of road making and clearing vehicles the main stay of a field park company was its large 5 ton Canadian Mack trucks towing large trailers. Onto these every thing had to be driven, using ramps up the back and before doing this the trailers had to be jacked down to a lower level. This was a very physical task and required two strong lads on each side and in the course of loading and unloading many times my stomach muscles grew a lot. When my tractor was loaded I would actually sit up on top of it and no one seemed to care that it was high enough up there to bring down a few telephone wires.

Our drivers were very skilled to my mind that they could take such wide heavily laden vehicles over the bailey bridges with only inches to spare on either side. One of them had won the military medal earlier in the campaign in France by pushing a mine off a bridge with his front blade without setting it off. His name was Arthur Brown the exact name of my father and he was a good mate. Another good mate at least 15 years older than myself was Freddie Slack a tractor guy from the potteries.
Now was the moment we had waited 5 years for as we drew away towards the border 20 miles away. About 25 miles further north in swampy forest land around Goch the entry into Germany was very bloody right into March but the defence could not hold due to the lack of strength of the weakened opposition at many other points.

Let us not forget that but for the nazi struggle against even larger soviet forces entering Germany on the eastern side, we would have been lucky to have advanced out of Normandy at this time let alone be finishing the war.

So began another long journey full of apprehension and excitement at what we would find over the border. For the next 2 months we were never static just living out of the trucks and averaging about 5 or 6 mile daily and sometimes, maybe 20 miles if we had stayed put somewhere on Sunday.
The way had been made easy for us at first and we soon slipped through Venlo over the Maas river into Germany. Geldern was the first halt and then we soon went on to Wesel and onto a massive bailey bridge over the Rhine river built by one of our bridging units a few days before under fire with the amphibious assault going in all around them. It had not only been dangerous but those guys would have puffed their hearts out carrying those panels which require 6 sappers, 3 on each side to move, not to mention the skill of holding the pontoons in place against the current. The Rhine in flood at that point is a formidable sight but just for a moment thanks to the sweat and blood of others I could sit up on my tractor and ride across and admire the view.

Wesel was deserted and we stayed for the night with my first confrontation with the remains of a local house.

We had not yet caught up with a field kitchen and had to make do with pack rations and our portable petrol stove to brew up. In some ways it was superior because of all the tins of fruit and bacon and plum pudding and also spam and bully beef. Devastation lay around us as far as the eye could see and one wondered if anyone locally had survived and this house was one of the few that was shattered but not down. There was no clear space on the floor covered with plaster and rubbish so I managed to bag the top of the grand piano for a little rest. It was marginally better than sleeping in the truck on top of the jerry cans full of diesel fuel. Everyone laughed when I turned over as I struck a big base note.

For every fighting soldier there were at least two more handling all the backup and support. We didn't know at that time but we had 350 miles to go to the Baltic coast and many many jobs to do in support of the British 2nd army over the next two months. We still had regular baths and meals and medical checks and post and change of clothing and I was even told to go to the dentist one day to be told I had very good teeth.

I would like to have my 19 year old teeth today as only 3 have survived!!

One day my army glasses fell out of my pocket onto the road behind and the next truck ran over them. As a result I had my eyes tested and was highly pleased to be told I didn't need any more. They had been to correct a squint but you only need one eye to fire a rifle anyway!

After we left Wesel there were no more houses safe to go in and we decided to stay in the trucks and stay in the country as much as possible.

My section were just having breakfast on the verge of the road watching streams of others go by, and as I noticed a staff car or two approaching I bit off a large piece of sausage before I would have to stand up and salute. We had all seen so many pictures of General Montgomery in the past that I froze when I realised who it was at once. There was Winston Churchill with him in the open car determined to be in at the kill of Germany and Monty was showing him around where the main advance had been. Monty was renowned for his care about the moral and welfare of his troops and specially for keeping casualties down to a minimum.General Mongomery stopped the car and waving a newspaper asked me if I would like one and told me in a friendly manner we were all doing a great job. I couldn't believe what had happened but this man although hated by other generals for his cocksure behaviour was a hero to us lads. He could have been knocked out by a shell just as easily as myself at that time.

Despite the stop start progress that now added up to about 50 miles into Germany there were pockets of resistance that the main army and paratroops had simply bypassed on our flanks. These were still firing powerful 88mm shells at us at random not knowing they were beaten.
We had stopped for a tea break in the small town of Coesfeld and I was just walking back with a mugful when one acted automatically. It had that certain whine about it that sounded ominous and I threw myself down against the side of my tractor and lost my tea and the shell hit a building on the other side about 50 yards away. I was lucky that even the shrapnel missed both my vehicle and me by a few yards.

There were quite a few who died within weeks of the wars end after having survived much more than I and I always thought was as unlucky as you can getWe carried on day after day wondering where the civilians were and if any were left and hadn't fully realised that there were some down in the cellars . Although most of the houses were badly damaged the cellars had survived much of the time so unlike what it would have been at home.

The most interesting thing for me was when buildings were still standing in a very dangerous condition, two of us with our armoured bulldozers would get one each side with a thick wire rope in between. We would both rev up and bring the whole lot down between us like a couple of kids .
The hard bit was if you felt you had to go inside and see if anyone was still alive first of all. Suddenly I was up front and saw this bundle on a bed under the covers. Was it dead or was it alive and going to jump out at us. Ready to fire I gave it a kick and happily he was dead.

It was nice to park out in the countryside again for a spell and in the early peaceful Spring morning with a mist lying around it was hard to realise that here in the sleepy farmhouses were members of the so called super race that had declared they were to be masters of most of the world. Some one said it would be nice to get some real eggs for breakfast and I volunteered to find some as I didn't reckon the hens would consider themselves any different to British hens.

The inmates were clearly peering at us through the curtains and were already finding out that the British did not plunder and rape like the soviets or indeed as they had done themselves invading other countries.

We had a mighty fine breakfast that morning and others too and although we were not allowed to fraternize with civilians until a year after the war there was an understanding between us that we all had to try and move ahead in most cases.We did have some rough elements in our unit as anywhere and the worst I got to know about was when a sapper wanted to relieve a lady of a ring and threatened to cut her finger off if she didn't give it to him.

However others interrupted and he was dealt with. Of all the occupying forces the British did set a good example most of the time, and at that time I was very proud to be who I was however small my contribution.

One more misty morning we found ourselves on the banks of the river Weser near Minden and we could not see the opposite bank but we could hear German voices. Even though the war only had a month to run we didn't know that and whether or not they would be hostile so not wishing for trouble we withdrew and didn't wait to find out.

Lives did not need to be wasted.

And so we went on sweeping up the debris of war with our circus of equipment and wondering what the next day would unfold.

508 company trod through areas so familiar to generations of future Rhine army such as Munster, Osnabruck. Minden, Hannover, Celle, Luneburg and Lubeck. Had any of the current youth of our country been able to join us they would have been stunned at what was achieved without the need for computers although later on as a clerk in the army myself I have to admit some of those army forms were baffling.

Lubeck still had a charm despite bombing, and as I sat with my old pal Billy Ward on a seat over looking the long sandy beach not far away I could not believe what I had lived through.

It was early May and the peace had just started and there were civilians strolling over the sands as if there had never been a war.

I was to be suddenly reminded what it was all about when I was detailed to go to a field and keep an eye on over 1000 prisoners soon to be processed into peacetime.

You never knew if one or two officers could still be behaving badly and at 19 almost on my own I don't think one rifle would have helped much if they had.Now the big check up was on for the main culprits and I never heard a single German apologise for the war. In the years ahead the nearest anyone would get was "Your royal family was related to ours and we are all very much alike and we should have never been at war". It all sounded like" we can make war with others but Britain was a pity."IN ACTUAL FACT IN 1938 BRITAIN NEEDED A GEORGE BUSH BY ITS SIDE AND WE WOULD HAVE SNUFFED OUT NAZI GERMANY IN TIME TO SAVE MILLIONS but we did our best and I'm proud of that.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-8.htm. The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-9.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-7.htm

All the Best

Robin

1944/45 The Last Winter Of The War. (part 7)

2005-02-08T14:42:00.000Z

It was hard to imagine that all around us in an area little larger than Kent hundreds of thousands of British and Canadian troops were massing for the final assault on Germany itself with a million and more Americans poised for 100 miles to the south.

I never even thought about the enemy unless you thought of the enemy as our NCOs and officers and all the dirty jobs we had to do in foul weather. We felt secure in this new location as everyone had a roof over their head and all our equipment lay in front of us on the waterlogged square. Six weeks earlier Deurne had been still occupied by Germans but now it could go about its daily business.

One thing for sure was the faith the population of this area had in their catholic religion and it was pleasant to see so many people walking past to the local services where no doubt a little prayer was said for us as well.

Some of us joked that you could tell the time by the direction the people were walking to and from the church.

I knew that there were lads even younger than myself out there in the German forces, forced into a tragic start to their lives in circumstances far worse than mine and I prayed for them in an unconventional way.

Aftr a few nights spent on the floor over a terrace of one time shops, life really improved for me when I was sent to live with the family of a small farm round the corner along with a pleasant guy from Manchester who was a couple of years older than I.

Billy Ward and I spent 3 months together up in this other Mr Claasen's hay loft from mid November to mid February and it was the Ritz to us being part of the family and sleeping in the 2 makeshift beds that they had built for us. Bill was a very friendly guy who stayed my friend right to the end of my service and we are still in close touch today. By coincidence his birthday is the same as my eldest sons born in 1949 so I could never forget it.

Every morning at 6.30 Mrs Claasen would give us a shout up the ladder and so we were never late on parade at 8.00.

Bill was a Coles crane driver which was really specialised whereas I could be given any dirty job that the day demanded. The worst was to clean the tracks of the D7 armoured buldozers after their days work clearing the roads up near the front. The best was driving a dumper to and from the railway station bringing in supplies off loaded from a train.

Once I had to work with a road roller and they were not meant for such rough chewed up surfaces full of slime. I skidded into a rut and couldn't get out and nothing would grip and it just got deeper. One of my pals came up behind me with a tractor to nudge me out, only it was more than a nudge.

The bump cracked the sump and I limped back to base which was fortunately not far away with oil pouring out.

Regardless of the circumstances I was given a week up the front with a road grader as my punishment and I had to sleep in a small hut used for drying tobacco leaves. The artillary was firing most of the time thankfully from our side and one night the leaves that were drying on wires over my head couldn't take any more and shook all over me in the night. I woke up almost suffocated in a sweat for it would have been a sad way to die.

It was worse for one us as his tractor came right off the road into a dyke as the sodden road gave way and even with tracks you needed to be very careful not to end up in a muddy grave such was the state of the terrain before it froze in December.

It was good to get back to the farmhouse in the evening and read all the mail and magazines that I received. I would lie on my bunk and see the frost glistening on the inside of the roof and still feel warm.

We didn't have have to sing anymore in the evening to keep our spirits up as we had done in Mill out in the open looking at the stars.Then we could see flares going up all around us on 3 sides and we were always in danger of being cut off as someone would sing "catch a falling star" and other melodies from the "Inkspots"

Above all it was good to be part of a family and to play with the children who all were very polite and shook our hands when they went to bed.

In the rural areas at least standards had not dropped after 4 years of occupation.

In early December I got a wonderful surprise. We were so sure of our position that it was possible to send troops on short leaves to Brussels and to my amazement my name was down to go there over my 19th birthday for 72hrs on the 16th December. The tourist in me took over again and it hardly seemed possible that I was going to be let loose in a capital city in the middle of a war.

I was taken to a large flat in a smart area and such was my lack of experience of the world, I had never seen a security system on a block of flats where you pushed a button and a voice came back way up top.

I was spending 3 nights with a family whose son was in the RAF having escaped and I thought of him doing a real job of work while I was tucked up in his bed.

At that time unbeknown to me Hitler launched his own birthday present for me in the shape of the Ardennes offensive some 200 miles to the south in an effort to turn the war in his favour by cutting through the country with tanks to cut off everyone in Holland and even reach the coast.

It took everyone by surprise and thousands were killed for a bloody 3 weeks but noone disturbed my weekend of window shopping, and all the great meals and entertainment during the time the offensive had started.

I wondered if they would allow the little boy pissing statue in London and much other rudery that I saw. I wondered what the German troops had looked like as they had been told 3 months earlier we were coming to get them. It must have been wonderful to be one of those who liberated Brussels. Most of all I enjoyed that bed and lie ins after 4 months without one.

Getting back with one of our maddest drivers was much more scary than the war as he was showing off and skidded, nearly landing us all in a canal.

The snow came down and it was a hard Winter for the rest of December until early February which made the movement on the roads better with care and perfect for getting over the countryside. I took a tractor out onto the peat marshes with a trailer to bring in the peat for the locals and had lots of fun trying to back it round corners without loosing it.The locals were extremely undernourished by now and had little energy.

The only things I hated, being rather a sensitive lad, was when they had to slaughter a animal on the cobbles at the back of the house and even going to the loo which was open to the herd who stared back at you.

One day a lone man wandered into my arms over the marshes and it was evident he was a German who had taken himself off without being seen and he must have walked at least 10 miles so the only prisoner I took in the whole war myself was not a very heroic venture.The nearest I can describe that area where we were, would be like the fenlands of Cambridgeshire, and because I like woodlands I would not want to live there today, but the people are sincere and honest and I will never forget them.

Saying goodbye later to our hosts was a hard thing to do.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-7.htm. The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-8.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-6.htm

All the Best

Robin

Into Holland! (part 6)

2005-02-07T13:49:00.000Z

We were all relieved when at last orders came through for many of us to join various units and our bit of the war could begin.

We knew that the enemy had been pushed back far and wide very quickly and we were not expecting to get into any real trouble but we knew nothing of the actual circumstances with "market garden " ourselves. Considering the very heavy fighting that had just taken place to occupy only a small part of Holland it was just as well as we sallied forth in our trucks one dark evening that we were really kept in ignorance of how hard it had been just to the north.

The tree lined straight roads looked sinister in the headlights and I marvelled that the drivers knew where to go.There were lots of little signposts pointing towards one unit or another and the correct one must have been easy to miss. We saw no real faces for mile after mile nor sign of habitation and I begun to realise how scenic our own little island could be even in the south east.

Although it was still only 2 months since I had seen my cosy home I wondered how long it would be before I would see it again. Yet at the same time I thought my tour of Europe was going pretty well as here I was crossing the border into my third country in a matter of a few weeks.

Suddenly we all pulled into a village square and here was the equivalent of a motorway stopover except it was the local school and there were no beds.
Somehow I felt that we were welcome guests in this new country and not just military, as they had already brought out pictures of their royal family that had been hidden away from the occupiers for over 4 years.

I could hear excited children laughing somewhere in the background and we could actually use normal toilets.

You wouldnt think that putting two school desks together to make myself somewhere to sleep would be comfortable but it made me feel great not to be on the ground . It was almost homely and I thought of the children who would sit here not having to listen any longer to nazi lies.

The following morning I crossed to the pump in the playground intending to get a few drops on my face and to my surprise a nun came over and pumped away for me while I managed to get a better wash and so did others.

I saw the name of the village was Beek en Donk and that has always stuck in my mind as the first moment when I realised that my experiences to date were more than just a big adventure.

I found it easier to forget about my lost education as the Dutch people seemed so much more ernest and like our own and made me feel here in the whole world was the most important place to be. Just like liberating part of your own country really except that the real work was being done by my older and more experienced colleagues up ahead of me.

It was a short ride to Mill that morning where I finally was serving with a unit in the field. What an apt name for a dutch village. This was a previous territorial field park company from Newcastle and the powers to be there were far less hospitable than the local population. The geordy accent was totally foreign to me and along with my mate Hedgecock there were hardly any others from the south of England and we were considered to be real softies, which we probably were.

We were all totally under canvass in orchards and as I walked to report in from the vehicle park there was a loud bang. More by bad luck than good management on the part of the enemy the very lorry I had just left behind was now in flames and I realised I had a guardian angel .

Most of my gear went up with it and so it was not a very good start to have to get the quartermaster sergeant to kit me up again. There were rows and rows of mechanical equipment here used to clear up the debris of war and but for the supremacy of the RAF would have been sitting ducks but the odd shell was all that could reach us although the front line was never more than 10 miles away on three sides.

It was terrible weather that October and November with constant rain and hail and to walk anywhere with the waterlogged state of the ground required extreme caution. Someone in our tent was intent on often lighting a small fire at the entrance which nearly choked us all as the smoke came inside and it was necessary at times to lie with your head out of the side under the flap.

There was decking put on the ground in some places but it soon got chewed up and the hardest thing was to carry your full mess tin from the cookhouse without losing everything. It was not easy to keep a rifle in a clean state and to prevent it from being stolen. This was a unit full of tough northern navies and if they had a problem with their weapon they would not hesitate to pinch another. I did in fact have a sleepless night when I lost my belt and I was lucky to get another without being put on a charge.

Many nights were broken by a sudden snap of the wooden apple trays from under one that we adapted to sleep on to keep us from lying on the bare sodden mud. When you lay on one to support you a few inches above the ground it simply did not take your weight more than a couple of nights.

Its amazing how few people ever went sick.

One day I saw a boy Pieter Claasen of about 12 or 13 sitting on a gate waving to me at the end of the field by the road which was lined by a few small houses.
I didn't have a word of Dutch but it was easy to understand that he wanted me to come over and meet his sister who was called Netty and his parents. I had a month of their hospitality in the daytime and we played many card games and gave them a lot of my chocolate. After the war I kept in touch for several years until Pieter himself went into the Dutch army and his mother used to write to me in easy Dutch.

Such friendships sprung up everywhere with the troops and although I lost touch for 50 years, with the help of the internet I have recently found the family again living in another house in the same area and I am planning to have a reunion in the spring of this year. Thanks to them what would have been a miserable rather boring 6 weeks in Mill became something really worthwhile.

In early November part of our unit moved a little further on with me to a larger town called Deaune and life became more active.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-6.htm. The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-7.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-5.htm

All the Best

Robin

Journey Into Belgium! (part 5)

2004-12-15T16:40:00.000Z

At last at the end of august I was on a truck heading inland to the city of Caen or rather where it had once stood . As many will know it was almost totally destroyed by the violent battles and bombing as the allies strove to break out from the bridgeheads.

The roads were also impassable and it was easier to stand on the back of a truck than to get a sore backside by trying to sit.

We were put on a very long line of cattle trucks which could have come straight out of a film about Nazi victims being sent to the concentration camps. To attempt to send so many reinforcements by rail at that time was a massive success for the railway operations of the Royal Engineers gamely assisted by the Pioneer corps who were comprised of the most poorly educated grades of servicemen at that time.

The reason for this was that almost the entire French rail system in the area had been destroyed by the RAF to hold up the German army attempting to roll us back to the channel.

Looking back over the past 60 years I never experienced such a long and uncomfortable rail journey again in my life as we actually took 4 days to travel about 400 miles as the crow flies but due to so many repairs being done to the lines we were shunted around at least twice that distance.

However it was exciting as we never knew if we were going to be held up by hostile elements that had been surrounded and left behind by the rapid allied advance. Although the main enemy army had been torn apart and driven back to the Belgium/Dutch frontier, large garrisons were still occupying the channel ports to our left where the launch sites of the flying bombs were still attacking the SE of England.

Each wagon had a lookout post at the end and it was manned by one of us round the clock.
The first hundred miles were full of the smell of rotting animals in the fields and I was glad to get further north to see pleasant communities undamaged by war.

We went well wide of Paris but things got quite exciting as we came to Lille to the North after 3 days of stopping and starting and trying to snatch a few hours sleep here and there. Many hands were stretched out to us as we jerked along at about 15 miles per hour and we seemed to do a complete loop of this city before we left it behind.

You still had to shave etc. on a regular basis and once when we stopped I climbed out and put my mirror on the ledge at the side of the wagon to have a nice quiet shave. It always took a while to lather up in cold water and I nervously looked down the line towards the steaming engine hoping it would give me plenty of time. Suddenly there was the usual hoot to warn we were on the move again but instead of waiting a few seconds the whole train jerked into life and I was left running to get on with my face full of soap. Quite a few faces were splitting their sides with laughter as they pulled me aboard and I'm pretty sure the engine driver did it on purpose as we came to a halt again only half a mile further on.

After another day of listening to the click clack on the rails I discovered we had arrived at the Belgian garrison town of Bourg Leopold.There was an enormous air of hustle and hassle as thousands had recently passed through here on the operation "market garden" which was the attempt to break through as far as Arnhem and shorten the war before winter set in.

I was fast learning to be surprised at nothing and the next thing I knew was that I was to sleep in the old cavalry barracks in the actual mangers where the horses used to eat. There we were lying on the new straw just as if we had been a bunch of stallions. We still had no constant unit and were still part of the reinforcement holding operation.

I was in this town for much of September wondering what would happen next and we ordinary chaps knew nothing of what was going on with the war outside the area. As it happened a great deal was going on and the war lords had too much on their hands to keep us informed.
This period was improved by two pleasant events.

I was in the middle of washing my smalls in a canvas bucket when a young Lieutenant in the Service Corps who were the transport people came up to me out of the blue.

Colleagues around me of a similar lowly form of army life gaped to see this officer shake me by the hand and address me in such a familiar manner. Somehow my young cousin Charles Brown on my fathers side who was only about 22 himself had been able to find me in all the chaos of war.

His father was the one I had often visited in Croydon and Charles himself had called on us in Herne Bay several times before I was in uniform.

He is now a retired vicar near Sevenoaks.

Feeling elated I clambered aboard his jeep as he offered to take me out and we landed up at a quiet cafe for a good natter.

It was always an amusing memory because when it came to paying he had come down from Holland and had only that currency and I finished up using my Belgian currency.

I made a good friend with another sapper called Ron Hedgecock during my stay here and the pair of us were befriended by a local couple called Cornelius- Broche.

I used to exercise my schoolboy French and we used to get boiled fresh eggs for tea which was something we hadn't tasted for months.

I wished I had kept in touch with them and when I made enquiries not long ago on the internet I had news they had both passed on.

Suddenly in early October the pair of us were told we were off that night to a unit just behind the lines and I felt a little less of a tourist.

I wondered what would have happened to me if I had not been held up on the beaches with that spell in hospital.

I also remembered with some disgust the crowd of guys on our side I had seen locked up behind barbed wire in Hampshire just before I sailed.

They had refused to embark when their turn came and frankly it had not been too bad at all. Why hadn't they gone for another kind of war job at home like the mines instead of making fools of themselves like that.

The comradeship and the good rations and the constant mail from home seemed to make things all worthwhile.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-5.htmThe next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-6.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-4.htm

All the Best

Robin

Into France! (part 4)

2004-12-10T14:39:00.000Z

One august evening when the weather was thankfully fair I was transported with about 150 others to Southampton docks to board a small steam packet called Ben McDwui that in peacetime had plied between Liverpool and The Isle of Man.

None of us belonged to a unit yet and as members of a reinforcement holding company were from all branches of the army. We were all kitted out but we didn't know where we would finish up.

We could see lots of other boats who made the ferrying trip to and fro to France every day but there was none of the drama or danger of the earlier landings and I settled down on the deck to see the Isle of Wight sliding away on the starboard side on my first ever ocean trip, which in those days was a big adventure in itself.

It was remarkable that we were even fed on this trip when the vessel was no larger than the Medway Queen paddle steamer that called in at Herne Bay on its journey between London and Margate in the 30s.

As I climbed down onto the floating Mulberry dock at Arromanches the next morning I felt like a tourist and in my elation I am ashamed to say I did not think at that time about all the thousands of young husbands and sons who had died to make this possible for me.

It all seemed so organised and calm in contrast to what it must have been like in June and much of July.

There was a small air battle going on which even made it feel more like home. Home was under canvass of course but the weather was great and it was only a couple of days before I started to get mail from all my family and friends. What fantastic organisation.

I was kept busy keeping an eye on the thousands of German prisoners in their barbed wire compounds and that too was an amazing side to the organisation that has never been seen since. What a liability and expense to feed and look after all that lot.

We looked well fed, fresh and neat and they looked baggy eyed, half starved and beaten but you couldn't take any chances. Some were younger than I and some well into middle age and you had to guard against feeling too sorry for them as they stretched out their hands through the fence with watches etc. to exchange for a few cigarettes.

On my temporary station I was given a DUKV or "duck" floating vehicle to drive people and supplies around in which was great fun because it can go straight onto calm water and off the field or road if necessary.

We even had evening passes to visit Bayeaux about 8 miles inland, the first French city held safely by our side.

It was a slow trip due to the great congestion and on the way I saw something for the first time that told me I was very definitely not in the UK.

Two girls of mature age had felt too hot in the sun by their farmhouse and were stripped to the waist tipping buckets of water over each other.

I did not have any special friend with me as we had not been static enough to get to know anyone over the past weeks but everyone mixed very easily when with similar rank and I had a great time doing a cafe crawl and seeing the Cathedral and the sights.

I sat out on the pavement with a load of postcards and wrote them for home just like a peacetime tourist. Sapper Brown was enjoying his war whilst hundreds were still dying much further on toward Belgium.

I can still remember the kick that "Calvados" gave me and the shock I got when I suddenly heard a shot ring out. The military police came by and told us to take cover as several French women in the area were actually sniping at us. These collaborators had been too comfortable with their German boyfriends and were still firing at us and being rounded up in the built up areas.

I became a soldier again in a few seconds, hadn't we supposed to have been liberating the French !! I quickly thumbed a lift back to the beaches and as I climbed up the back of one of our trucks I found myself very much closer to the German army than I had bargained for. I hoped they all had been properly disarmed as I stood with my one rifle in amongst at least 20 more prisoners as they could have easily dealt with me if they hadn't been really keen to get out of the war.

In a couple of days I was on a draft to join a unit which was already in Belgium when I suddenly got some terrible stomach pains which I had never had before. Again the efficient army acted quickly and I found myself in a field hospital diagnosed as having yellow jaundice whatever that was.

I was there for a week feeling very secure in the care of female army nurses who must have thought I was skiving and all the rest of the guys I was supposed to be with left without me. So far I had been of no use to his majesty's forces in France but it had been an interesting fortnight.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-4.htmThe next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-5.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-3.htm

All the Best

Robin

Into Battle ! (part 3)

2004-12-09T01:05:00.000Z

This was not the kind of battle that was being fought over in Normandy and I quite enjoyed it because I felt useful, but there were no age limits on this side of the channel and babies and children were killed along with the rest on a daily basis.

In July 44 I had been taking part in an exercise on Wimbledon common involving an assault course and earthworks and as I was having a breather as my dad used to say I heard a noise quite different to any ever heard during the Battle of Britain dogfights. It sounded like an exhaust was just about to fall off a car and a small plane appeared seemingly on fire.

Instead of ducking and weaving to avoid the anti aircraft fire and a chasing spitfire that could barely keep up, it bore straight on quite unconcerned. Not surprising as there was no one on it.

Suddenly the nose dropped as the motor shut off and we thought it had been hit and brought down. NO SUCH LUCK !! for we were witnessing the worlds first jet propelled flying bomb as it came down into a densely populated area of London at random. A cloud of black smoke arose about 2 miles away and the dirty surprise was done.

This was Hitlers last ditch secret weapon attempt to crush the South East of England in the hope that it would stop the tide that had now turned so completely against him.

There was no real steering on these bombs and the RAF made gallant attempts to come up alongside and tilt the wings sideways with their own wings to turn it away from the London area without blowing themselves up with the 1000lbs of high explosive next to them in the process.
Many were not successful.

My detachment of sappers were ordered to do all possible to help the civilian population along with thousands of others and it proved to be a very apt training for the time when I would be sent to France.

We were put in a large air raid shelter in SW London and had to report daily to the Brixton town hall where we told to go to certain streets to do what we could. One good aspect was that the doodle bugs as they were called by the Cockneys seldom came over at night so at least we could get a nights sleep.

During the daytime there was no air raid as such as in the previous years as they just kept coming randomly, several at a time all day long.

A car bomb in London today would give the effect of just one flying bomb and hit the headlines all over the world so let us try to remember what it was like to have 50 or more such attacks in a single day. Some would go off course and hit other towns and villages in the home counties.

At that time my darling wife of today was still a baby living in SE London with her mother, while her father was a military police sergeant already serving in France, having done a hard stint in the North African desert.

It was about 6 weeks not without humour. After all said and done London is a vast place and it fascinated me for the first time at the age of 18.

Many of the buildings had been evacuated by the time we reached them and people just wanted us to retrieve some of their furniture and take it out to relatives in the country. I swore I would never work for a removal firm when I got out of the services!

There was one little old Jewish couple who were so upset about their grand piano up in the top flat of a 4 storey building. Three of us swore and puffed to get that piano down all those stairs and round all those corners and it played a funny old tune on the way. Well a certain trio of very inexperienced mechanical equipment sappers made it in the end to drive out to Hertfordshire with most of their other belongings.

I was lucky to have an uncle on my dads side and family not far away near Croydon and what little time off I did have found me in their peaceful home with a billiard table whilst their own lads were overseas and one was in a German prison camp.

I also made my debut on the Streatham ice rink and found that even though I could roller skate a bit this was a lot harder.

Before the 2nd blitz on London ended I was sent in August to a reinforcement holding unit in Hampshire to live under canvass and to prepare for overseas posting.

Although we were now 2 months after D day and the allies had broken out from the Normandy bridgeheads we were still sealed off away from any civilian contact in secrecy as part of 8th Corps who were some 150,000 troops. As far as the British were concerned this was a very big reinforcement behind the 30th Corps and 12th Corps who had fought so hard in the assault on Europe and who were now chasing the enemy back to Belgium.

The French money looked interesting and there many discussions as to what we would buy with it. All the discomforts of service life were washed away by the thought of what excitement lay ahead on my very first trip away from the UK. It didn't seem very unusual at the time that I was still only 18 and 8 months after a year in the army and a year in the home guard and holder of the UK defence medal.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-3.htmThe next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-4.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-2.htm

All the Best

Robin

Off to War! (part 2)

2004-12-08T19:43:00.000Z

I left several friends, well-wishers and family behind at London Kings Cross standing all the way enroute for Preston to join a company of basic training recruits in August 1943.

We were starting to win the war at last in North Africa and the Med but I soon found that it was no personal joyride with the Kings regiment of Lancashire who were bent on knocking us teenagers into shape.

I was greeted at the barrack gates by a "Where the hell have you come from The Halle orchestra ! Get a bloody haircut" and I wasn't yet even kitted out in uniform. The next morning I was reported for having shaving cream behind my ears and had to scrub the floors in the officers' quarters. The glamour of joining up as a volunteer suddenly faded, but already in a few days I had many letters from friends and relatives that boosted my morale.

It took 6 weeks to pass out at this course spent mostly on the sand dunes of the coast at Formby. It was a good job I was fit with all the full gear we had to run in along the dunes taking care not to get a dirty rifle barrel.

Sunday was always peace and I used to take myself off to explore the countryside for I had never seen real hills and small mountains before.

I went right up the Pennine summits having gone as far as I could on fascinating rural single track railways. One day I stood at a bustop and an old lady who lived nearby came out of her house to invite me in for tea and I quickly found out that the northeners were far more hospitable than people down south. She had no fear of a complete stranger and I must have seemed really young to her.

I made the mistake of worrying about my broken education and and had brought a load of books with me into the army world but 2 kitbags was soon too much to carry and they were later much reduced.

I had to cross from one Liverpool station to the other on my first journey home on leave and I always remember how a man of about 50 which was old to me then picked up my extra kit bag and put it on his bicycle to walk with me across the city. You never forget kind people.

I was very pleased at the end of that 6 weeks to be told that my wish to join the Royal Engineers had been granted.
It felt a bit safer compared to the infantry at the time but in fact I could have been entirely wrong there. My grammar school education short though it was had proved a bit of a help here. Even more was the fact that I had spent a year helping a close friends farmer father drive his tractor.

To my amazement I found that I had to report to Kitchener barracks Chatham no more than 30 miles from home to Herne Bay but later in the 12 week course I was soon disappointed as I was only granted one weekend home in all that time.

When I visit the RE association meetings now as a life member in Chatham at nearby Brompton barracks, the serving members find it hard to believe that we used to sleep in rows on straw mattresses on a cold concrete floor. We also had no hot water and we had to be checked in by 11pm at night as reveille was at 5:45

I was stupid enough to let it be known I had played hockey at school so I had my Saturday afternoons ruined by being ordered to play with the officers.

My family had friends just over the river in Frindsbury and I had a steady girlfriend there and not only do I still know the same family today, one of whom got killed in the RAF but she gave me tremendous support for the next 3 years wherever I went in uniform. Everybody did of course and I cant praise the postal services and canteen services and clubs enough who all helped us so much.

The biggest item about being in the Medway towns was the river where we were out on the pontoons daily learning to build bridges. Even though I was not a swimmer it did not worry me on the water because of all the discipline and organisation around me. I enjoyed the rowing having done a bit on the sea at home.

Now at 18 and Xmas just over I was sent on a variety of mechanical equipment training courses on all the kind of things used in road construction. I was not at all happy with a thing called an RB20 with an enormous bucket and dragline and nearly pulled the wrong leaver and brought the whole thing jib and all crashing down. The Irish instructor scared the daylights out of me.

Next came a nice little posting to the Isle of Sheppey even nearer to home and yet so far, driving a dumper which was my first experience of driving on the road. We were repairing the airfield and I could see Herne Bay pier over the sea on a clear day. However the best thing was that we were a very small section billetted in a commandered private house and even though we had to sleep on the floor it felt so much more civilised.

Suddenly I was taken away to the midlands somewhere and it was a unit preparing for the invasion of Europe but of course I didn't know this at the time. The next thing I knew was that I was summoned to the COs office wondering what I had done wrong or was about to hear.

"We've made a mistake about your age sapper and thought you were 6 months older and we are having to send you somewhere else .You are not to discuss this with anyone else". This was a fighting unit and I knew you had to be 18 years 6 months to be shot at and so I knew something was afoot.

Next in the early summer more by chance than intention to be kind to me ,I am sure, I was sent to a special unit in a grand country house at the village of Nutfield on the Kent side of Redhill right on the same 410 bus route that went straight through Biggin Hill where my parents lived on its way to Bromley. I could often get home in the evenings without even a special pass and as the last bus back at 10pm only went to a garage 4 miles short of my billet I enjoyed some high speed walking at the end of lovely summer days.

At this time the D Day landings were announced and we all knew how lucky I had been that the error in my age had been noticed for at that moment I was still just 10 days too young to get killed.

However we all know other mistakes like that have been overlooked in the past.

This article is repeated from http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-2.htm

The next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-3.htm and the previous chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-1.htm

All the Best

Robin

Getting To Know Me: A brief outline of my life (part 1)

2004-12-08T10:21:00.000Z

My father was one of seven in a poor South London Baptist minister's family who succeeded in going to Westminster School and from there graduating to Christs Hospital, the famous Blue Coat public school now in Horsham.

Born Dec 1925 the son of an actuary who was gassed and injured in WW1 I grew up in the small sea side resort of Herne Bay Kent and lived in a small cottage one mile inland with open views over the golf course. It was a very quiet area but my small private grammar school was only a few yards down the lane. There were some boarders who came from all over the world.

It was close to the main bus route to Canterbury and that was the most exciting place in my young days together with Christmas trips to stay with relatives near London and their visits at Easter time

The winter could be lonely apart from some good neighbours but during the summer I spent a lot of time rambling on the downs and promenade by the sea.

In 1936 I remember the excitement of the Munich war scare and how we all got identity cards being so close to the continent and how I hated trying out my gas mask.

My favourite subjects at school were geography, English and even maths but I hated Latin and French.

I played Rugby football, hockey and cricket and excelled as a wing three quarter as I was a sprinter and the fastest in the school at 12.

We had a good sized garden and ate in it a lot in the summer and my family were also local teachers and we did have a lot of private pupils and friends come up the small path off the lane to see us.

My sister Betty Joy was brought up by another friend near London due to my fathers earlier illness throughout my young life and I missed her a lot as she was only one year younger.

In those days we were still in short trousers at 13 but when war came I went into long pants overnight and came back from a Baptist church summer camp near the cliffs of Dover in a rush.

I was a patrol leader of the swift patrol in the local school scouts and given the honour of being the company scribe.

Quite suddenly half the school was taken over by the army and I was summoned to the headmasters office to be told I was to be a messenger runner with my bike for elements that were organising underground resistance in the event of an invasion.

This was exciting schoolboy stuff and rather different to the three previous occasions when I had to suffer a whack on my backside with a slipper which is unheard of today.

I spoke some German learnt from a next-door neighbour who was in fact formerly Dutch and she used to give me lessons as she had a lot of friends out there. In addition my best friend at school was a German Jewish refugee with his family fleeing from Hitler. He had to go to the States due to the invasion threat and we are still in touch today.

At 14 in 1940 I spent long hours watching the luftwaffe passing over and being shot down from the garden. I used go and collect bits of aircraft afterwards and we used to compare our trophies at school.

We had no air raid shelter and had to crouch down in our small hall for safety several times, listening to the whine of a bomb. They missed us and fell on the golf course a quarter of a mile away and that was all part of normal life.

In 1942 ay 16 I joined the local home guard and used to go on duty at night patrolling a lonely stretch of the nearby coast with a school friend.

I was fully armed with a Lee Enfield 303 rifle and 50 live rounds and it all stood in my bedroom when off duty, my family soon got used to the idea that I was no longer a school boy who used to scare them with an airgun.

Many of my school friends were farmers sons and used to shot guns. Sunday morning was machine gun practise from the top of the cliffs and my first pints at the local for 6 pence.

Nights were often exciting watching the searchlights chase the bombers and wondering if I would have to help to round up baled out enemy aircrew.

Some of the older school members had already been killed. One lady we knew had lost both her sons in the air in their early 20s.

My school folded up when I was just 16 and I never could take any exams and the future was very uncertain.

Jack Wood of Canterbury who was my best friend got his father to let me help with the harvest in 1942 when I was 16 and I got to drive the tractor as well. It was the first time I had done any hot sweaty work but it was so satisfying when we had a break to sit and eat his mothers wonderful home made cakes. He paid me One Pound and Ten shillings for a week which was lot of money in those days for a 16 year old and I used to put those notes under a book and just look at them in awe. Compare that with the fact that as a new recruit in the army a year later I only got One Pound and One Shilling weekly.

My father put me into the Shorts seaplane works at Rochester when I was 17 to hopefully keep me as safe as possible so he thought and I lodged with friends walking distance from the job. After 6 weeks I walked out as I could not stand the noise and dirt and smell and I always considered myself to be a clerical type. I felt very miserable about having let him down and later registered for the army instead so I could stop worrying about my future in a sense and be like many others I knew.

Instead of waiting for my call up at 18, I got my papers to report for duty in August 1943 at the age of 17 and 8 months as a volunteer. Its amazing how adventurous one felt at that age but there were plenty of shocks around the corner.

This article is repeated at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-1.htm and the next chapter is at http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/brief-life-story-2.htm

All the best

Robin

Welcome to my Find An Old Friend Blog

2004-12-07T19:30:00.000Z

Most of us have someone or some people in our past lives we would like to find again after many years...

After all, most of us aren't very good at keeping in touch, right?

You know how the years go by .... addresses and telephone numbers get lost!

Luckily I've been quite successful at finding old friends again, through my people finder site http://www.findanoldfriend.co.uk/

This blog focuses on my thoughts and experiences in searching for long lost friends.

All the best

Robin