June
and Derek recall that on V.E. Day in ‘June’ (their memory!) it was raining.
Despite this, there were the inevitable street parties. (*4) Mrs. Attwood
well remembers this day since she received a whole week’s wages as a gift.
She remembers dancing at the Cross in Tewkesbury.’*2) Our witness from
Ripple reminds us that public houses stayed open for days supplying free
drinks until they ran dry! That night she had been working at Ashchurch Camp
on the telephone switchboard putting through calls of complaint about the
noise in Tewkesbury! (*3)
The
realities of peace must have been somewhat more sobering for some; some
people had to make homes in former P.O.W. huts. One grandfather returning in
April 1946 as a Sergeant-Major with shrapnel wounds found his wife living in
a ‘prefab’ in Forresters Road, Prior’s Park.(*12)
When
asked for his reflections on the war, his reply was pithy;
‘ah, happy days!’(*4) Our interviewer of displaced persons in
Germany at the end of the war might emphasise the black bread, ‘which was so
hard that mothers chewed it, then passed it on to their babies’.(*21) Most
of the British survivors were much more positive about the beneficial
effects of the war. One former member of the R.A.F. claims that ‘things
changed for the better for the working class.’ They had their ‘own houses,
cars and holidays’. People realised that they had been deprived before the
war, and so they demanded more. (*2) Tom’s grandmother agrees, pointing out
that, before the war, only the wealthy and well-educated had prospects and
servants. People who had worked in munitions and the armed services refused
to go back to that.
The
new Health Service was seen to be a distinct improvement, as, pre-war, a
doctor had cost 6d. a month. The School Leaving Age was raised by the Labour
Government and ‘working class people who had joined up had their knowledge
broadened by mixing with those of different backgrounds.’ There was another
side, however, to the coin. ‘We didn’t get anything from the war, hut
afterwards life was different. There was a lot more machinery
and life became easier as people moved from the towns
I don’t know half the people any more. The war brought in a lot of
technology.’(*5) Louise’s grandmother might have ‘hated the war’ but
Sophie’s aunt, despite the indignity of the cycling fine, concluded that ‘my
life wouldn’t be what it is now if it wasn’t for World War II’.(*22 & *7)
