Sam also asked Eddie to repair his wife’s washing boiler, as she took in washing from the better off ladies of the district. It was an old-fashioned type of copper, which sat on a crumbling brick surround, so Eddie took it out and built her a new surround which held the copper in better.
To make a little extra money, Eddie went to build a vault in Landican Cemetery at the request of a local builder. Skilled tradesmen were at a premium then, either away in the services or on essential war work. It was getting dark before he would finish and, as the funeral was scheduled for the next day, he asked the verger if he would fix up a light for him to continue to work by. The labourer whom Eddie had employed to help him made his feelings plain.
“When it’s dark I’m off,” he had said, his eyes round with the thought of having to be in such a eerie place, with the owls hooting in the dense dark trees that surrounded it and granite angels staring at him.
Eddie had shrugged, it wasn’t the dead who could do you the harm, it was the living. Wasn’t Hitler and his cohorts doing just that every day?
Returning to Scotland from his leave, Eddie was put on guard duty at the Main gate. There was quite a lot of traffic passing by at one point in his shift and he had failed to salute a staff car.
The senior officer riding in the back of the car was quite put out by this lack of respect by a lowly soldier and Eddie was duly reported. He had been quite unaware that a charge had been brought against him and was surprised when he was informed by a superior that he had to attend a Military Court.
His Major, a sympathetic soul, accompanied him and in his position as Eddie’s defending counsel, pointed out that as the accused wasn’t a regular serving soldier, but a ‘call up’ man, he was bound to get it wrong now and again. Eddie was let off with a caution, but after that episode he was always careful to salute anything or anyone who looked as though they warranted one!
He had started making friends amongst the soldiers in his platoon. Mick was one of the older time serving regulars, who advised Eddie to obtain a copy of the handbook, which laid out all of the rules and regulations of the army. He read it from cover to cover and found that he was entitled to a cup of cocoa every night. Armed with this newfound knowledge, obviously something that hadn’t been made aware to the platoon, due perhaps to the cost of serving up the warming drink before lights out, he approached the cook in charge. He was perfectly correct and was entitled also to a wad (an army term for a piece of bread and butter), but woe betide him if he requested it and forgot to turn up for it each night.
One of Mick’s pals in the company was a sergeant, a first class soldier, but liked to go on a bender occasionally. He would lose his stripes for this misdemeanour and be demoted back to rifleman. However, he was such a good soldier that he was soon given his stripes back again. On the other hand, Mick was a connoisseur of good whisky and with there being hundreds of soldiers in the garrison town of Hawick, the publicans had a hard job to keep up with the demands. Mick’s continual complaint was that the Scottish whisky he was served was not as good as the taste of his Irish whiskey, which didn’t go down at all well with the local men and often fights broke out.
The local women, though, did their best to make the soldiers of the garrison welcome by providing a library, a weekly dance and a drop in centre, where those who shunned the taste of alcohol could meet those who had a like mind and drink a warming beverage instead.
Eddie made full use of the library in his spare time and, now that he could read, acquainted himself with the works of many authors, including that of Robbie Burns. He was mindful of Mick’s advice, in the infinite wisdom of a regular soldier, as he sat in the billet reading with his feet up: whilst his mates were whooping it up in the town, he should get all the rest he could now. He also signed on for a course in barbering, as there could be a call for his skill overseas.
Training had started in real earnest when all the men had come back from their various leaves. As it was a rifle regiment the men went out every day to practice on the range. Eddie had difficulty in adjusting to this as he was left handed, but he managed to be at the end of the line, which seemed to assist his aim.
They had been going to the range for a couple of weeks when the Major decided to accompany them to check on their progress. He dropped in beside Eddie and asked to borrow his rifle. He fired a couple of shots across the butts and then asked the soldier in charge to mark them up.
“Two bulls and a magpie, Sir,” the soldier had replied cheekily, and the Major, knowing full well that he had deliberately fired over the target, was very upset at being given a false report and enraged by the men’s apparent laxity. It questioned the sole idea of his checking the accuracy of the platoon’s marksmanship and, crimson with rage, he stopped all further practice for the day. Dismissing the lorries waiting to take the soldiers back to camp he instructed them to march back over many miles to the depot, after lecturing them sternly about the ruthlessness of the enemy and that the only things they would have to rely on in action were their weapons and training should not be taken lightly.
It was a much more dedicated and sober platoon which set out to the range the next day, as every man had taken the Major’s words to heart. This was training for the real thing, not a boy’s day out on a rifle range.
CHAPTER NINE
Telegrams were something that people were very apprehensive about in war time, so when Irene saw the boy coming up her path a few weeks after Eddie had gone back from his leave, it was natural that her heart began to beat quickly with fear.
She opened the missive with trembling hands and, after telling the boy that there wouldn’t be a reply, she watched him ride off on his red bicycle and then went indoors. There wasn’t much to go on in the words that Eddie had instructed for the post woman in Hawick to write.
“Meet me in London as soon as possible”, but if that was what her husband wanted, she would move heaven and earth to meet him there.
Lily, of course, was there to look after Gina and watched with trepidation as her daughter packed the small family suitcase with a change of underwear, a smart brown winter weight dress in case Eddie took her somewhere posh for a meal and took her navy and white checked two-piece suit, still in vogue as no one could afford to wear the latest fashions even if there were any, from the wardrobe, hunting as she did for her best pair of black shoes.
“Gina’s been wearing them, look under the bed in our room,” Lily had said, holding on to her granddaughter tightly, as Gina had spotted Irene’s lipstick and wanted to try it on. She had caught the little monkey trying on her black straw hat only the day before, parading in front of the dressing table mirror with her mother’s high heel shoes on.
“I hope I’ll be able to catch a train,” Irene had said, chucking Gina under the chin tenderly when she came back with the shoes, wearing only her full length petticoat and her navy blouse with the matching necktie. “They might be full, with the soldiers being moved around the country like they are. It must be something very important, though, for Eddie to ask me to go to London as quickly as possible. It might be that he’s off to France, Pierre was saying that something was afoot only yesterday.”
“We’ll all be better off when we get France back off the Germans,” Lily said grimly. “And then them Froggies and Yanks can get back to their families, we can get our loved ones back and that Hitler fellow’ll get his just desserts.”
“Oh Mother, I didn’t know you cared,” Irene said gaily, looking forward to her trip to London, a place she had been many times with her Aunt Jenny when she was younger. “I thought you were pleased to have the run of the house while Eddie was away.”
“I’m talking generally, not just Eddie,” Lily said diplomatically, who wasn’t a great fan of the man that her daughter had married, but enjoyed having the company of Irene and the care of Gina. “This war’s going on much longer than anybody thought.”
Irene managed to get a seat on the train from Lime Street quite easily, after paying her
ten shillings for her return ticket to Euston at the booth. Although there was a great presence of the forces personnel, a seat was found for the pretty young woman as she hovered in the crowded corridor of the train uncertainly. Of course she had to put up with a bit of banter from the men, most of them having said farewell to their loved ones in Liverpool and needing cheering up, but after a while when she purposely got an Agatha Christie book out of her handbag, she was left alone to read it.
It was late that evening when she scanned the crowds from the spot she had chosen, away from the main thoroughfare at the busy London station. Some were dashing along the platform to catch a train, some rushing out to hail a taxi, others like Irene waited patiently, sitting on their suitcases like she was, their faces grim or sad looking depending on their mood.
She spoke to a young woman who had introduced herself as Doreen, who had propped herself up against the stone wall of the building nearby and found that she too was waiting for her soldier husband to come and collect her.
There was a number of women military police walking around the station. One of these seemed to be watching Irene and her companion very closely. All was revealed when Eddie quickly appeared and, taking Irene by the arm, bundled her outside and began to hurry her along.
“Wait a minute Eddie!” she said, stopping resolutely on the pavement, fleetingly wondering why he had not taken her into his arms and kissed her, which most men would have done if he hadn’t seen his wife for a while.“That girl I was with... she’s been waiting all day for her husband to appear and she’s travelled all the way from up north like I have. Would it be possible for us to take her with us, he might leave her there all night?”
Eddie moaned to himself. Here he was giving himself a last chance to say goodbye to his wife, after sneaking out with a few of his fellow soldiers early that morning, after the battalion had been sent in convoys to a field near Gravesend earlier that week, hoping that it wouldn’t be noticed that they were missing that night, knowing full well that they could be court marshalled for going, but willing to take that chance. It appeared now that other regiments had received their marching orders and that was why there was a large presence of the Military, looking for absent men.
“Well, I haven’t booked us anywhere, Irene, we might end up sleeping in a doorway. She’ll be better off kipping in the station, at least he’ll see her there.”
“Don’t be a meany, Eddie. You wouldn’t like it if I was left on my own all night. Besides, I know of a place just down the road from here. It’s not what you would call salubrious, but when aunty and I stayed there once it was nice and clean.”
“Oh, go on then.”
What else could he say? He wasn’t going to start a row when in a few days time the regiment was being sent overseas. Not that Eddie would tell her that, not when there was a real possibility he may never see her again.
So the three of them slept in a small three bedded room, with a primitive toilet consisting of a bucket and a tap on the lower landing and listened to the young wife sobbing herself to sleep under her woollen blanket.
“Well at least it was clean,” said Irene, as they stepped out into the morning sunshine on the way to find the missing husband. They had dressed hurriedly once the sun had come up and once Doreen had been reunited with her husband they intended to go to the The Lyons Corner House for their breakfast. He was there this time, had actually seen Doreen walk out with the Dockerty’s the night before, but hadn’t dared show himself, as he too had left the camp without a pass and was afraid with all the Military police around to come out of his hiding place and meet with his wife.
Irene stole an admiring look at Eddie when she heard his words. Rather than leave his wife in apprehension, Eddie had risked a court marshal to be with her.
After they had left the couple, they set off for the popular eating place, which opened early to cater for the many people from all walks of life who appreciated good food at a reasonable price. Irene having to manage on rations marvelled that it was possible to get a meal at all and was impressed with the service of the scurrying waitresses. Later they wandered around the shops together and Irene found a pair of gloves in Gallerie Lafayette for her souvenir of London.
In the evening, after spending the afternoon wandering hand in hand around a large park and doing a little sightseeing, they checked out what film was showing at a cinema in Leicester Square. They decided to watch ‘For whom the bell tolls’ starring Ingrid Bergman and purchased tickets in the circle costing three and sixpence each, expensive for a couple not accustomed to London prices. They agreed, however, as they came out of the cinema and made their way back to Lyons for their dinner, that the show had been worth every penny, based as it was on Ernest Hemingway’s book about the Spanish Civil War.
Irene had been amazed that Eddie was spending his money as if he had won a sum on the horses, but what he hadn’t told her was that his mates back at camp, knowing he was taking a big chance, but willing to cover for him, had all made a contribution towards his costs. She put it down to the fact that Eddie wasn’t a big drinker, so had been able to save his allowance for a big night out.
Feeling troubled that he was leaving his wife alone, as he really needed get back to camp in case his whereabouts were discovered and Irene had planned to travel back early next morning, Eddie suggested that she went to stay with a cousin by marriage in the Chelsea district of London. The cousin was living in a large flat in Sloane Street with friends and Isabel, Irene’s sister, corresponded with her now and again.
They located Sloane Street and found that the hallway, which the cousin invited them into, was bigger than their small house back home! Irene was made very welcome, as she had met her host and hostess on a previous trip to the capital, when they had lived on Highgate Hill. Perhaps the very hill where Dick Whittington had heard the bells tolling “Turn again Dick Whittington, Lord Mayor of London”.
Eddie, satisfied that his wife would be well looked after for the night, made his return to the camp.
However his absence had not gone unnoticed, as his expertise with the field ovens had been required and the camp had been scoured for his whereabouts, though when he saw the sergeant cook and had got the ovens working satisfactorily, much to the men’s delight, nothing more was said.
The loyalty and support of his mates touched Eddie deeply as he had never encountered men like these before.
Irene had been home four days before the news was released on the radio and in the newspapers that ‘Operation Overlord’ was to be a reality and not one of the best kept secrets of the war. The first wave of invasion troops had already landed on the French beaches.
She learnt later that her host in London was a war correspondent and he had been present at a meeting with Field Marshall Montgomery at the Savoy Hotel, only hours prior to Irene landing on the doorstep.
He had known and Eddie had known that the invasion of France was only days away!
CHAPTER TEN
On Eddie’s return from London, a few days before that fateful invasion in June 1944, the camp was now under canvas and the battalion was being issued with new kit and equipment.
There were visits from distinguished army officers and the men lined up for frequent inspections, but it seemed that only the officers were given something to sleep on, ordinary soldiers were expected to sleep on the ground.
Bemused by this turn of events, Eddie and a few mates scoured the area and found a pile of duck boards in a corner of the field which they commandeered. A few blankets filched from the back of a stationary lorry, ensured their comfort for that first night. However, much later that night the sergeant put his head through the tent flaps and was horrified to find them sleeping in relative comfort, especially as it was the officers’ duck boards they were lying on. They were ordered to take them to the officers’ quarters the next morning.
Not that the officers had chance to make use of them, as it was on the next morning after breakfast that the battalion was order
ed to line up and march down to the dockside, where landing craft waited, rocking gently in the swell of the English channel.
There was a silence amongst the men as they stood there; only the seagulls that circled above an incoming fishing boat could be heard. This was it then. All that training, all that discipline, being deprived of their loved ones to fight this bloody war. Stomachs rumbled as the cook had been stingy with their breakfast, presumably in case of sea sickness amongst them.
There were a couple of Wrens who had been pinning army numbers on the front of the waiting soldiers’ uniforms. Eddie, trying to break the tension, though he felt it as much himself, jokingly asked one of the girls had she any food in her pockets? She ran to her billet and came back with half a leg of lamb! It still had fat clinging to it from when she had lifted it from the roasting tin. He blessed her and gave her a kiss, then jumped aboard his designated landing craft.
She had wrapped the lamb in some paper and the older soldiers in the craft, who had become Eddie’s friends, looked on the parcel with curiosity.
“And what would that be under your arm then, Dockerty?” one of them wondered, as Eddie made himself comfortable and the smell of the lamb began to compete with the fishy smell abounding.
Eddie unwrapped the parcel enjoying the incredulous looks on the various faces as they stared at its contents. Out came their knives and each cut himself a shive and there was very little left when it came Eddie’s way again. He liked to think that it took their minds off what lay ahead of them.
It was not so for the young soldier who lay huddled in a corner whimpering in fear. The men had left him alone, feeling helpless themselves, though they managed to conceal their terror of what might lie ahead of them.
Eddie shook his head and clambered across the others until he reached the young man’s side.
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