by Vicky Unwin
I had a very nice ride this evening, we played tennis in the afternoon, but it was far too windy – however, it cleared up later, and 2 of us went out …
I really must stop. I shall be interested to hear what you and Papa think about this CCG [Control Commission]
She was indeed offered a job with the Control Commission as she calls it – at £390 p.a., but they wanted her to start straight away, so she turned it down. ‘They are a queer crowd and have an awfully bad reputation.’ Obviously her middle-class upbringing has rubbed off on her; her mother would indeed ‘know exactly what I mean’.
In the same letter, of 23 June, she goes on to say that she and her friend Betty Mackenzie – who was to remain a friend for the rest of her life – went out ‘sailing all the afternoon with Tom Unwin – he has had some frightful rash, and hasn’t been able to shave for about a week – looks quite fierce!’ This is the first mention of her future husband and my father. He doesn’t sound very attractive! They must have met at the yacht club as my father was a keen sailor. She doesn’t see much of him until about a year later, when she returns to Kiel. In the same breath she talks of a letter from Robin, in Italy, who is riding-mad.
July sees Sheila back in Petersfield for her Signaling course, and it appears she spends the weekend at Deddington in Oxfordshire, with Lady Hobart whom I assume is Robin’s mother, as she has news that Robin will be home the next month and is leaving the Signals to join the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC), although it means dropping a rank to lieutenant. She will be seeing her parents before going back to Germany: her father has a new job: ‘It must be very interesting. What fun if he is able to save a little petrol for when I come – I do hope it won’t all have gone on Rosemary!!!’ The rivalry is never far away, even if the sisters spent some time together in London seeing an Ivor Novello show. She ‘dined on curry’ at Veeraswami’s [sic] after seeing another show with her fellow course attendees.
On her return to Germany she is posted to Hamburg. Now closer to home than Egypt, the lack of suitable clothes seems to be a major preoccupation, but at least mother is on hand to oblige:
Naval Party 1730 c/o BFMO Shading
7.9.45
My dear Ma –
Well, here we are at last in Hamburg! It was awful getting up at 0400 this morning but after we’d been weighed at the RAF place in St James Street it was soon light and we got to Croydon at about 6:30. The plane was a Dakota – all very comfortable with bucket seats and the trip only took 3 hours – we flew over the North Sea, to Holland across the Zuyder Zee [sic] and then North East to Hamburg. The airport is a very modern building – we checked in and went up to have a cup of tea, where an orchestra was already hard at work, even at 11:15am! Of course, there was no one to meet us, so we took a truck into the city to try and get some information. I certainly found it a very attractive place – of course there has been a lot of bomb damage which seems worse than London and I hear the dock area is just flat – but there are lots and lots of trees – and a lot of water – I haven’t discovered whether it is all the Elbe or not – but it is certainly very pretty. It’s extraordinary to see the people – none of them particularly well dressed and most of them look awfully pale and rather yellowish – lots of the men are still in uniform or parts of uniform – nobody takes any particular notice of you – tho’ we did see some Naval officers in the Barracks this afternoon who just stared and stared. We eventually landed up at an RAF movements place – so I rang up Naval movements and an N.O. came round to pick us up – funnily enough someone I had known in Alex – we had tea in one of the NAAFI clubs and then he drove us out to our quarters. We live in the new Hindenburg Naval Barracks – which have only been built 10 years or so. They are large blocks of buildings all named after admirals (Ramsay is next to ours, which I believe is Grenville) there must be hundreds of sailors here – our office is just a stone’s throw away, but we haven’t ventured near yet. Our anteroom is awfully nice – beautiful carpets and chairs, and, at the minute, masses of flowers (we have a German flower decorator who does them for us!) food is army rations but seems quite OK – we get Danish butter and eggs.
Our stable companions seem a cheery crowd – they have only been here 3 weeks themselves from Brussels. Life is hectic and I’m afraid we can’t help laughing at them as it seems to have gone to their heads a little. Even the plainest and fattest seem to have several boy friends to choose from! We have the Sadlers Wells opera here for 3 weeks, so we hope to go but you aren’t allowed out at all without male escort. There appears to be hockey and tennis, all equipment provided – also in Hamburg is a wonderful leave hotel which is apparently the last word and where everyone comes for a 48 hours – we also have a country club as well. All seems to be laid on – I have just had a bath which was heated by a wood stove, like the one that burnt an F on Kay Way’s behind, needless to say I was most careful! Should hate to be branded for life!
I hate my battle dress and should be so grateful if you could send me the better of my 2 uniforms at home and also my old navy shorts, I tried to get some in London, but couldn’t – is the new zipp I bought anywhere around? For I must put it in – Did you get the towels and H.W.B [hot water bottle]? I had an HWB given me from comforts – I am enclosing £2 now with which I hope you will buy a library ticket and anything else you want – as a birthday present – I have provisionally arranged to draw £10 each month and have the rest paid into my bank – less the £1 allotment to your Bank. I don’t know how it will work and I don’t suppose I shall need £10 a month – but I shall leave it like that and see what happens.
Is there any chance of you getting some starch – none here at all, and all my collars are stiff?
Must stop now – with heaps of love
Sheila
In addition to the request above, on 27 September Sheila asks for:
… bedroom slippers – sheepskin would be nice – but I’m really not fussy – tho’ I do draw the line at those ones with pom poms on the front – no, if you can’t get sheepskin – then I think I’d rather have those felt ones men wear [she draws a picture] you know – we saw some in a shop in Durham for only 8 or 9 shillings – in a camel shade and I could put the warm soles inside them – Also – here is a plea for more clothing – could you please send me my navy pleated skirt, heavy brown walking shoes – navy suede shoes, like yours, with tongue. Some stockings (those 2 lacy lisle) and a couple of pairs of silk (not my best).
There is a leave centre at Bad Harzburg where they go for 72 hours rest and relaxation every three months or so, and where they are allowed to wear ‘civvies’.
Meanwhile Hamburg life, like everywhere, is full of tennis, riding – ‘only 2/6 per hour – very cheap!’ – and socialising with the navy, the RAF and the army. There are gymkhanas and sailing regattas, hockey matches and skating in winter. But here, in Hamburg, there is also the ballet and good music and Sheila is delighted to go to The Marriage of Figaro and many other concerts, including The Messiah and a lieder performance with Elisabeth Schumann, who sang Strauss’s Three Songs. We played one of them at Sheila’s funeral.
I am amused by the reference to Anne Bridge in the next letter – my mother was to collect all her books during the 1940s and 1950s and I still have them today. The saga of the wool for Bruce’s jumper is to be long-running: she mentions it no fewer than eight times in two months! In fact it only arrives in early December, leaving her scant time to finish the jumper and get it to Egypt for Christmas.
At last we have an update on Sheila’s love life, and which boyfriend is in the ascendency, even if she is still enjoying the neverending round of parties and dances in the company of new friends:
Hamburg
23.9.45
My dear Ma –
As I expected a letter from you today which I was pleased to have – if Rosemary goes out to Egypt I have told her to try and get me some more of my wool, but I should imagine it’s a very vain hope – If you do see any more that matches I must say I shou
ld like it – in the meantime I am knitting a pullover for Bruce which is taking great strides as I do it on watch – I need 4 more ounces of each of the others to finish them.
…Yes, the parcel arrived OK and I wrote off a postcard telling you, which I hope you have now had. The suit has been duly pressed and has already been worn at a party on Friday in a Gunners’ Mess – The Anne Bridge book has also arrived, which I am devouring now – and also the invitation to Aenid’s wedding which of course I can’t go to, isn’t it disappointing?
Bruce has not yet decided what he is going to do, but will have to make up his mind soon – In the meantime things are progressing most favourably, so for heaven’s sake keep your fingers crossed!
... I have met some people today who have been to the Belsen trials which are held at Lüneburg, near here – Horrible and beastly as they must be – I must say I should very much like to go to see what these people really are like. I believe there is a slight chance I might be able to –
I have moved upstairs to a new room with Kay Pollock, an Irish girl whom I like very much – she is awfully pretty, gay and amusing, so we get on very well. She makes me laugh so – she is longing to meet a heart throb and wherever we go we seem to meet the dullest of the dull! Did I tell you Betty Sinclair, a girl who was on my course, is a great friend of John Pritty’s sister, Maureen, the deaf one. I said nowt, but quietly asked if she knew where her brother was, and she said she thought he was going to Australia but had never heard whether he had or not. He’s probably demobilised now anyway, Hope so! Heaps of love,
Sheila
27.9.45
My dear Mama –
Thank you so much for your letter which arrived all unexpected-like – what a lot of news, more than I can supply from here – I think.
… I think I forgot to tell you that the First Lord was over here the other day, and we all had to turn out for an inspection – He gave us the usual pep talk – doing a wonderful job etc. etc. but I don’t think many people were very impressed – everyone out here is very chokker as there is so little work to do and they all feel they ought to be demobilised quicker – we also had the C in C over here and he came to our mess for drinks. I’m afraid I didn’t make a very good impression as when he asked me where I came from I said Durham in an absentminded sort of way he nearly passed out, as of course he meant what ship – However, we righted that and then the conversation varied to hats versus berets – and I was informed that my hair was on my collar and all too true it was, too! We have the Director coming to visit us tomorrow – but as I am off to the hairdresser this morning, don’t think I should offend!
We played tennis yesterday on a simply lovely court where I believe the German Championships used to be held – It had an excellent surface and was surrounded by poplar trees. On Saturday I am going to the Sailing Club’s regatta dance and a cocktail party on Monday. I’ve not met anyone at all I really like – hence, when one hears stories of so and so having a marvellous time, out with a different man each night – it just don’t mean nothing! Actually most people here are out the whole time – I must say I do like those people in the mess very much – everyone gets on so well and there’s an enormous amount of fooling around –
Thank heavens the electricity is on again and I can do my ironing – twice it has gone off on me and I’ve been held up 2 days – No hot water this morning either – stokes must have gone on strike.
So, no more now – away to the iron!
Heaps of love
Sheila
Sheila did get to the Belsen Trials as she had intended and they made a strong impression on her. I can feel her discomfort growing in these letters at the standard of living enjoyed by the services, not only far beyond that of the vanquished Germans, but also way above those at home who were to struggle with rationing for some years to come. It perhaps goes a little way to explaining why she and my father hit it off when they finally met properly: a shared disillusionment with the price of peace:
Hamburg
7.10.45
My dear Ma –
I don’t think I have written for quite a time – due to the fact, I’m afraid, that I never seem to have a moment to spare, and a disinclination for letter writing on a night watch … Your letters lately seem to be full of the dead and dying and you will get me all depressed!
I have had a very busy week, to a cocktail party on Monday, on Wednesday out to dinner with Daphne Satchell, another 2/O, to a Sappers’ mess, whom I have met – for a quiet evening, consisting of a huge dinner, and sitting round a log fire in the twilight listening to music, Chopin mostly. It was heaven, see we have no time at all.
On Friday I went down to Lüneburg to attend the Belsen Trials, we have been given a pass for 4 till the end of the trials, and it was most interesting. Lüneburg is about an hour and a quarter run from here – through the outskirts of Hamburg, where I have never seen such bombed streets in my life – they have to be seen to be believed – rows and rows of rubble lined roads – not a thing left standing, with grotesque twisted girders here and there – and perhaps a fragment of a house every few hundreds of yards. Absolutely frightful. However, we got to Lüneburg in the pouring rain (most fitting) and were led into the court room, which was not at all full – it was arranged in a square – the Judges, 2 Army brass hats, and a bewigged gentleman, sat opposite the accused, 50 of the most bestial and terrible looking people I have ever seen – who had large numbers hanging round their necks. They looked more like animals than people, and as we walked in, most of them stared with curious bravado, to which we stared hard back. Irma Grese8 was No. 9, and true to descriptions, she is a glamorous bit of work with very long ash blonde locks hanging down her back – We heard 2 statements made by her on capture read by the prosecution – and all the accused were intently following from the papers they all had – they chattered to each other and some of them even smiled in conversation – it seemed extraordinary. A similar statement by Dr Klein, the Belsen doctor, was also read out and statements by 2 officers of the accused, but I don’t know who they were.
Anyway, what they said was enough to send the whole pack to the gallows – We thought we were going to hear one by Kramer, but it was held over till the following day. He looked a thug pure and simple, very much like a monkey, with close set eyes, and dark cropped hair. I shall never forget how they all stared at us, it was just horrid. I am hoping to go again next week after some of the others have been – and I think everyone round here should be made to go once, so they can realise what has been going on. We have all been having fierce arguments about the Germans, really, one doesn’t know what to think, they all say ‘oh I was not a Nazi - but was powerless to do anything’ but it seems to me a pity that someone didn’t rise up – I’m afraid I just don’t believe they didn’t know what was going on in the concentration camps, which they say they didn’t. However on the other hand, I can’t bear to see them all so hungry, as they are doing – with so much food which we leave over, being just thrown away. Our German cook here was caught taking away scraps of food from the barracks, and has been sent to prison for 6 months or more – that seems to me wrong – We are not allowed to feed our German stewards, and last night we were being driven to a most sumptuous party by a German driver who said he and his wife got 4 bits of bread each a day which they gave to the children – much as one realised how wrong the Germans have been and what they are responsible for, it does no good starving them when there is the food for them to have – especially the children as they are the ones that are going to be the Germans of tomorrow. It’s all a very complex question which we are forever arguing.
This party I went to last night was amazing – such food I’ve never seen the likes of – with ices and cream – anything to drink you wanted, including a wonderful egg and mild flip with brandy all mixed up in it. There were a lot of German civilians there – who I don’t know. I’m all against mixing with them at social occasions!
To go from the sublime to the
ridiculous – I have got you 5 packets of jelly which I will either send or bring – Must stop now,
With heaps of love,
Sheila
Sheila’s ticket to the War Crimes Trials at Lüneburg.
The party-going continues. So impressed was she by this party in early November that she stuck the menu in her scrapbook, but she remains torn about the morality of such excess:
I’ve had another busy week – on Monday night I went to a dance given by the local Navy in the hotel where they live, a luxury place where nearly everyone has a suite plus private bathroom – When it came to the buffet supper I couldn’t believe my eyes, a room with tables on their sides laden with every possible kind of delicacy I’ve ever known, caviar, lobster, smoked salmon, chicken, pork, venison, ham, in fact nothing was left out – everything was most beautifully served, mostly in aspic; hams had anchors painted on a coating of white jelly, lobsters arranged on a plate whole with small cases of dressed lobster all round – an in another room close by there was nothing but oysters! Small wonder that I, in my excitement, tossed a whole dish of lobster down the front of my best suit!! (luckily we scraped and rubbed it off straight away and it’s none the worse!) Added to this, there was everything you can think of to drink – from champagne to liqueurs – I also saw to my horror, eggs, not by the dozen, but by the score, being shelled and whipped into cocktail. I also drank the cocktails, the whole thing was incredible – fantastic – and to my mind should never have been allowed to happen – I cannot think that it’s right to have such sumptuous feasts while the rest of Europe starves, but what can one do about it?