He had got through alive

He had got through alive.The codebreakerHilda Buchanen of Macclesfield was 19The day before, word came through to Bletchley Park and everybody went mad. I didn’t know what to do: if I told him I didn’t and he got shot down I would feel terrible I told him I loved him; three days later he was shot down A few years ago I went to see the RAF memorial in Malta. I was completely unprepared for the shockwave of grief that came over me.The revellerJohn Roffey, 75, was in CamberwellWe were all listening to the radio and mother said: “Come on, let’s join in the excitement and get on the bus!” I was 15 My father went to work He wouldn’t believe the armistice until it happened. We walked down to Buckingham Palace and stood by the railings with a seething mass The King came out and a huge cheer went up Then he brought forward Winston Churchill.

I was on a train to Newcastle when I heard the next day would be VE Day. I wasn’t bothered, I just wanted to get home and get as much food as I could I got home to my mother and sister at 2am My father was still with the Army in Germany. It was heaven to see my family again, but I was absolutely exhausted so I spent most of VE Day sleeping.The girlfriendPat Keel-Diffy, at 19, was studying artFor us, there was nothing to celebrate My brother was shot down over Malta in 1941 A Canadian airman I was fond of was shot down too. On New Year’s Eve 1943 a friend in bomber command phoned to tell me he loved me. He did, and while he was sleeping, she died.They had loved each other against the odds, those two, and were together until the end. Hard as it was, if anyone had offered them that future on VE Day, 1945, as Vi danced in London and Bert stood on duty in Germany, I think they would have taken it.’My Father Was a Hero’ by Cole Moreton is published in Penguin paperback this weekThe POWJohn Hipkin, 78, lives in NewcastleI went to sea as a 14-year-old cabin boy on a merchant navy tanker, which was sunk a month later 600 miles off Newfoundland We were taken to Stalag 10B in Germany, a dreadful place The camp was liberated in April 1945.

“If, on the third day, she serves the same thing up again, deal with her in the same way as the pudding.”Bert did go home He and Vi had five children in all, my aunt and uncles. They stayed together all their lives, despite poverty, illness and her crippling depression. Then, when Vi had been ill for a long time, she told Bert one night that he really ought to leave her alone in her makeshift room downstairs and get some proper sleep in their old bed. They voted for the radical government of 1945, inspired by the likes of J B Priestley who urged returnees to throw off the old shackles of class and expectation and fight for a better world. Talk about pressure.A guide to civilian life warned that rations would be short.

Lunch, it said, only half-joking, would be “bone soup, fried bread rissoles coated with breadcrumbs, and bread-and-butter pudding.” The advice was, “Always praise to the skies anything your wife gives you”, but when she was not looking, throw the pudding out the window. Grandchildren love enough to ask questions but don’t know enough to prejudge the answers. To me, Bert was an ordinary private marched from dangerous place to dangerous place over six years then told, “Thanks, son. Here’s 56 days’ pay and a bad suit, now hop it.”The first soldiers, sailors and RAF personnel began to be released from service on 18 June 1945. Four million people had worn uniform during the war, and when victory was declared the Minister for Labour and National Service, Ernest Bevin, said he hoped to have 750,000 of them back in their old clothes by the end of the year.