Fighting Hitler from Dunkirk to D-Day: The Story of Die Hard Jeff Haward by Jeff Haward MM & Neil Barber

Author:Jeff Haward MM & Neil Barber
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100, HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473855335
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Published: 2015-04-29T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

D-Day and Normandy

The following day I proceeded on fourteen days disembarkation leave, which I spent at my sister Joan’s house in Barnet. I also went to see my mother a few times at Woodford Green. The sister of the door-to-door salesman had had a greengrocer’s shop in Woodford Green, and I can only assume that she died because he ended up with it. This chap and my mother now lived together at the shop. She worked in it, while he had changed jobs and was now a postman, quite a good job.

I then received orders to report to Two Waters at Hemel Hempstead where the 1/7th Middlesex had been billeted. It was an empty housing estate filled with troops. ‘Lofty’ Pearson, now a Major, had taken over command of ‘C’ Company. My old comrades knew that I was rejoining them and so Frank Dollin had organized a tour of the local pubs as a celebration. After having my fair share of beer I returned to the billet, an empty house we had been given and went upstairs to bed. During the night I needed to answer the call of nature and not being used to sleeping in a house for so long, saw a patch of light which I took to be the door and stepped through it. This ‘door’ was an upstairs window and I landed in the garden below. A guard who was patrolling the estate found me in the roses! If I had been sober I would probably have killed myself, but the only damage done was to my ego.

Hemel Hempstead proved to be a delightful town. At first the inhabitants were apprehensive about our arrival. They thought that troops coming back from the desert who knew they were going to be involved in the Second Front, would be getting drunk and causing all sorts of problems, but it was just the opposite. In fact, I actually had a girlfriend there. My mates had fixed her up for me before I arrived back! She was Jewish, a nice girl called Lucy Goldberg, who would come out drinking with us. One day she said, ‘You will have to come home, meet my parents and have a meal. It’s better than Army food.’ So I was taken home a few times. During one of these visits her father said, ‘Don’t get too close to my Lucy, because you’re not one of us. We would never let her marry you.’ I thought ‘arseholes to you,’ but they were nice people anyway. Another day when I was there, a relative of theirs who was in the American Army paid a visit. He was a big chap who was absolutely full of what he was and was not going to do to the Germans. Eventually, as we were sitting at the table having dinner, it became too much for Lucy’s father and he said, ‘For goodness sake shut your big mouth up and listen to this boy here. He’s done it.’ The Yank apologized and kept quiet after that.

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