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Show LE LI ERI TEA DALE ugu t 16 2001 could get. ometimes there was only five or six of us on a plane. But they flew us back aero s the channel. The plane I was on- I think it was a Wellington bomber- and I was in the center gun turret. The pilot called us all up, one by one, into the cabin when we went over the Cliffs of Dover so that we could see the cliffs going over, back home. And that was it. We got a reception at the RAF. We landed at Wing near Ammershim, and they gave us a big welcome, and a meal, and all that sort of thing. I remember hanging a pair of binoculars, German binoculars, that I was bringing back as a souvenir. I remember hanging them on a chair, and I walked out without them. So I lost them. And we were given six weeks leave. In the meantime, I'd been engaged when I came away to a nice girl, and we were going to get married when I got back. She couldn't wait for me. She wrote me a letter and said, "How long are you going to be?" What a thing to ask a guy that's in a prison camp. How long are you going to be? I said, "Well, look, if you're getting tired of waiting send the ring back to my parents just to make it legal," which she did. And after six weeks all the prisoners were sent to rehabilitation centers to see whether we'd been affected mentally, or physically, by our captivity. And they sent me up to the north of England, to Newcastle. Now, I'd been halfway around the world, what with this trip around Africa, and out in Europe. I'd been to Germany. I've never been to the north of England, never. And they sent me up to this camp. And I was looking forward to it. Hey, that's great. I'd been up there three days, and we went into Newcastle and I mated up with another guy. And we went in to see what Newcastle was like. And I met my wife. True enough, we 38 |
