There were no excuses; his youth and fitness immediately secured him an
overseas posting. Exoneration for the suitable or most of those unsuitable for
battle in this troubled period was a rarity. He was required to attend active
military duties in Britain and South East Asia and flew on many
bombing missions over German territory.
In their early years of marriage Ted spent a lot of time away from home
which meant Rene had to experience alone the terror and intimidations
associated with war. Maybe generated within all of us during times of turmoil
is a hidden strength injecting a survival temperament, but for Rene and
probably many more, such an injection could not remove the fear associated with
the sound of each bomb whistling on decent, the doubt and uncertainty as to the
location of the next ‘hit’, and the horrifying explosion after explosion
getting closer and closer. The terror associated with the unknown and the
loneliness created a type of psychological paroxysm, but as most, she had to
remain resilient, deal with it and treat each day anew.
Onwards of 1943 it was even worse, Rene’s stamina and courage was
severely tested because her first child was born; a daughter whom she named
Zoe. An unexpected added responsibility while basically operating as a single
parent meant the safety and care of a newborn would need to take precedence
over self. It signified grave concerns and dictated the need for different
attitudes towards daily survival, because of this she turned even more-so than
usual to her mother for extra support.
Pictures and tales of their life in England tell of Zoe’s
childhood. She was part of the lower class of society as expected of mainstream
England at such a time of unrest, but she was still portrayed as a well
spoken girl and carried a petite shape, her face fine and skin fair, both
encased in long light chocolate brown hair. She was starting to develop into a
young lady even at the tender age of eight. Her attire was usually draped in
old hand-me-downs but as all young girls she valued the times to display a neat
appearance; strutting in long blue ankle length cotton dresses with spots (she
was crazy about spotted clothes), full puffed sleeves with chocking white
necklines, and frills around the hems of variety in colour to enhance the dullness
of available fashion. I was told she treasured those dresses, wore them at
every possible occasion, and sometimes carried a complimentary bone and white
frilled parasol. Zoe attended school in Woolwich. She enjoyed her
studies and was an excellent student, always showing determination and ambition
in regard to her schoolwork, and she proved responsible at home by voluntary
helping with daily household chores on weekends and after class.
But
Zoe was just one of all of England’s children who were excluded in the
tutelage of enemy ambitions, and Germany was never going to relax its
campaign in Hitler’s attempt to overwhelm England for her or anyone
else. As the war progressed Germany
declared an all out assault on London and its surrounding areas with the
launch of the ‘V-1’ in June 1944, and in September of the same year they
unleashed the ‘V-2’; these jet propelled flying bombs, commonly known as the
‘Buzz’ bomb or ‘Doodlebug’ caused overwhelming devastation. Of the 10,500
‘V-1’s’ and ‘V-2’s’ propelled towards London about half found their
target and lucky for Rene and Zoe the house they occupied was never in line of
a direct ‘hit’.
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