Читать книгу Fragments of War - Joyce Hibbert - Страница 13

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Salty Old Salt

Florence Tasker was an English girl working for the NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institute) at Oxshot, Surrey during WWII. She was to meet her husband-to-be, Harold Tasker in the canteen. He was serving with the 23rd Battery, 5th Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery.

Now Florence’s father was an ex-Royal Navy man and although a keen member of the Home Guard (the British local defence force) he’d never reconciled himself to wearing the khaki uniform.

The family lived near Blindley Heath and dad was in the habit of riding back and forth to work on his pedal bike. One evening he was somewhere between Nutfield and Goldstone on his way home in the blackout when he was hit by a Canadian Army truck. Three soldiers jumped out, assisted him into their truck, took him straight to a doctor and then to his home. They also saw to it that his bike was repaired and returned to him.

Although not seriously hurt, the older man was unable to work for a week or two because of painful bruising. The Canadians visited him at home several times and Florence remembers that her mother was touched by their genuine concern.

On one of their visits the young soldiers were suddenly convulsed with laughter and when it was over they apologized to their accident victim. The cause of their hilarity had been the recollection of his cussing at them when they’d helped him up. Apparently he’d given the army boys a never-to-be-forgotten sample of his old navy vocabulary – prolonged and without repetition!

Florence can still hear her mother’s surprised and gently reproachful “Oh Alf, you didn’t.”

Harold and Florence Tasker live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Uncle Joseph Watson in his Home Guard uniform.