Читать книгу We Were Young and at War: The first-hand story of young lives lived and lost in World War Two - Sarah Wallis - Страница 50

What a lot has happened today!

The Armistice was signed, for a start. The conditions are very tough, they include demobilizing the army but we haven’t been told much yet. French troops are going to England en masse to carry on the fight and the RAF is bombing continuously.

Yesterday I talked with two German soldiers. They spoke excellent French and English, which they learnt at some university or other. I was up a tree and they were down below. I saw one of them again today, in the street, and he said hello to me. I was unsure what to do, whether to speak to him in front of people or not. He was with a whole group of soldiers. I nodded my head slightly and walked on. Suddenly I heard a click, and then another. I turned round—another click. It was a real ambush. Two of them were taking pictures of me. I was furious. As they went past another said to me, in French, of course:

‘You are very pretty, mademoiselle.’

Grr…Grrr…The Bosches, they have no right to say that to me!

Later I was sitting on the kitchen windowsill with Marie-France, Hedwige [the maid] and Nicole and we were laughing. Suddenly someone came up silently and put an arm round me. I thought it was Papa! Marie-France, Hedwige and Nicole started laughing like idiots. I turned round and saw it was a Bosche! I ran away as fast as I could, while those idiots just carried on laughing.

When I calmed down, I had a look at him and decided I had reacted like a little girl. He didn’t do anything terrible. Frankly, I wish he were English because he’s really quite good looking. And he’s got brown hair and I vowed when I was nine that I’d never marry anyone blond.

So now that’s two men who have taken me in their arms—this one and Sinclair, the Scot. But Sinclair wanted to show me the inside of his lorry.