Wartime Memories

Walking across Waterloo Bridge on my way to work at Reuters, I scan the outline of the buildings backing on to the Thames. There are no more nasty gaps, so Hitler's flying bombs have not scored a hit during the night.

Working as a 'copy boy' in Reuters was exciting for a sixteen year old, in 1944. Whether on the day or night shift there were frequent interruptions due to the siren. Instead of going to a shelter we huddled together in the stairwell on the fifth floor if there was an imminent danger. I liked the proximity of the young typists.

On a warm day, one of these girls would ask me to open a window, which entailed my climbing above the tape machines. I recall one afternoon when I had just pushed open a window, only to have it slammed shut by the blast from a V2 bomb which had landed in the Farringdon market. The sky was darkened by a myriad of fragments falling. There was a heavy toll of civilians killed and maimed.

But the day that will be forever etched in my memory was that May day in 1945. A message came through from our correspondent at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force), reporting the signing of paper on a German heath.

This message was immediately passed to the chief day editor, John Pigg, who spoke briefly to a colleague and then hurried into the censor's room (all stories relating to the war had to pass the censor before release). He ran from this room to the machine operator who sent a "flash" to the media - "THE WAR IN EUROPE HAS ENDED". There followed further messages giving details.

As the day wore on we could see from our windows the beginning of a celebration that would engulf London and far beyond. When my shift ended and I had dumped a mass of ticker tape out of the window, I made my way along Fleet Street in to the Strand and on to Trafalgar Square. The party there went on well into the night - some party.

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