My mother had the brown envelope containing Army Form D140 -83 telling her that (following the Battle of Anzio in January 1944) my father was “Missing in Action – Presumed Dead.”
His Army pay to my mother was stopped. And so, she was forced to get a job working nights in the munition arsenal in Bridgend soldering fuses into bombs and shells. It was dangerous work. Some mornings other parts of the works werent there following an explosion. She spent hours listening to the Radio reports of those missing, those no longer missing, and those prisoners of war.
My father eventually surfaced in a Prisoner of War camp and the news came back that he was alive. Recordxs show Rome Radio knew he was alive because they were announcing that he was an escaped prisoner of war on a motorbike. The War Office didn’t listen to Rome Radio apparently.
During the day my mother raised money for the Red Cross standing outside a chemist shop on Tonypandy Square. Due to complaints she was told to stand on the other side of the road. And it was there that my grandmother found her to let her know that my father was on his way home! My father was eventually released (under mysterious circumstances – he may have escaped again) from the largest POW Camp in Germany Mooseburg.
Liberated by the Russians, Dad came home long after VE Day. My mother waiting for him still.
The going away foto 1939. My dad looking spectacularly miserable. With reason.
Celfypridd 