Celia Diblee, Nee Packe - War Time Memoirs in Shaftesbury
I was just coming up to my 22nd birthday, the age with VADs were considered responsible enough to be posted overseas. I had plenty of nursing experience and many of my hospital friends were already in Italy and Belgium. Their letters were full of ecstatic tales and I dreamed of Italy. But it was not to be. I fell seriously ill and was sent back to Shaftesbury. I was slow to recover and was then medically downgraded. You had to be A1 to go overseas, so that was that.
The following winter and spring were difficult and I was very depressed. The war was going badly in Europe and my own life seemed to have ground to a halt. But youth is very resilient. By April 1945 things were going much better in Europe, the Rhine had ben crossed and the German army had started to crumble. Here are some extracts from my diary:
May 1st At 10.30pm hear the incredible news that Hitler is dead. What a great day indeed.
May 2nd Today Italy is completely finished and on top of that Berlin surrenders its garrison of 70,000 troops.
May 4th At 9pm on the news, hear that the German armies in Holland, Denmark and N. Germany have all surrendered. There is a good Company dance in our Mess.
May 5th Wild V Day preparation. Collect about 50 slings from the wards and some old bandages. With the use of red and blue dye we are going to make bunting. Have a Mess Committee to organise things. But oppositition from some people who say "We shouldn't celebrate anything until the Japs surrender." What rubbish!"
May 6th We make the bunting and I borrow a huge Union Jack from the mortuary.
May 7th The GREAT NEWS comes at last. We hear it in the College Arms over some home brewed cider. Dash back to the hospital on bicycles carrying 10 pints of Dorset cider and collecting greenery on the way to decorate our Mess. Put up the Union Jack over the front door and climb on to the roof to nail up the red, white and blue bunting.
May 8th What a terrific day! The Premier speaks at 3pm, announcing the surrender of Germany. Off to the Officers' Mess at 6.0pm for a drink. The King speaks to the nation at 9pm. Then we go up Melbury and light the beacon.
It was a wonderful walk to the foot of Melbury. There were about 100 of us. We collected dead branches from the hedgerows and dragged them with us. We laughed all the way up the steep climb to the summit and we mingled with half the population of Shaftesbury, whose ancestors must always have done this at such a time. The bonfire was huge, it was to be lit at midnight. We added our own contribution, then I stood by myself and marvelled at the scene. I'd been up this beautiful hill so often and was quite in love with it and the tremendous view. There across the valley was Shaftesbury town, high upon its own hilltop. How wonderful to see it a blaze of lights, with all memory of blackout completely forgotten. The church bells were ringing a wild celebration, their use as a warning of enemy landing now a thing of past history. And down in the valley between Melbury and Shaftesbury town was the dear old hospital, with its own lights switched on and its curtains undrawn. I felt this was my home and was deeply grateful for the extraordinary experience of having lived there.
Then I joined in the exuberant singing of the huge crowd and the wild dancing round the unlit bonfire. 'Doing the Hokey-Cokey', the 'Palais Glide' and 'The Lambeth Walk'. At midnight the bonfire was lit. It blazed high up into the night sky and in the distance we could see on other hilltops other bonfires being lit. We cheered, we laughed, we kissed each other and we cried. We cried because after five years of war in Europe, we were free at last.
