Dear Sir/Madam,
I write in response to your letter in today’s East Anglian Daily times inviting memories of D-Day, 6th June 1944.
I had just turned 12 years old (I am now seventy-two) and had recently started to do a newspaper round in the mornings before going to school. In those days, of course, there was no television, so our news came mainly from newspapers and cinema newsreels.
I was absolutely fascinated by the seemingly strange place-names, Caen, St. Elise, Cherbourg, and the weird names given to the landing beaches, like Sword, Omaha and Juno. I have lost count of the times I was late for school in the days and weeks immediately following D-Day, caused by stopping half-way up someone’s garden path whilst deeply engrossed in how things were going.
We had a relatively quiet war here in East Suffolk. Compared with many other parts of Britain. I was too young to appreciate the horror and futility of war, but at the same time old enough to feel the excitement of it. However, I suspect my contemporaries in places such as London, Bristol and Coventry, for example, might not agree with me. It really was a fun time for a little boy around here!
I wish you the very best of luck with your project.
Yours Sincerely,
Bob Shelcot
Woodbridge, Suffolk
