Meet the Family (Part 11)

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Following on from my dad's D Day landing and subsequent journey through Normandy, he eventually got to the Netherlands. Somewhere along the line he and four of his comrades had been separated. They reached a small village and, as they entered, they could hear lorries and motorcycles. Fearing they were Germans Dad and his pals headed for a garage which had an open roller door. There was nobody around. Dad and his pals ran into the garage and rolled down the door behind them. The lorries and motorbikes stopped in the village so Dad told his pals to keep quiet and stay still. They could hear German voices getting closer to the door, someone shouted from the distance and the German voices slowly got fainter. After a while, the lorries and motorbikes started up again and could be heard disappearing into the distance. When all was quiet Dad and mates heard rattling outside the garage and suddenly the roller door was lifted. Could it be that some Germans had stayed in the village? Thankfully not. It was a Dutchman. He explained to Dad that the village had heard the Germans coming towards them so the residents had all gone back to their houses as the Germans were not always as kind as they could be. The man had seen Dad and his pals go into the garage and pull down the roller door. When the German soldier had headed towards the garage, the Dutchman had called to him and offered him and the rest of the German soldiers some beer. It did the trick and kept the Germans away from Dad. Dad and his pals eventually met up again with their regiment and continued ducking and diving until the armistice. Dad's pals all went back home but Dad remained in Berlin with General D and eventually came back to the UK in 1946. Following leaving the army he returned to Aldborough and contacted his old boss, Tom Cook. Dad had worked for him turning hens' eggs before he left to go to war but, on his return, Tom said that he was six years older and egg turning wasn't really a suitable job for a grown man so he started teaching Dad the arable part of his business. Dad worked in Aldborough flour mill for a while but Tom could see potential in Dad so began taking him on crop inspections at various Norfolk farms. Dad loved being out in the fields and asked Tom if he could take a course to get a Diploma in Agricultural Botany. Tom was delighted and gave Dad time off for studying. This was in the mid to late 1940's; not a time when bosses allowed time off for studying so Tom was obviously ahead of his time. This seems to be a convenient place to stop so I'll leave it here and start again this afternoon.