Germany ’48 – ’53 A Child’s Tale Part 2

My father did two postings in Berlin, one with his Regiment and one with another Corp, interspersed with a posting with back down the zone. It was whilst living in Berlin that I saw the results of war damage. Whole areas of Berlin were taken up with what us kids called the brickfields. These were acre upon acre of reclaimed bricks as far as the eye could see. The only people you saw working on them were women. In the two years since the end of the war the majority of the bombed out buildings had been taken down, but no rebuilding had started. Another thing that sticks in my memory is large signs on all the major roads stating that it was an offence for military vehicles not to stop and offer a lift to any service person in uniform. Life was very hard for the population. The German boys that I played with all looked very undernourished. If ever I had sweets or chocolate it was a real treat for them. It wasn’t all fun with the German kids though, both communities knew who had won the war! I had many a fight with them, sometimes we won the war, sometimes they did. I remember playing football with the local boys (even then it was England-v-Germany), I was the only one to have football boots. As children do, I grew out of them very quickly and gave them to one of the German boys. He was so emotional, he cried with gratitude. His father even came round to our house to thank us. I have to say, after that, my days of re-fighting the war were over!

The black-market was rife in those days and I would think that all dabbled in it, tobacco and cigarettes and coffee being high up on the list. I can remember being taken to get a haircut by our maid, she having been given a packet of cigarettes to pay for the hair cut and whatever else she had to get. We used to get parcels from home. They contained in the main large tins of coffee, usually packed out with the latest comics. The coffee was for the “trade” the comics were for me. Actually the comics had a good resale/trade value as well! All the staff that worked for us, would collect the dog-ends from the ashtrays, strip them and save the tobacco in a jar for resale at a later date.

After all this time, I really can’t remember what affect the Blockade had on me, other than the boils and my hatred of certain foods. Talking with my mother, she remembers that on moving to Dortmund, how surprised she was to find there was no rationing and that fresh food was available in the markets/shops. In the UK, rationing was still in force, something that was to continue into the early 50’s. She tells me that moving to Berlin during the Blockade was like taking a backward step. Food and all the other necessities had to be flown in, similar to rationing all over again! It really did take some time for the Airlift to become effective and for enough of life’s essentials to get through. If it was hard for us, the occupying forces, one can’t really imagine just what it must have been like for the people of Berlin. She tells me that the first Christmas we were there, she was told to place an order with the NAFFI for the Christmas turkey. As the families had been told to entertain the young subalterns, she ordered a 20lb bird. On collecting it, the 20lb bird turned out to be two 2lb tins of turkey meat! I suppose that having endured years of privation through the war , it was all more of the same?

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. My mother told me that they (my parents) had friends in the American Sector. It would seem that they did not suffer all the shortages that the British Sector did. She particularly remembers that they always had fresh milk (flown in from Denmark) and ice-cream. I certainly remember both, it seemed like Christmas every time that we managed to get some from them and, I well remember getting American comics and bubble gum. She also remembers visiting the Officers Club in the French Sector. It would seem, that if you came armed with Gin and Whiskey, you could do some really beneficial deals for wine and champagne! Another memory was, you could actually buy clothes in the shops even during this time. This was a novelty, as clothes were still having to be bought with the use of clothing coupons in the UK. You had to save your coupons, till you had enough to get what you required. I can certainly remember at that time, the toys were of far better quality than those in the UK! The Christmas decorations (made of glass) were of a much higher standard as well, even by comparison to what you could get in the UK in the middle 50’s. I have some photo’s taken in our house, playing with a huge Mechano set (not on sale in the UK.) Well, to be accurate, it was the young subalterns (one of whom went on in later years to become the Provost Marshal) playing, and me watching!