A Reluctant Conscript 1944-48 Part 6

The contrast between my previous life in rural Dorset was marked by my lack of knowledge about the progress of the war,I was missing listening the nine o'clock news.
In my home town I was constantly reminded that there was a war being fought, American forces in large numbers were being concentrated prior to the D Day invasion. Every day air activity was evident, sights of troop carrying gliders being towed by Dakotas and other large aircraft as they practiced their invasion routines. Something big was soon to happen.
No news here of anything connected with the war except -- on a Friday morning when I attended the small wooden hut near the pit head baths that served as the pay office.
The sight of a crowd of grumbling miners studying their pay slips, always questioning the amount contained in their pay packets.
This was the time that I was reminded that there was a war being fought.
A lonely man standing in the rain, flat cap and rain coated clutching an armful of newspapers, obviously an ardent communist, he occasionaly shouted "Red Star Weekly".
What did I know of communism?
I did somtimes take pity on this cold damp little man and buy his paper. I was rewarded by terrible pictures of the war being fought by the Russians on the eastern front.
What a contrast to the safety of a Bevin Boy in South Yorkshire, no one was shooting at me.
dusteater

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