wartime romance

1944: I was posted to 123 wing, 84 T.A.F in Normandy. This wing comprised 4 squadrons of rocket firing Typhoons in close support of the advancing armies. We travelled through Normandy; Merville - Armentiéres - Lille into Belgium.I was a cook in the officer's mess and it was tragic to note every day the empty places in the mess - the pilots who failed to return: British, South Africans, French, Poles, Dutch etc. From Belgium we progressed into Holland via Arnhem to an airfield in Tilburg which had been a German base. On New Year's Eve of 1944 the wing was rushed through Antwerp - flying bombs included - to assist the army in the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne.
We then returned to Tilburg, where we employed local girls to serve in the officers'dining hall. To cut a long story short, I courted the head girl who spoke good English, and in April 1947 we were married in Worthing, Sussex.
We lived in England for 43 years and in 1990 came to live in Zwolle in the Netherlands to be close to our only daughter, a nurse, who in her turn had gone to work in Holland and married a Dutchman. They are both still working in the regional hospital in Zwolle.
Alas in July 2001 my dear wife passed away but I shall remain living in Holland with my happy memories of a wartime romance that lasted 54 years

Bill Stanton, Zwolle, Netherlands

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