The boys in the woods before Arnhem

This story has been contributed to the People's War by the BBC Learning Centre, Gloucester, on behalf of Clare Smith with her permission.

I was 13 when war broke out and I was living in what is now Mill Lane but was then known as Church Lane in Cranham, near Painswick.

At 18 one could be ‘called up’ but I volunteered to join the Observer Corps and trained to be a ‘plotter’ in the Ops Room of 24 Group which was based in the old Spread Eagle Hotel in Gloucester.

One evening, making my way slowly up Portway Hill into the woodlands next to the A46, pushing my sturdy lady’s bike, I became aware that the area had been taken over by the military. We were never really surprised because training and manoeuvres were going on all the time.

Going down to Gloucester in the mornings and returning at night I was given a cheerful greeting. Sometimes after a night duty I would take a quick scour round the city shops to see if there was anything ‘off-ration’ available to bring home, including bread. The lads in the woods asked me if I could find any ‘real’ bread for them, so when available I would bring a loaf tucked into my saddlebag.

They were tough chaps but kind and good-natured. Then, surprisingly, they were preparing for departure and one said: “Don’t worry about the war, Miss, it will be over very soon now.” I wondered what they knew and I didn’t.

Plotting the routes of the aircraft, I was soon to know for they were the ‘Red Berets’. A clearing-up party was left behind to clear up any of their litter left behind with the very basic rations, and my bread delivery went on until they, too, disappeared.

Much later in life, on my exploring walks through the woodland with a dog, I found in the area where they were ‘dug in’ before Arnhem rusting pieces of their wares such as a billycan or a rotting leather boot or a piece of Army issue cloth. I was so sad that these young lads, who fought so gallantly, had died in vain. I now believe they had no idea of where they were ‘dug in’ waiting to go because some time ago I wrote to the old survivors of this battle. It seems they did not know exactly where they had been waiting other than it seemed to be any available piece of woodland around the airfields they were to fly from, somewhere in the Cotswolds.

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