A shower of candy from our GI heroes

When my father, a London GP, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940, he arranged for my mother, two older brothers and me, born that April, to move to the safety of a cottage in Cookham, Berkshire. Despite there being a war on, it was a happy time, and our family increased with the birth of another boy in 1941. It was also, on occasions, exciting, as we were near enough to the capital to see aerial dogfights. on one memorable occasion, our house narrowly missed being hit when a badly damaged German bomber flew very low over the roof and crashed a

mile away on Marlow Bridge. As D-Day approached, hundreds of American and Canadian troops were billeted under canvas in the woods and fields. We got to know many of them very well. We would visit them and they would come to our house, bearing gifts of food items that were in short supply for civilians. My younger brother and I especially appreciated chocolate hershey bars and tins of peanut butter! But my abiding memory is of the day when we waved farewell to our new friends as they left for the normandy beaches. We shouted: ‘Got any gum, chum?’ at which point we were showered with chewing gum and chocolate bars from the men, crammed into a column of military vehicles. I often wonder, with sadness, just how many of those friendly, generous young men failed to make it back. Robert (Bob) Readman,

Bournemouth, Dorset.