On the 80th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May, I will be raising funds for the Royal British Legion in London. It is a poignant day because my mother was in the Royal Navy contingent that marched past the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. She would have been 101 this week and was very proud of her wartime service as a morse operator working on top secret Y work.
Although Easter 1945 was filled with hope for the end of the war, the fighting on the Eastern Front and the Ruhr Valley in Germany was still very grim, with many casualties falling withing site of the end. One of the most poignant was Major John Poston, Field Marshal Montgomery’s ADC who had been with him since before the Battle of El Alamein.
He was killed in a German ambush at Luneberg Heath (where I spent many weeks in the 1980s on reconnaissance manoeuvres) on 21 April 1945. A testament to what this 25 year old Cavalry Old Harrovian did for his country comes from the Field Marshal’s pen: “I trusted him absolutely and he never once failed me…I was completely devoted to him and I feel very sad; something has definitely gone out of my life.” Less than two weeks later, Monty accepted the German surrender from Admiral Doenitz at the palce Posten was killed.
Rupert Wieloch 