Brian Howarth

Brian Howarth watched some unconventional celebrations from his hospital bed 

On 6 April 1945, when I was 18 years old and in Germany serving with my regiment, 5 para brigade, I received a gunshot wound from an enemy rifle seriously damaging my lower abdomen. My condition was critical. After a 10 day stay in 22 Field Transfusion Unit for urgent medical care, I was sent hospital in Hanover and then evacuated by air ambulance to the UK and taken by ambulance train to Nottingham General Hospital. The ward there was completely round. Every window had a bed coming off it so those of us who were bedbound were unable to see out of the windows that were behind our heads. 

VE Day arrived and as the hospital was in the centre of Nottingham we were aware of the celebrations below in the square. The nurses, very thoughtfully and kindly, brought us all mirrors that we could hold up to see what was going on outside – thousands were celebrating the end of the conflict in Europe.

“Couples were celebrating with gusto!”

Those mirrors turned out to be very enlightening in a rather surprising way! While most of the celebrations – singing, dancing and hugging – were going on at ground level, another form of celebration was going on elsewhere. Lots of air raid shelters were dotted about everywhere and from our beds, with the mirrors we’d been provided with, we had a bird’s eye view of couples who had climbed up on the roofs and were celebrating with rather more gusto! That experience made me realise that I needed to get well and get on with my life as soon as possible! Fortunately, I did recover my health and lived life to the full.