John Humphreys

Arnhem veteran John Humphreys was still serving in Norway when the war ended

Some time after Arnhem in 1945 my squadron was reformed. We were stationed near Grantham and were told to get ready. We climbed aboard aircraft again, not knowing where we were going. We went to Norway and our first task was to raid a German SS HQ and capture all the documents over there. Having done that we moved to Kristiansand – our job there was to take the explosives off all the hydro-electro plants and after that we had to clear the minefields. The Germans had surrendered and we thought, “Why should we clear the minefields? The Germans laid them, they can pick them up!”

I personally wasn’t sure the war was over because I can remember the first German soldiers I saw there and I wasn’t sure whether to shoot them or not. I was still busy. It wasn’t until we got to Oslo that we realised the war was really over. The mood was happy – we were no longer being shot at. We were living in nice comfortable accommodation and in our spare time those of us who could sail would go sailing up and down the fjords. All of a sudden, we were told to pack up and were flown home. We were on our way to Palestine for VJ Day.