Anne Bennett - Keep the Home Fires Burning

‘Can’t blame them, though, can you?’ Polly said. ‘Can’t do owt in this world without money, and that I know only too well.’

One Friday evening towards the end of August Marion turned on the wireless and caught the tail end of an announcement: ‘As a precaution gas masks are being issued to every person in Britain. These will be available from 1 September. Please study your local papers to find out where your nearest collection point will be.’

‘Gas masks, Bill, for God’s sake,’ Marion cried, and her face was as white as lint.

‘It’s just in case,’ Bill said. ‘You heard what he said.’

‘Yes, but even so …’

‘In the last war the Germans used gas to disable the troops,’ Bill reminded her. ‘You know that yourself. You’ve seen some poor sods down the Bull Ring with their lungs near ate away with mustard gas. Twenty years on they might have worked out how to drop it on the civilian population. I’m not saying they will,’ he added, looking at Marion’s terror-stricken face, ‘but surely it’s better to be safe than sorry?’

‘I suppose it is,’ Marion said. ‘It’s just that I don’t want to think of it.’

Bill put his arms around her. ‘None of us do, not really, and there is something else that I must tell you now that war seems inevitable.’

‘What?’

‘Well, it has been in my head for some time, but I haven’t wanted to upset you by speaking of it sooner,’ Bill said. ‘But now you really need to know that when war is declared, I intend to enlist.’

‘No, Bill!’ Marion cried. ‘No, Bill, you can’t.’

Bill tightened his arms around her. ‘Don’t take on, old girl,’ he said. ‘You must have known this was on the cards.’

But Marion hadn’t known. Such thoughts had never crossed her mind. Bill had a family, responsibilities, and she had thought that would make him safe, or as safe as anyone can be in a war. She pulled herself out of his embrace and said, ‘Just how did you expect me to react, Bill? Did you think that I would be jumping up and down with delight?’

‘You know how I feel about Hitler and his bloody bunch of hoodlum Germans,’ Bill protested. ‘I’m doing this because I want to try and protect you.’

‘Sorry, Bill, that doesn’t make me feel any better.’

‘Look,’ said Bill, ‘Hitler and his armies are marching all over Europe. He already has Austria and Czechoslovakia, and now he is casting his eye over Poland. Where will he look next? If he conquers the Low Countries he will make his way to France, and if France falls we are just a step across the Channel. Believe me, Marion, Britain will need every man they can get to take on the German Army and try and stop them in their tracks.’

‘I can see they might need young men,’ Marion conceded. ‘But not men as old as you, and family men at that.’

‘I’m thirty-nine and that’s not old,’ Bill said. ‘Not according to the army, anyway.’

‘But what of your job?’ Marion cried. ‘How will they manage at the foundry if all the men go off soldiering?’

‘The foundry will manage well enough without me,’ Bill said. ‘And I imagine the families of men fighting for their King and Country are well enough provided for. After all, I am unlikely to be the only family man in the Forces. Pat’s enlisting with me.’

‘He may as well,’ Marion said bitterly. ‘He at least has no job to leave, nor ever has had.’ Marion began to sob in earnest then for she knew that before making any big decision, Bill would always weigh up the pros and cons, and he would have done it this time because this was one of the biggest decisions he would ever make. Once he was resolved on a course of action, though, he was immovable. She saw the lift of his chin and the glint in his eyes, and though tears gushed from her eyes she knew her husband would leave her – leave them all ? and go to a war from which he might never return.

When Tony, Magda and Missie were told about their father going to be a soldier they thought at first that it was the most exciting news in the world. They couldn’t understand why their mother wasn’t as delighted as they were.

‘Well, I suppose that she doesn’t want him going away,’ Sarah said as they walked to school the following day.

It was news to Magda that her father would have to go and live elsewhere and she said, ‘Won’t he be able to be a soldier and stay at home then?’

Tony gave a hoot of laughter. ‘Course he can’t stay here, stupid. He’ll have to go away and kill Germans, won’t he? He’ll be shooting them with his rifle and sticking his bayonet in their innards and …’

‘That’s enough, Tony,’ Sarah said sharply.

Tony gave a shrug. ‘Well, Magda is such a baby.’

‘No I ain’t.’

‘Yes you are,’ Tony said. ‘I bet you thought all he would do was march around all day in his smart uniform behind a big brass band. You did, dain’t you? That’s all you thought they did?’

Magda didn’t know what soldiers did, but she wasn’t going to admit that to Tony, so she stuck her tongue out at him, taking care that Sarah didn’t see, before saying, ‘No I dain’t, see.’

‘Yes you did,’ Tony retorted. ‘You really are stupid, Magda Whittaker. We’re at war, ain’t we?’

‘I know that, don’t I?’ Magda cried. ‘But what’s war, anyroad?’

Tony wasn’t absolutely sure either, but he said, ‘War means that our dad has got to go and kill people before they kill him, don’t it, Sarah?’

Both the twins’ faces paled ? they’d never thought of anyone killing their father ? and Sarah was cross at Tony just blurting it out like that. But that’s what was going to happen eventually and it would be doing the twins no favours to tell them lies, so her voice was gentle as she said, ‘Tony’s got it about right, because that’s what soldiers have to do.’

Magda caught Missie’s eyes and suddenly thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for her father to be a soldier after all. She knew that Missie felt the same.

Tony saw the look and said, ‘The pair of you are plain stupid.’

‘Tony, I won’t tell you again,’ Sarah said sharply. ‘Magda and Missie are over two years younger than you. How are they to know these things? We have never been to war before. And don’t worry,’ she added to the twins as they went into the school yard, ‘Dad won’t be in danger for ages yet, because he will have to be trained to be a soldier.’

Magda sighed with relief. Tony was probably right, she thought. She didn’t know much about going to war but she knew one thing: just talking about it made everyone bad-tempered.

The following Sunday the children’s grandparents came to tea as usual. Bill had known that his mother-in-law would have something to say about his decision to enlist and he wasn’t disappointed. As soon as he entered the house with the twins after their walk, she started on him, berating him roundly for his lack of concern and understanding, and was still going strong when they sat down to tea. Tony had sloped off as usual, so it was just the twins sitting on the horsehair sofa, being stabbed to death with its stuffing, while their grandmother continued to carp on in her thin, shrill voice, even more vitriolic than she usually was.

Magda, casting a glimpse her way, thought that it was just as if she had anger bubbling up inside her, so much so, that it was coming up in spittle and forming a white line along her thin bloodless lips. Her grandfather valiantly tried to deflect the conversation away from Bill until in the end she snapped, ‘Be quiet, Eddie. What are you going on about? There is only one concern here and that’s Bill and his stupidity.’

Bill looked up at Clara’s face and sighed before saying mildly enough, ‘Well, Clara, I know from experience you won’t let a matter drop until you have worried it to death like a dog with a bone so you might as well have your say.’