Posted Message

19 Sandringham Rd.
Lowestoft
Dear Winnie,
Having a lovely time. Hope you are too! Weather quite nice. Been paddling in the sea. Never seen so many sailors before.
See you soon
Cheerio
Love
Margaret

Comments

Caption: Trawlers Leaving Harbour, Lowestoft 45

There are so many undercurrents to this card! VE day was May 8, 1945...just 8 weeks earlier. This image was captured not too long before it was sent, if you look at the fashions and the "45" on the corner. The seafront at Lowestoft had its barriers and defenses removed and there was a frantic push for "normal"- whatever normal meant after such a terrible war. Fighting was still going on in the Pacific and July 10th was the start of a big Allied push (the Battle of Sendai starts), so if you had a British relative in the Far East, you still lived on tenderhooks, but if you were at home, taking a holiday wasn't impossible.

The writers says she has "never seen so many sailors before". They probably were a very happy bunch of men; demobilisation was underway having just started three weeks earlier on June 18th.

Happy days.