Brain Fever - Assorted Thoughts and Articles

"White Christmas in 1944"

My memories of the Royal Marines 1 H.A.A. RGT.

By Alice de Man (* Kalmthout, 8 February 1929, † Schoten, 27 June 2017)

Kalmthout, 15 September 2009 (edited and translated from Dutch by Jasper De Man, December 2018)

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The autumn of 1944 was coming to end, it had been another year that would throw our lives upside down. Flying bombs [1] started to destroy our cities and towns, allied units came and went, winter had arrived.

In those days, I and the other young girls would make a sport out of collecting the most badges and écussons [2] of Canadian and English soldiers. We all tried to get the prettiest ones. The latest ones we were able to score – those of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (R.A.O.C.) or the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers (R.E.M.E.) – weren't that impressive anymore. But then they came: The Royal Marines! The elite of the British armed forces.

During that year's Christmas break, I'd often go to my friend Daisy Dent's house. One day she told me, with an excited look in her eye, that only a few hundred yards down the street, in the Kalmthoutse Heide [3], English troops had made camp. I think our hearts skipped a beat when we found out they were Marines! They even brought a battery of anti-aircraft artillery with them, to shoot down the V-1's that were terrorising Antwerp and the harbour.

Soon enough some of the Marine's officers were stationed in "The Kievit" [4], the tea-room and hotel Daisy's parents used to run before the war. In happier days, city folk visiting the Heide would stop for a break, a cup of tea, and a tasty slice of English cake.

While getting acquainted with some of them – under the watchful eye of Mrs. Dent – we learned the Marines would organize a dance on Christmas day. Mrs. Collignon, who worked for the local branch of the Red Cross, was quickly tasked to invite some of the more elegant local ladies.

In the meantime, my parents had befriended some Marines, like Ted Bowers and Norman Howe – the 'Captain's blue-eyed baby' – who was only 21. It wouldn't take long for them to become regular guests at our house. We had invited them for Christmas Ever dinner, and when they had to return to their camp at night, snow started to fall. Gently at first, then more and thicker. The dream of a white Christmas [5] – as sung by the popular Bing Crosby – became a reality. It would be a magical Noel!

The next morning, on Christmas Day, there was a festive atmosphere in and around "The Kievit": Marines were wishing everyone – strangers and friends – a Merry Christmas, something we'd never experienced before in our shy little town. Everyone was brought into the holiday spirit in no time! To make the day more special, all the privates were promoted to officer for the day, while the real officers demoted themselves to bar and waiting staff.

Then it was time for the dance to start!

An old gramophone was playing music, supported by the loud singing of the Marines. We all laughed as everyone joined in to dance the 'Hokey-Cokey' and the 'Lambeth Walk'. It was the first Christmas celebration since the liberation, and it would be the most beautiful we'd ever celebrate.

The Marines stayed for a few more weeks, but by the end of January, it was time to say goodbye. The battery had to move to Woensdrecht in the Netherlands.

As the bombardments by the German intensified the following weeks, my brother and I were evacuated to a coastal boarding school in Heist-aan-Zee. We would go for walks in the area and one day a column of military vehicles drove by. To my surprise they sported the insignia of the Royal Marines! The were stationed not far away. It didn't take long to reunite with Ted and Norman!

But as the year went on, we had to part ways.

I've kept all their letters and several photos. Ted also once gave me a beautiful canon shell on which he had the start and end dates of their stay with us. Together with the badge, they're the only tangible witnesses of what happened during that last winter of the War and the extraordinary Christmas of 1944.

[1] The V-1 "Flying bomb" was an early cruise missile used by the Germans as a 'vengeance weapon' to retaliate on liberated European cities starting in June 1944, it had an operational range of 250 km

[2] Écusson is the French word – and Antwerp slang – for an army patch.

[3] A 4,000-acre nature reserve, famous for its heath, which to this day remains the main attraction of Kalmthout

[4] Nowadays, there is still a restaurant close-by called "Kievit", but it's a different establishment.

[5] What was magical to some, turned out to be a horror to others. The winter of 1944 is remembered as one of the worst in history for the Low Lands (Belgium and Netherlands). In war-torn areas tens of thousands would die from cold and hunger, most famously in the Battle of the Bulge and in the occupied Netherlands. The famine that raged through that country made the winter of '44-'45 forever known as the Dutch Winter of Hunger.