The long goodbye

VE Day was a non-event for John Mitchell but the war was far from over as he headed to Middle East while Britain partied

- BY ANNA BURNSIDE

FOR Signalman John Mitchell of the Royal Signals, VE Day was a non-event. His unit had been in Germany since April 1945, staffing the main switchboard in Munster.

He was out on detachment near Cologne, on a wireless truck with three other men, when the message came through.

"That was how we heard the war in Europe was over. That was it. No celebrations whatsoever."

He did try to tell one German the news but struggled to get the message across.

"A German civilian, an old farmer, passed us on the road. I tried to communicate that Germany had capitulated, Hitler was dead and the war was over.

"He just shrugged and kept on walking."

For John, who is now 100, the war was far from over. His unit was broken up and put on standby to head to Burma. They had been issued with their tropical kit when America dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Japan was out of the war and there was a new posting for John.

He spent the last year of the conflict in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. He can still recognise some of the places in Gaza now they are in the news 80 years later.