Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

40 Demobbing After five and a half years in Europe my father was abruptly homeward bound. After fighting with the Russians in May 1945, he arrived at a US run air force base in Regensburg, Germany at 9:30AM. At 10:30AM he was on a plane to Brussels, Belgium. At 4:30 PM he was back on English soil. I did learn that his years of surviving brought about strength and independence that was not compatible with the regulatory process of demobilization: “demobbing”. My father returned to the south of England very abruptly, less than twenty-four hours after he was in action. There he was met by a young, officious, “snot nosed kid,” in my fathers’ words, who was processing soldiers out of the service of their country. Years later, I could hear the frustration and resentment in my father’s tone as he explained that he was given a “demob” suit, a few quid and a train ticket home and told to get a job. His service was over. Done. Bugger off.