Denise Beatonová

By 1943 Truda was responsible for the meat supplies in the town and area which also had a prisoner of war camp in Troppau. My father was captured at St Valéry-en-Caux in 1940 and by the time 1943 came, he was in Troppau where there was the camp and met with my mother. He met Truda while representing the prisoner side regarding food supplies for the camp. Bob and Truda fell in love and when the prisoners were moved to Poland, he said to Truda´s mum that he would be back for her someday. On 23rd April 1945 Bob was put on a cattle truck to France as part of repatriation. He jumped off the train somewhere in southern Czechoslovakia having decided to risk returning to Moravia to search for Truda. Bob met up with a young German who also had jumped off a train going in the opposite direction. His name was Gerhard Degenhardt and he had been taken by the Russians and sent to Siberia to work in the mines. These two met up and worked their way towards Moravia where my mother lived still. My father knew that he could not open his mouth and speak because he was not a German speaker. They met up and combined forces over 6 weeks working their way, mostly by night, eventually arriving in Troppau at the end of May 1945. Gerhard Degenhardt kept a diary of his war history which he later published . In 2004 I met Herr Degenhardt and thus learned of my parents´ history because my parents never spoke of the war experiences. Truda was able to get Herr Degenhardt documents to enable him to return home to his mother in Göttingham in central Germany. His diary ended with him arriving home to his mother´s arms.

Bob and Truda were married on the 12th June 1945 in Troppau. My father always said: “Captured first on the 12th June 1940 at St Valéry-en-Caux and captured for life on the 12th June 1945.“ Bob repatriated following the marriage. Truda was required to wait in Prague for 9 weeks until her husband was cleared – checked out that he did not already have a wife in the UK. Truda travelled to London and they went to live with an uncle in Graves End for a few months. Truda had only a small suitcase of belongings and Bob weighed 6 stone only when he came home. Once paperwork was cleared, they travelled to the Highlands of Scotland, to Tain, where my brother and I were born and remained there until their deaths. Bob had a family in Tain: a widowed mother and 4 younger siblings. Truda was not welcomed into this large family. Being from Central Europe meant she was German/Nazi. She has grammar school English so language was an issue as was the fact that she was a Roman Catholic. There were extremely few Catholics in the Highlands of Scotland at that time, other than the Polish and German prisoners of war who had remained there after the war ended.