Assembly Insights: Victory, Memory and a Can of SPAM

Assembly Extract from Mr Richard Channer, Deputy Head Co-Curricular and Operations
Presented on Tuesday 3 May 2025

On 30 April 1945, Hitler did the world a favour and shot himself, enabling his generals to end a world war that had been caused by Hitler’s grotesque attempt to realise his vision of what constituted Germany’s rightful place in the world. The war had caused famine, disease, homelessness, bombing, reprisals, massacres and genocide – most notably the murder of more than six million Jews, – accompanied by battlefield casualties that stretched into the millions.  

On the 7th May General Jodl surrendered to the Western Allies and on the 8th May at Stalin’s insistence (he was the leader of the Soviet Union) Field Marshal Kesselring reiterated the surrender to the Soviet Forces in Berlin.  

It had taken the Allies five years, eight months and eight days to defeat Nazism and its attendant evils, ending the war in Europe.  

This Thursday May 8th is the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe; you may have been to associated events over the weekend.  

80 years ago, across the world, the celebrations were sustained and joyous, giving hope once again in President Roosevelt’s words that the world once more could live by four essential freedoms ‘freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.’ 

Cynthia Covello aged 20 and Joyce Digney aged 18 were typical of many that day. Having joined the Women’s Land Army in 1944, they had been working on a farm in Surrey. Determined to be in London to celebrate, they took the train in. Their first stop? St Paul’s Cathedral to give thanks. Their second stop, a rammed Chandos pub to sup a few ales. Their third stop, Trafalgar Square, to join the crowds and do what revelers still do to this day: jump in the fountains. I imagine that globally on May 9th there must have been quite a few headaches.  

For the civilians in London and those at Bancroft’s they were now free of the fear of air raids. Since the start of the war boys at school had to carry their gas masks and the boarders had had to sleep in the air raid shelter, under what is now the swimming pool.   

The boys disliked the experience; it was damp and malodorous – the only toilet was a large bucket. What had started in 1940 with the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, had by 1945 evolved into strikes by the world’s first ballistic missiles, the V2. 1100 V2s hit London and the South East with Redbridge hit more than most boroughs. Although Bancroft’s was not directly hit, the bus stop on the High Road marks the spot of a bomb strike. The ensuing blast caused significant damage to the Head’s house costing £463 4s 1d. Westgrove used by the Territorial Army and crossed by trenches, could return to use for games. With blackout restrictions cancelled, the Great Hall and Library could once again be used in the evening, the black paint removed from classroom windows.  

Bancroftians could look forward to being free of want. Food had been rationed since the start of the war as the Nazis attempted to starve Britain into surrender.  

Meals were characterised by a lack of variety – SPAM became ubiquitous. SPAM is a word to conjure with, and you all no doubt immediately think of stupid, pointless annoying messages of the digital kind. For the war generations it meant something completely different: canned processed meat; indeed, so triggering was the British experience with SPAM that Monty Python had a hit sketch and song about it.  

So, rationing had become necessary as German U boats sought to break the vital supply chain by attacking the convoys crossing the Atlantic, sinking 100,000s of tonnes of shipping between 1940 and 1943.  The threat of one of the most powerful enemy battleships, the Tirpitz, joining the U boats in the Atlantic, occasioned what has been described as ‘the greatest raid ever,’ so bold in conception and execution that one Jeremy Clarkson made a documentary about it. 

St Nazaire in NW France was the only port in Nazi control that could accommodate the Tirpitz, having the largest dry dock in the world; it was also used as a U Boat base. To destroy the dry docks would therefore prevent the Tirpitz operating freely in the Atlantic. Operation Chariot was launched on 28th March 1942. The destroyer HMS Campbeltow, rammed full of explosives and accompanied by quite a few motor torpedo boats, sailed from England and navigated several miles up the estuary of the River Loire to the heavily defended docks.  Lit by enemy searchlights and under heavy fire, the Campbeltown was driven onto the dock gates; whilst the explosives were primed, the force of commandos landed and began to destroy as much of the port’s infrastructure as they could. At noon on the 28th March, HMS Campbeltown exploded, destroying the dry dock gates. Amazingly in the confusion, 238 out of 615 sailors and commandos managed to escape back to England on the torpedo boats. 169 were killed and 215 were captured.  

Lt Col Charles Augustus Freeman Old Bancroftian (1914 – 21) was the man in command of Operation Chariot and led his commandos in the attack on the port; unable to get back to their boats to escape, he and his company attempted to fight their way out of the town. Out of ammunition, they were forced to surrender. In May 1945 Lt Col Freeman was one of thousands of prisoners of war awaiting repatriation.  

His was one of five Victoria Crosses awarded for Operation Chariot – reflecting just how extraordinary an operation it was and how significant its outcome. Next time you walk the Head’s Corridor, stop and have a look at his memorial.   

Just one military operation, but emblematic of the extraordinary effort that it took to defeat Nazism; so many ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  

The celebrations of VE Day in 1945 were of course bittersweet; millions of lives had been lost and continued to be lost in the Far East as Japan did not surrender until August 15th, 1945. The world stood on the brink of a new age, as the war time alliance fractured, initiating a superpower rivalry in the atomic age between the Soviet Union and the USA.  

As we commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, perhaps in the two minutes’ silence on Thursday at 12.00 midday, do not be distracted by skewed narratives – it was all down to the USA or the Soviet Union. President Putin in particular will not highlight that the Soviet Union was Hitler’s ally between 1939 and 1941 and used these years to take over the Baltic States, occupy half of Poland and attack Finland. Focus instead on a giving thanks to all those ordinary people who suffered that we could live in peace, perhaps start with considering the 856 OBs who served in the forces, the 79 who were killed. The school gates are their memorial.  

Lastly you might consider the very courageous and personal sacrifice of Old Bancroftian Bruce Smeaton. A pilot, he deliberately crashed his plane in open countryside rather than baling out of his bomber. This act prevented the plane from crashing into the town of Castleford in Yorkshire. His headstone was paid for by the grateful residents of the town and a street in Castleford is named after him. The lectern in the chapel commemorates him.  

Thank you for listening.