From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 16 August

We must never forget: They gave their tomorrow for our today.

DURING the Second World War, the actress, Googie Withers, had a recurring nightmare: there was a bomb blast and she was buried alive. Frighteningly, it became a reality when the theatre in which she was playing took a direct hit from a V-2 rocket, “That I escaped after being buried alive with all the soldiers is a miracle,” she said.

In August 1944, five weeks after the D-Day Normandy landings, 27-year old Googie was put into uniform, given the rank of honorary Army Lieutenant, and sent to Europe to entertain the British Liberation Army. “It took 24-hours to reach Oostende by troop carrier. With no escort, we were a sitting-duck. We had it all – dive bombing, machine gunning – you name it!”

Googie, together with the theatre’s grande dame, Dame Edith Evans, was in Antwerp, a beleaguered city, playing the title role in the stage play, Mrs John, “The theatre was part of a complex which backed onto a cinema, over the top of which was a sergeants’ mess. It was a Saturday matinee – the place was packed. I’d just been called by the stage manager and was making my way to the stage when we had the direct hit. I remember being sucked back into a sort of hole by the most tremendous force.” Miraculously, Googie survived and managed to climb-out of the debris and into what was left of the theatre, “The auditorium was now an open space. In front of me was a mountain of rubble. I knew, instinctively, that everybody – all of my audience, and there was about a 500 of them, were buried beneath that pile. There was about the same number in the cinema and sergeants’ mess. They were dead. Finished.”

Only the seven actors, the two stagehands, and the six Pioneer Corps Musicians survived, “Suddenly, coming-up out of the rubble of what had been the orchestra pit was a trombone. It was terrible funny, and we all laughed. Then we saw the priests going-by. They were blessing the mound,” Googie recalled. However, there was no time for moping, “We were ordered to get cleaned-up, and to get-on with the job.”

The V-2 direct hit is recorded as the worst of the war and prompted an issue of orders prohibiting such large gatherings of soldiers. Years later, Googie was filming in Bath when she was recognised by a group of tourists from Antwerp. “They knew all about it from their school history lessons,” she said.

Georgette Lizette Withers AO, CBE,  17 March 1917 – 15 July 2011.

Forty-years after WW2, Sir Robert Helpmann was in Melbourne starring as Lord Alfred Douglas in the stage play, The Cobra. A council utility pulled-up at the traffic lights. The tray was packed with potted marigolds, bringing a vivid splash of colour to the grey day. He watched silently, his watery, bulbous, blue eyes staring. Then, as the utility moved-on, he said – as if to no-one in particular. “That’s how they got us out of Holland; hidden underneath pots plants.”

Without encouragement he explained how, in 1940, “Margot (Fonteyn) and I were dancing two performances a day of Swan Lake on the back of a truck in Arnhem when the Germans invaded Holland.” Sensing the inevitable, the Dutch had contingency plans to impede the German progress: dikes were burst to flood the lowlands, and a bridge over the Lower Rhine, leading to the city of Arnhem, was destroyed by the Dutch Army.

Helpmann continued, “At the end of each act they told us what they knew of the German advancement. As they got closer, we danced faster. At the end of the performance a charming woman – a Baroness and part of the Dutch resistance – made an impassioned speech in Dutch and Flemish. Her 11-year old daughter presented us with bouquets which Margot and I snatched, and ran. To get to the boat we had to lie-down on the back of a truck and they hid us underneath pots plants. It took us six-weeks of dodging the mines to criss-cross our way back to England.”

Years later, Helpmann was in Hollywood for the debut of a new film star. On being introduced she said, “I think we’ve met before.” He thought not. She persisted, politely, “Oh yes we have, most definitely.” She explained she was the girl who presented him and Fonteyn with a bouquet of flowers in Arnhem. Unusually, he smiled, wistfully for Sir Robert, being a most unsentimental man: “It was Audrey Hepburn.”

Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE., 9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986.

Actress, Marlene Dietrich, spent more time on the front-line than any other entertainer – even when she had pneumonia. She said, “Here is a song which is  close to my heart. I sang it during the war. I sang it for three-longs years – all through Africa, Sicily, Italy; through Alaska, Greenland, Iceland; through England; through France; through Belgium and Holland; through Germany, into Czechoslovakia. The soldiers loved: Lili Marlene!”

For her wartime work she was awarded: The US Medal of Freedom – “The proudest moment in my life.”; France: Commandeur of Légion d’honneur, and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Medallion of Honor of the State of Israel; Belgium: Chevalier de l’Ordre de Leopold.

Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992

Lest We Forget…

Roland can be heard on RADIO 3BA, every Monday morning, 10.45. Contact him via [email protected].