The enigma of the flying boot
New Zealand Listener|April 22 - 28 2023
A curious WWII badge left to ANN CHAPMAN by her mother turned out to be the insignia of a club dubbed the 'most exclusive in the world'.
ANN CHAPMAN
The enigma of the flying boot

When Anzac Day comes around, my thoughts go immediately to my parents, both veterans of World War II. Both served in the Middle East - my mother as an Royal Air Force nurse and my father as a second lieutenant in the NZ Army.

However, their service remains an utter mystery to me, as does a little silver brooch of a flying boot my mother always wore on her jacket, especially when attending Anzac Day ceremonies. I never heard my parents or their friends talk about it and it was only later, as an adult, that I understood its significance.

During my childhood, my parents never spoke of that part of their lives to me or my three siblings, and we children were too self-absorbed to ask. Every evening, they'd knock back a few drinks, and explain that it was the war that resulted in their drinking.

Visitors, usually ex-army or navy, would regularly come for pre-dinner drinks once the sun was over the yardarm. There were murmurings, low voices which became silent when I approached, entered the room or was seen lurking nearby. These regular drinks with former servicemen and women were a kind of therapy that we, as children, were not party to.

Now that they are both dead, the opportunity to understand what their lives. were like fighting and nursing during a world war is lost.

I know they met on active service. My father, Wally Johnson, was serving in Greece, Crete and the desert, as a member of the 20th battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Howard Kippenberger. My mother, Ursula Hughes, was an English nursing sister who joined the RAF.

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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 22 - 28 2023-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.

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