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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Creating the Tragedy and Triumph Script
Over
the
years,
hundreds
of
stories,
many
told
b
y
Veterans,
and
endless
research
have
formed
the
basis
for
creating
dialogue
scenes
to
blend
with
the
music
of
the
wartime
stage
productions.
Limited
by
performance
time,
the
writing
of
narration,
reflection,
and
dialogue
for
Tragedy
and
Triumph
was
both
frustrating
and
difficult.
Many
stories
for
the
current
script
were
collected
during
the
past
three
years
from
individual
Telegraphist Air Gunners.
Eric
May
of
Maidstone,
Kent,
shared
not
only
his
wartime
experiences
of
training
in
Yarmouth,
but
the
story
of
“Moonlight
Serenade”.
Bill
and
Gwen
West
of
Sydney,
Australia,
wrote
of
their
wartime
experiences.
Bill
was
a
young
Telegraphist
Air
Gunner
from
Manchester,
England,
who
trained
in
Yarmouth
during
the
war.
Curiosity
of
a
faded
photo
in
an
old
family
album
led
to
the
re-establishment
of
a
lost
contact
and
eventually
to
the
re-telling
of
wartime
stories
about
this
British
TAG
and
his
Australian
war-bride.
Fred
Good,
Roy
Gibbs,
Bob
“Windy”
Geale
(a
Canadian
born
TAG,
now
living
in
Australia),
Leon
Dunmore,
Reg
Harrison,
Stewart
Crawford,
Les
Sayer
and
Ken
Davies,
all
shared
stories
of
wartime
TAG
experiences.
Roland
Spiller
of
Maidstone,
Kent,
passed
along
a
collection
of
TAGA
Magazines
which added valuable information.
So
Far
Away
From
Home,
the
story
of
four
TAGs
killed
during
training
in
Yarmouth,
was
first
inspired
by
the
four
gravestones
located
in
Mountain
Cemetery,
Yarmouth,
Nova
Scotia.
Eric
May
had
been
part
of
the
honour
guard
at
the
burial
sixty
years
ago.
During his visit to Yarmouth in 2005 he shared the story.
The
short
dialogue
of
the
army
scenes
came
from
two
different
sources.
The
chicken
tale
was
told
to
me
by
an
uncle,
a
Canadian
veteran,
Andre
Goyer,
many
years
ago
while
reminiscing
about
his
time
in
England
at
the
beginning
of
the
war.
The
story
of
the
little
boy
and
the
Canadian
soldiers
was
told
to
me
following
a
performance
in
Deal,
Kent.
After
recalling
the
story,
the
man
asked
where
we
obtained
the
anecdotes
for
the
script.
A
friend
standing
with
him
remarked,
“likely
they
came
from people like you”. I recall smiling.
The
letter
of
John
to
his
wife
came
from
a
student
researching
her
family’s
wartime
experiences.
Her
project
included
several
hundred
letters
written
by
her
grandfather,
John
Woodruff,
during
the
war
to
her
grandmother.
Found
in
an
attic
box,
they
provided
endless
hours
of
reading
and
an
appreciation
of
the
longing
for
home
and
loved
ones.
The
letter
used
in
the
script
seemed to sum up best the feelings of one soldier.
A
member
of
the
Royal
British
Legion,
Deal,
Walmer
and
District
Branch,
sent
me
the
book,
Harvest
of
Messerschmitts.
The
book
is
based
upon
a
diary
kept
by
Mary
Smith
of
Elham,
Kent,
during
the
war.
This
provided
endless
information
on
the
Battle
of Britain and opened the door to many ideas for the script.
The story of the Channel Dash resulted from information passed along by Ted Powell of the Kent Fleet Air Arm Association.
Perhaps
the
most
intriguing
and
most
difficult
story
to
be
told
was
that
of
the
attack
at
Palambang.
I
felt
this
story
needed
to
be
told,
as
it
related
vividly
the
terrible
tragedy
of
war.
To
summarize
the
events
at
Palambang
and
those
at
Changi
was
difficult, as the temptation was to re-tell every detail of what happened to these young men.
The
Kenneth
Buchanan
story
originated
from
an
article
on
the
BBC
WWII
People’s
War
Website.
After
some
searching,
we
located
Gwen
Buchanan
and
her
daughter
Lindsay,
who
provided
photos,
letters,
and
details,
which
we
were
able
to
incorporate
into
the
script.
Lindsay
travelled
from
Spain
in
October
2006
to
attend
a
performance
of
Tragedy
and
Triumph
in
Truro, Nova Scotia, the hometown of Kenneth Buchanan.
The
memories
of
the
wooded
area
between
Dover
and
Deal
were
passed
on
by
Wilbert
Billard,
a
Veteran
living
in
Sackville,
Nova
Scotia.
He
attended
a
performance
of
Tragedy
and
Triumph
in
Halifax
in
the
fall
of
2006.
“They’re
talking
about
all
the
places
near
where
I
was
stationed,”
he
told
his
wife.
During
the
intermission
he
approached
us
and
we
were
able
to
arrange
a
time
to
visit
him
at
home.
Having
searched
for
some
three
years,
finally
we
found
a
Veteran
who
was
camped
in
the
wooded
area near Deal, Kent.
Perhaps
the
sad
part
of
writing
is
that
every
story
cannot
be
told
on
stage.
Newspapers
of
the
era,
old
wartime
scrapbooks,
and
recollections
written
by
Veterans,
have
endless
material
that
can
be
interwoven
throughout
the
script.
Lines
here
or
there
referring to specific events that shaped the men and women who fought for the cause of freedom add realism to the dialogue.
Every
civilian,
nurse,
war
bride,
and
every
child
who
experienced
the
events
of
war
some
sixty
years
ago
also
have
stories
to
tell.
The
sharing
of
stories
with
a
younger
generation
by
those
who
lived
in
the
era
of
World
War
II
ensures
their
memories
will
not be forgotten. This is important.
These stories are not, for the most part, of history books but of the heart. To re-tell such memories has been the goal.
George Egan
Director/Writer
Tyler and Danielle review the script.