Send three and four pence, we're going to a dance.

‘At last! At last! The war is over!' shouted Sheila across the factory floor. The girls she worked with looked at her open mouthed. She was the lucky one who's turn it was to sit next to the wireless today. The floor manager Alfie came over to find out what all the fuss was about. ‘Come on ladies, you don't knock off for another hour yet. Plenty of time to get more ammo made to sort out those Jerries.'

‘But Alfie, did you not just hear the wireless? It's reported our chaps at the front have said, ‘send us three and four pence, we're going to a dance.' That means they're coming home!!

‘Come on then, girls. What you waiting for? We'll need to get our glad rags out of hock for the old man coming home,' shouted Betsy.

As soon as they had cleared up their work benches, everyone collected their coats and bags and headed for the door. Like a stream of ants, they swept through the big factory gates out onto the main road to wait for their buses to take them home.

‘Where is everyone?' Sheila said to Betsy. ‘I thought they would all be heading for home and celebrating.' ‘Not everyone has a wireless in their workplace, don't forget. We're the lucky ones. We've heard the news first.'

The bus came into sight as it rounded the corner, and the queue surged forward. As soon as the girls got onto the platform, Betsy was shouting the news out so that everyone could hear. Sheila in the meantime went upstairs to impart the good news to those on the upper deck.

All of a sudden the bus erupted into cheering and shouting. Women and children were crying. Total strangers were hugging and kissing each other. At each stop, more cheers went up as new passengers boarded the bus, and by the time it arrived at Sheila and Betsy's stop, there was a real party atmosphere on board.

Sheila called in at the local shop on the way home before collecting the children from her mothers, on the off chance that there would be something decent left for a celebration tea. Once again she imparted the good news, assuming that no one else had heard it. Beryl the shopkeeper hugged her close and said, ‘Bet you can't wait for your Stan to get home. He has just been sent to the front too hasn't he?' Sheila nodded, her throat too tight to reply. She had thought she would never see her Stan ever again after the news that his regiment were moving forward to join the advance party. Although they had been married for over ten years and had two lovely children, he still made her heart race whenever she saw him. And now she was going to see him again - soon.

She couldn't wait to collect the children and tell them that they would soon be seeing their Daddy again. At eight years old, Lizzie would remember him, but David was only five years old and Stan had been away for most of them. She hurriedly gathered her few meagre bits of shopping together and almost ran the few yards along to her mother's house to collect Lizzie and David. She couldn't wait to see their little faces light up when she told them that their Daddy would be on his way home soon.

Sheila fiddled with the troublesome latch on her mothers back gate, that Stan said he would fix before he went away, and lurched through the back door into the kitchen.

The children were nowhere to be seen, and her mother looked like she had been crying. ‘What ever's wrong mum? Have you not heard the news on the wireless?'

‘Yes, I heard it. Don't you realise what's happening now? It's the big push. This is it.

It was reported on the news earlier. ‘Send reinforcements, we're going to advance.'