Blog No. 312 – Cliff and Josephine: A Wartime Wedding, a Family Divided, Part 1 – 23 July 2025

 

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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Cliff and Josephine on their wedding day 10th of  March 1945.  This photo once sat on a shelf in the lounge room.  One of my siblings has the original and this is a copy.  Cliff was still a serving member of Bomber Command in March 1945 and he wore his uniform when he married.  In this photo, someone (one of my siblings) has removed Cliff’s RAF insignia from his jacket.

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I have copied this photo from the funeral pamphlet produced by my siblings for Josephine’s funeral.  I think this photo dates from the 1940s.  Josephine looks so very young in this photo.

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By the time this photo was taken, Josey was confined to a nursing home and the calendar said it was the 21st century.  It is doubtful she was really aware of the presence of one of her grandchildren … but you never know.

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On the 23rd of February 1945, in the 6th year of WW 2, Cliff had his 24th birthday.  He married my mother Josephine Wood 15 days after his 24th birthday.  

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Some of you may think that by February 1945, WW 2 had already been won.  If you do, you are very mistaken.

This is the wiki summary of WW 2 events from the 12th of February 1945 to the 10th of March 1045.  I have selected the 10th of March 1945 as the cutoff date for this summary because this is when Cliff married Josephine.

12 February 1945 - Peru declares war on Germany and Japan. 13 February 1945 - The Battle of Budapest ends with Soviet victory, after a long defence by the Germans. 13 to 14 February 1945 - The bombing of Dresden takes place; it is firebombed by Allied air forces and large parts of the historic city are destroyed. 14 February 1945 - The 1945 Bombing of Prague: American planes bomb the wrong city. 15 February 1945 - Venezuela declares war on Germany and Japan. 16 February 1945 - American paratroopers and Philippine Commonwealth troops land on Corregidor Island, in Manila Bay. Once the scene of the last American resistance in early 1942, it is now the scene of Japanese resistance.  American naval vessels bombard Tokyo and Yokohama. 19 February 1945 - U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima. 23 February 1945 - U.S. Marines raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.  Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan. 24 February 1945 - Massive bombing of Germany by approximately 9,000 bombers.  Egypt declares war on the Axis. 25 February 1945 - US incendiary raids on Japan.  After ten days of fighting, American and Filipino troops recapture Corregidor. 26 February 1945 - Syria declares war on Germany and Japan. 28 February 1945 - A Philippine government is established.  U.S. and Filipino forces invade Palawan, an island of the Philippines. 3 March 1945 - Manila is fully liberated. Battle of Meiktila, Burma comes to an end with General Slim's troops overwhelming the Japanese; the road to Rangoon is now cleared.  The allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment near The Hague by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 511 Dutch civilians. 4 March 1945 - Finland declares war on Germany, backdated to September 15, 1944. 6 March 1945 - Germans launch an offensive against Soviet forces in Hungary. 7 March 1945 - The Battle of Remagen: When German troops fail to dynamite the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine, the U.S. First Army captures the bridge and begins crossing the river. The Army also takes Cologne, Germany.  Germans begin to evacuate Danzig. 9 March 1945 - The US firebombs a number of cities in Japan, including Tokyo (the Tokyo attack was specifically code-named Operation Meetinghouse), with heavy civilian casualties.  Amid rumours of a possible American invasion, Japanese overthrow the Vichy French Jean Decoux Government which had been operating independently as the colonial government of Vietnam: they proclaim an "independent" Empire of Vietnam, with Emperor Bảo Đại as nominal ruler. Premier Trần Trọng Kim forms the first Vietnamese government. 10 March 1945 - Japanese Fugo Attacks damage the Manhattan Project slightly but cause no lasting effects.

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On Saturday the 10th of March 1945, just 26 calendar days after the start of the firebombing of Dresden on the 13th of February 1945 and the resultant deaths of 25,000 people, Cliff married Josephine Wood in Saint Robert Bellarmine Church in Orrell road, Orrell, Bootle in the County Borough of Bootle.  The ceremony was performed by Robert Bourke, Catholic Priest.  

The official witnesses to the marriage were H Wood for Cliff and C Wood for Josephine.

“H Wood” was Henry Wood, Josephine’s only brother.  In March 1945, Henry was 18 years old.  It was impossible for Cliff to have met Henry Wood more than perhaps once before the wedding.

C Wood was Christina Wood, Josephine’s youngest sister; Josephine had three sisters.  In March 1945, Christina was 16 years old.

That Cliff’s official witness to his marriage was the youngest sibling of his bride rather than one of his three brothers or his father, tells yet another awful story. The official witness for the Groom is usually called the Best Man.

That Josephine asked her youngest sister to be her official witness to the marriage tells another story.  I am not sure what that story might be.

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The marriage took place after the issuing of a licence by the local bishop.  The alternative route to marriage apart from getting a licence was reading of the “marriage banns” from the church pulpit for three consecutive Sundays.  Failure to read the banns rendered a marriage void, unless a licence had been obtained from the local bishop.

That the marriage took place after a licence had been obtained from the local bishop rather than after the reading of the marriage banns reveals that it had not been planned very long in advance – at most, the marriage plan was formulated a little under 3 weeks before it took place.  Why else would there have been a need to to get a licence from the local bishop?

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By March 1945, Cliff had begun to drown in a never ending sea of death.  

Most of the deaths he experienced were at a distance, but at least one of the deaths was literally in front of his eyes.  He was splattered with blood and other body parts when his friend and colleague walked backwards – straight into a plane propeller.  The propeller ended the life of the colleague by chopping him into pieces that could never be repaired.  In a sense, the colleague became yet another bomber that died before it could ever find its way home.  This time, the bomber went down and all crew members.

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Cliff needed to create a new world for himself - one that contained a future filled with hope - so he asked Josephine to marry him.

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Marrying Josephine did not create a world with a significantly better future for Cliff.

Marrying Josephine did create a rift between Cliff and his parents – and that rift never healed.

To create a better future for himself, Cliff abandoned the country of his birth and started again in a country where he knew no one – Australia.

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After devoting four years of his life to helping save the world from a monster, the response Cliff received from his own family when he married Josephine was not a gracious expression of thanks.  Those who should have been closest to him, refused to come to his wedding.

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I had a similar experience in 1970.

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By helping others to heal We help ourselves heal Remember those who preceded us. Give abundant Love Always