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They were spat at, punched and shunned by their families. Their crime? Falling in love with German prisoners of war. As they celebrate their diamond weddings, two British war brides tell their haunting stories With each step they took, hand in hand along the bomb-ravaged streets of Southampton, the sight of June Tull and her boyfriend incited insults and fury. "Aren’t our boys good enough for you?" yelled one woman. Another ran up to June and punched her. Others spat in her face. How could she, they asked, fraternise with the enemy when their own fathers, husbands and sons had been killed by the Germans? For 18-year-old June’s boyfriend was German prisoner of war Heinz Fellbrich, 25, a fact which was advertised wherever they went by the PoW’s brown uniform with orange felt patches he had to wear at all times. "There was a lot of hostility towards us," recalls June, now 79. "I could understand it because people had lost loved ones in the war, but all that mattered to me was that I loved Heinz. "However, it wasn’t easy. We tried to go to quiet places when we were together so people wouldn’t see us. "My father Frank was all right about it, but my mother was against the relationship. She worried about what people would think." Especially when four months into the courtship – which began at the end of January 1947 – June, who was by this time sleeping with the enemy having written a "Dear John" letter dumping her Royal Marine boyfriend, became pregnant. "I was scared stiff," says June. "Falling pregnant outside marriage was bad enough – but with a German PoW!
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