ONLY now can the story be told - of the German involvement in the great Holmfirth flood of May 29, 1944.
At the time the Second World War was still raging and with D-Day and the invasion via Normandy only a week ahead naturally the censor was at his most censorious.
His 10-day rule prevented any mention of all meteorological conditions or happenings - except curiously in the Straits of Dover - for that length of time, lest it helped the enemy to forecast the weather!
As a result the Holmfirth flood, which could not be ignored as three people had died and there had been major and widespread damage, was deliberately and wrongly attributed to a "river mishap" rather than a cloudburst.
In one way this misinformation could hardly have been more misguided. Public memory went back to the even greater carnage of the first Holmfirth flood of February 5, 1852 when 81 lives were lost as Bilberry Reservoir burst its banks.
The rumours had it that we had learned nothing in the 92 years in between and that Bilberry had let us down again.
It was not until June 9 that an Examiner leader article was able to explain it all and Waterworks Committee chairman Ald A E Sellers could spell out that there was not a single leak in any part of the reservoir bank.
Although 60% of the water that came down the valley did not enter Bilberry at all it is estimated that the much-maligned reservoir held on to 25m gallons which might otherwise have made the flood even more severe.
The irony of the secrecy was that some Germans at least were soon very aware of events - they were taking part in the clean-up afterwards.
One of them was M Overduin, now "a youngish 86", an ex-German PoW who spent three years in a camp at Lodge Moor in Sheffield.
Herr Overduin, who lives at Dordrecht in the Netherlands, says: "I'm saddened on reading the book on the Holmfirth floods that there's no mention made of the part we 30 or so PoWs made in restoring the town's collapsed buildings and roadways.
"Surely someone, somewhere can remember the work we did?"
He dismisses the idea that Holmfirth folk had no time for them, for he recalls: "Many people brought out steaming cups of hot tea or cocoa, all thoughts of war forgotten as we worked shoulder to shoulder and helped each other out when we were sinking up to our knees in foul-smelling mud."
Herr Overdoin adds that "I astonished a few youngsters by saying `Please stop that' as they were throwing stones at us (I think in their eyes we were two-headed monsters)."
In fact he had not wanted to fight but was afraid, along with many other Germans, that his family would be slain if he did not join up.
He says: "I can recall many Holmfirth people thanking us for our efforts, despite the town's constables telling them to go home or be arrested for talking to us."
Herr Overdoin says the people they were talking to were mostly about their own age, 16 to 18, who "out of sight of the constables would slip toffee bars (homemade, I think) into our greatcoat pockets, or a jam and buttered slice of bread, an egg or two, the odd cigarette..."
He reports that even the hardened hearts of the dreaded SS, sent to keep an eye on the "normal Jerries" soon melted. But what did infuriate them was the German tunes of the time which the others often sang.
Says Herr Overdoin: "There were reprisals galore once back in the PoW camp. We were supposed to sing the songs of hate but we didn't. Why should we, for the war was over for us all. And not even the hanging of one PoW stopped us from doing what we wanted to once out on work details."
And compared with their other work, on Sheffield housing estates or back-breaking jobs on farms, work in the flooded area of Holmfirth was a welcome relief.
Says Herr Overdoin: "I had to smile though when even the hardened SS backed us all up when our topmost SS officials said we were a disgrace to the fatherland, on seeing the state of our uniforms, caked from head to toe in crusts of dry mud!
"What did they expect I thought (then said), working in mud five to six hours day!"
He reports that the mud even got into their jackboots, which for this job could not compare with the high-legged waders worn by the British.
Is it time for us to acknowledge the part played by the German PoWs in helping Holmfirth over its flood ordeal, just as much as the contribution by the Royal Engineers and American soldiers has already been marked?
Surely yes. Herr Overduin makes the point that the Holmfirth people of the war years were far friendlier than the Holmfirth people of today. When he visited with his family and told them of his part in the flood aftermath he says today's youngsters cursed them and showered them with spittle.
It's a strange contrast to the Netherlands where the Dutch have been welcoming to a former member of the German armed forces - even after the battering that land suffered in World War II.
* The trouble started at about 6pm with a thunderstorm and torrential rain. Soon the water was over the River Holme's banks at Holmbridge, by the time the floodwater on its rush down the valley hit Holmfirth it was 8ft high.
* Damage was to 17 mills and industrial premises and 61 shops, with 109 houses flooded. Deep craters were left in roads, two ton coping stones were swept away by 1.5m tons of flood water and 7,000 tons of silt were removed from the River Holme.
* It is feared that the casualties would have been higher if it had been a workday. The flood came on Whit Monday.
* The most tragic story of the flood was that of 14-year-old Geoffrey Riley who went to the rescue of an 80-year-old woman. But the woman and his own father Donald, were swept away and died.
* A Holmfirth Flood Relief Fund raised £22,613 15s and by February 1945 had paid out over £15,000.
* Verdicts of accidental drowning were recorded by the District Coroner, Mr E W Norris on the flood victims, Donald Riley, Miss Maud Wimpenny and Mrs D Schofield.
