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This story was submitted to the People’s War site on behalf of Annie Greenbank and has been added to the site with her permission….

During the war Annie lived and worked on a farm and because of this wasn’t called to do munitions work.

It was hard work on the farm and they were allocated the services of one land-girl, a day to help on the land with digging potatoes. It was also very difficult milking the cows in the evening as the blackout was on and you couldn’t see what you were doing.
She remember the feeble light of cars in the blackout and can remember the Lancasters flying overhead as the sun was setting.

She recalls one day a young man knocked on the farm door and asked if there were any Germans there, they hadn’t any, but many farms had German POW’s doing farm work.

They made their own entertainment and held whist drives in the nearby village of Newby, also concerts were held in Bentham a good six mile walk away in the dark.

On the farm they had there own eggs, and the grocery man called. All animal foods were rationed, although at lambing times they were allowed extra rations, as they had to get extra help in.

Annie said they hardly knew there was a war on, they listened to the wireless, often listening to Lord Haw Haw, when he broadcast late at night

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