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I and my war started on 10th May 1940 in Belgium. Both my parents were journalist’s and almost knew that something was about to happen.
It was obvious by 13th May that the Germans would be unstoppable. So like many hundreds of thousands of people, we packed the car in haste, obviously we did not take much. With a couple of our friends we left and we even left our house.
A Ministerial Aide of Navigation who had developed a relationship with my parents came along with us. My Mother was hoping to get to Britain and continue her work as a journalist from there. The car was quite small; we were quite squashed, hot during the day, but freezing cold at night. There were many air-attacks en-route and general chaos was all around us. Many people rode bicycles and others obtained whatever transport that was available. The many attacks were so destructive we continually had to keep scattering to ditches. Heavy traffic jams ensued and amazingly enough some form of organised chaos continued daily, with the Germans forever at our backs and chasing us relentlessly.
When we got to Paris there was also an Exchange Telegraph office, we hoped that the French would hold the Germans back, but this was not possible and the Germans continued their advance and chased us out of Paris.
Eventually the Germans caught up with us at Poitiers. Somehow we found ourselves lodging at a really nice very pleasant and really large mansion style house, with large gardens.
We all stayed there and one striking memory was even though I was only 9 years old. We lived as normally as possible and we separated from our friends, and then came back together when the Germans and now Italian forces began to push us even further south. The Italians bombed us while we were just finishing our lunch —al-fresco at a restaurant. Everything broke and the wife of the Ministerial Aide , our friend, who had been a nurse in the First World War, leaped upon me to protect me from the flying glass and debris. We saw people around us who had been injured even though we had only gone out to go into the park and enjoy the summer fragrances and country views.
Our friends went back to Brussels and we stayed at Poitiers, with a lady until September. This seemed quite idyllic to me and my Father began to paint again because by now he was obviously unemployed.
Then we found out that the Germans were going to occupy all houses that had been left empty so my Mother went to the German Authorities and they gave her petrol and coupons and passes, sufficient to get back to Brussels.

This story was submitted to the “Peoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Anne — Marie Heath and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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