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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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November 1940

by Essex Action Desk

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
Essex Action Desk
People in story:听
Sheila Ostler, Brenda Ostler, Mrs. C. Ostler. Lt. QM. Ostler A.L.
Location of story:听
Prudhoe. Northumberland Village.
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4363012
Contributed on:听
05 July 2005

The last week in 1940, (We travelled by train to Newcastle via London - between Air Raids) to be met at our destination on time by my Father and the Padre, who took us to the Mining Village of Prudhoe, where the 1/5th Btn. T.A. Essex Regiment, from Chelmsford were stationed.

Airplanes flew quite low in those days, and one particular day we were walking in nearby fields when a German plane came over low and was obviously photographing the area, but I had already read in the daily paper that people 'down south' had been machine gunned in fields; so my Mother, Sister & I dived into a hedge until it had gone out of sight.

We stayed in our digs for the month of October and then moved onto a Mining Inspector's home until the evening of 14th November 1940. We, the family, my Mother, Father & Sister, waited on the platform for the Railwayman to signal with his shutter light to the Newcastle Express Train to stop in order for us to travel to Carlisle.

It was a clear and calm Moonlight night - but because it was so bright it gave a clear vision to any potential enemy planes.

When we arrived at Carlisle, I remember It was a large station covered in glass (Blacked Out) and very busy. We then crossed over to the other line and set out for Stranrae, Scotland, however after ten minutes, just outside Carlisle we stopped. Soldiers and sailors walked up and down the corridors trying to find out the reason and speculating it was a raid on Newcastle.

After seven hours we proceeded to Stranrae and eventually boarded the Boat to Larne, Northern Ireland.

On arriving in Belfast, we had missed the train and we unable to travel that day as my Father was born in uniform and in consequence we were unable to travel the quickest way through Southern Ireland and back into Northern Ireland. The Hotel Manager in Belfast told us that Coventry has been "Flattened" with 1,000 dead. I still remember the shocking news.

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