- Contributed by听
- GeorgeStephensonHigh
- People in story:听
- Jack Jackson
- Location of story:听
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4269314
- Contributed on:听
- 25 June 2005
Jack Jackson, 97, nick-named 鈥楯ack the Lad鈥, told us of his experience and memories during the war. He started off by tell us about the growing power of Germany.
鈥淚n 1926 Hitler had no money and Germany where not strong but then Hitler promised his country they would become richer and wealthier and started to kill and murder to get what he wanted. By 1930 Germany was becoming stronger and they were starting to invent the best things in the world. Baldwin went to Germany to try and cool things down but Hitler would not negotiate and so Great Britain declared war. Gas masks were given out, organisations made for people and soldiers sent over seas with no weapons or defences.鈥
Jack then went on to describe the time Winston Churchill asked for help from the Americans. Winston Churchill came on the radio and said 鈥淲e are in a terrible state - we are a little island and we are losing 5-6 ships a day. Give us the weapons and we will finish the job鈥. Jack believes when Britain appealed to America it was a very important time in the war and history books only tell you what they want you to know not what happened
Jack was not one of the men sent over to fight but stayed at home to help build destroyers. He worked in a costing department which would price the destroyers and sent how much they were costing to the government. He also went to night classes 5 times week at the local collage. His friend did go to fight though and he told us about want happened. 鈥淢y friend went to Tynemouth and then late went on to India I still tried to keep in touch with him though and I would try and write to him any time I could鈥. Even though Jack didn鈥檛 go out to fight he experienced a number of bombings. 鈥淚 hated it when the sirens went off and I got really scared. One day a bomb went off in my street and one went off at a nearby railway but the worst by far was when one went off in front of me and I quickly had to dive into a shop doorway to escape.鈥 Even though Jack experienced all these things he still managed to live a normal life. 鈥淲e would still go to the cinema and local dances and try to live a normal life鈥.
By Jane Spoors, Y9, George Stephenson High School, Killingworth,
Newcastle upon Tyne.
漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.
Recommended story
Story with photo