大象传媒

This story was added to the people's war site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Newcastle on behalf of Tony Armstrong. Tony Armstrong fully understands the site's terms and conditions and the story has been added to the site with his permission.

I was only 10-years old at the time: I was on the way to a friend鈥檚 house, and she was not in. I asked her mother where she would be, and she said she was at the NAT club 鈥� that鈥檚 the nickname of the colliery club. So I said I鈥檇 go down there to look for her, because it was the beginning of the war and it was pitch black 鈥� everything was in a blackout. I went down, had a look around, and I saw my friend, Ethel, and her older sister was there. I said 鈥淲hat鈥檚 up?鈥�, and she told me they were doing messages for the soldiers who had just been billeted there, as there were not any barracks for them. Anyway, they were going to the fish shop, so I walked over with them and came back, and never thought any more about it. The next night I called up again, and her mother told me there is nowhere else that she would be apart from the club. I walked down, and you could not see anybody, it was pitch black. This hand came through the barbed wire and grabbed my arm: he asked if I could get him anything for a tuppence. I said yes, I could get him fish and chips. So he gave me the tuppence, and I went to the fish shop, and I came back with the fish and chips. I was looking and I could not see him, then the hand came and grabbed the fish and chips 鈥� somebody grabbed the fish and chips, whether it was the right one or the wrong one I do not know 鈥� but he took the fish and chips, mumbled something and walked away. The next night I went up again, but there was nobody there, the bar-boy was down, so they must have been moved to other billets. That was the beginning of the war, it was in November, and I just wondered if that soldier made it through the war. He must have been a British soldier as there were not many foreign people in this country when I was a lad. I was ten in February, and this was the following November, just at the beginning of the war. These were soldiers that were billeted out till they got uniforms and whatever, as they did not even have uniforms in those days.

Another memory that stands out is the time that one of our house windows was blown out from a blast which occurred half a mile away, but it had travelled that far and blasted half way up the window. That was in Deanside, Seaham.

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