大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

War Time as a Schoolboy

by HnWCSVActionDesk

You are browsing in:

Archive List > Family Life

Contributed by听
HnWCSVActionDesk
People in story:听
Derek J Woolf
Location of story:听
Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A7614515
Contributed on:听
08 December 2005

I was evacuated to Ross on Wye in 1939 and lived with relations there for 2 years, going to school firstly in Ross on Wye then on to Forest of Dean. When my parents came down, I went to Weston under Penyard School and Ross Grammar School.

In 1944, springtime, huge members of U.S. troops and equipment were going to the South Coast from Liverpool, ready for D. Day. They used to stop at lunchtime on the road through Weston and we used to get sweets from the US Soldiers. They organised races for us down the road and gave us sweets and other goodies as prizes. Of course, we were late back at school one day and the Headmaster, Mr Ward-Smith, was furious with us. He took all the goodies, which we had been given, from us and we never saw them again. As a result we were banned from leaving the school at lunchtime again, we were very disappointed, because the tinned goods, fresh fruit and sweets would have been very welcome at home.

In the holidays we helped on local farms, and in the summer helped to harvest crops. This was on farms when they also used Italian and German POW鈥檚 and we got very friendly with them. Some stayed for many years, even after the war. It lead to our interest in Twinning schemes with a German town twinned with Ross.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by John Boileau of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Derek J Woolf and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

Family Life Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy