大象传媒

It was Friday lst of September 1939 and this was the day the War commenced for me. My name is Ray Stakemire and I was just 4 days away from my 12th Birthday. Sometime during the morning a friend from a few doors away called in to tell us that she had just heard on the radio that the Germans were at that moment invading Poland. We all knew that as we had an agreement to go to War if Poland was attacked, then this would- mean the real thing. That same afternoon I was due to be evacuated with other children from our School. We were due to meet up at Grove Park Station and leave about 4pm. I remember all these details as though it was yesterday. I had my case with all my clothing etc and that dreaded cardboard box, which contained my Gas Mask. We had earlier been told that if and when we were to use the mask it should always be removed by lifting it upwards from the back of the head and never to push it upwards from the chin, we were told that doing this would probably cause leeks.

Once we all met up at the Station we were not told where we were going, it wasn鈥檛 until we reached Folkestone that the teacher said that this is where we are going to be billeted. It all seemed to be fairly well organised, and it wasn鈥檛 long before I reached the home of a Mrs Marsh, her house was quite near the Sea front and it was nice to have an almost a view of the sea. I only stayed here for one month as Mrs Marsh was expecting a baby and I was moved to another home at the back of the town. Number two Athalstan Road was the residence of a Mr and Mrs Sharman and baby Keith. The winter came and there was very little in the way of War, it was known as the Phony War. The Battle of the River Plate took place in December and the next action was the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940. However all Hell broke loose on the 10th May with the invasion of Holland., Belgium, and France. About two weeks later we were all on the move again. Some parents had taken their children back home; those that remained were taken by train to Tredegar in South Wales.

Mr and Mrs Sampson and their two daughters was now my new home. They were very nice people. I remember the father worked at the local Coal Mine and used to come home from work covered in coal dust. His wife would boil some water and he would have a good scrub down in a large Metal Bath which was brought in from outside. By some Food items were getting to be rationed, so we all had to tighten our Belts.
My mother was in constant touch by letter, and in early December said she would arrange for me to come home even though London was under Nightly attack. I said Good-bye to the Sampsons and. left Wales on the 29th December 1940. We passed through central London on the way home, every thing looked Grey, and there were many Scars of where bombs had dropped. Arriving home around 5pm. just in time to hear the Air Raid Siren sound, and this was my first experience of Enemy Action, and I remember it was not very pleasant. Most of the winter months were dark and many Air Raids. The early part of 1941 didn鈥檛 look very promising and the War was going very badly for us, nothing really to cheer us up. Going in to March we had a very bad night on the 16th. Then again on the 12th of April and the 10th of May. These were all nights of the full moon. Although we didn鈥檛 know it at the time, Hitler had decided to attack Russia and he needed most of his air force for that front.

As far as the food situation was concerned, by 1941 pretty near everything was rationed. For example, 2ozs Butter, 6 ozs of margarine, Sugar, I can't remember the actual amount but it very small. Some item like fresh fruit was obtainable, but there were usually long queues, and by the time you reached the shop counter they had run out of goods you wished to purchase. I remember that Bread was not rationed, and could be bought whenever required. It was known as the national loaf and had a slightly Grey look about it, not the nice white look as it has today. While on the subject of Bread, as already mentioned it wasn't rationed, but TWO years after the War ended, namely 1947 it did get rationed for a few months. This is something I have never understood.

The year of 1942 came and went with not very much good news, except
for Monty鈥檚 great victory in the Western Desert in October and finally the complete surrender in May of 43. Also we were all cheered by the Great Russian victory at Stalingrad in January of 43.

We now move forward to the Spring of 1944 and it seemed to the man in the street that victory was not too far away. The brilliant news of the D-Day landings came and the end looked near. You can just imagine the absolute Horror on everybody鈥檚 face when on the night of the 15th June the V.1s started coming over in fairly large numbers. I remember the Friday morning on the walk up to the train station on my way to work and looking up to see a small aircraft trailing flame f'rom the rear. We soon learnt that one should take cover
as soon as the Engine noise ceased, this usually meant it was on its way down. The general public had not been told anything about these weapons. I will always remember the noise of the Pulse Jet engine, which was similar to a Motor Bike without a silencer. The allied armies finally broke out of' Normandy in late August and the whole of France, most of Belgium, and part of Holland were all liberated and the Flying Bomb menace petered out. However we were now in for a more serious weapon, the V2. The first one to fall on London fell on 8th September 1944 on Chiswick. At it first it was suggested that there had been a Gas explosion, but when other V2s came down the authorities had to admit it was an enemy rocket. These dreadful weapons continued to fall on Southern England right up to March of 1945. The last one fell on Orpington.

By May of 45 the war in Europe came to and end. A little of over three more months and the Far East War ended. Just a few days later I received a letter marked O.H.M.S. instructing me to report to The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment HQ at Bury St Edmunds on the 18th of' October anytime between 10 am and 5pm.

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