大象传媒

This story has been added on behalf and with the permission of the above named person by a CSV volunteer at 大象传媒 Radio Bristol.........

As the weeks went past I heard people speaking of the threat of war, and my dad, being a arch-pessimist was sure there would be one, but, hadn't Mr Chamberlain our Prime Minister, been, no FLOWN to Germany and made peace? and then came back with his famous piece of paper to prove it?
The following August my dad, brother and sister went out to buy fish and chips and while they were out a knock came at the front door and there was a man who was telling me that it was not permitted to show lights from the houses.
Things were getting serious and there were preparation for war going on all around us, the TA were drilling once a week and other reserve servicemen were also training weekly.
On sunday morning Sept 3rd 1939 a government spokesman told the country, by wireless that we were at war with Germany. I must confess here that i had entertained a secret wish to know what war was like. Now I was to find out. When we came out of Sun morning service at our Chapel everything seemed normal. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the birds sang and there was food on our table. Within a week or so hundreds of children were sent by train from London in school parties to safe places in the country and we had our share of evacuees.
They were billeted in houses and the host families were paid, as far as i remember 5/- a week to care for them. There were also mothers and children under five years old who had to be housed in private homes, and the whole village was alive with strangers.
Because of the possibility of my mum coming home and bringing her infection, no children were sent to our home. Nothing seemed to happen on the war front and it was not too long before the mothers and young children went back to London. It was a flase alarm after all, and soon some of the children followed.
Our Chapel was used for a school for a time and a 'blast' wall had to built opposite the main door. The headmaster and my dad did firewatching together alternate Mondays, but never found a fire even with enemy planes overhead..what they did see were glow worms in the hedges.
The school I attended was shared with a school from London, each using it half an afternoon. By this time my aunt across the road, by private arrangement got tow sisters of school age living with her, and for a time their mother came too. The elder girl, Thelma, became a great friend and we did most things together. There were no other girls in the village for me to play with, only boys, so i was glad of her company.
In Jan or Feb 1940 I had german measles, fairly badly as I remember it, but recovered and went to school after it was over. A few weeks later after tea, I became very tired and went to bed without doing my homework...to cut a long shtory short, had a chest xray. a spot was found and i wasn't allowed to go back to school until the middle of the summer term and only on the condition that i didn't do homework. I got very behind in my homework and actually went back in time for the end of year exams. The teachers comments were quite kind in view of the fact that i had been absent for four months
In Sept life life returned to something like normal.....the war though was well and truly 'on' and there were air raids on London, and my brother in law who was in the Auxillary Fire Service was sent there , leaving my sister with her baby daughter at home in Exeter, though they were always welcome at at her in-laws home outside of Exeter.
The 2 brothers were in partnership farming a biggish farm. I used to visit the farm often and had a great time there. There always seemed to be visiting friends or relatives and once a Lysander plane made a forced landing in one of thier fields quite near to the house. The pilot had a beard, which was quite a novelty then. We went out to see this happening. One of the sons of the family was in the army and he allowed me to shoot with his Lee Enfield rifle, and another was in the RAF and had a .405 revolver...I'm not sure if I had a go with it or not........At home, while cycling it was a common sight to see lorries with several soldiers in the back, being taken to who knows where?
As they passed us on the road there would be 'wolf' whistles and one day, ahving waved back, we rounded a bend to find the lorries had stopped and we had to pass them all again....Very embarrassing!
One day I went into our sitting room to find, to my surprise, a german soldier sitting in my dad's armchair!!
Later in the war the American GI's arrived..I didn't know why the were called GI's, except it meant Government Issue.
The first i heard of it was overhearing a girl at school say that there were 'doughboys' in her vollage, so named because of their hats, and they had plenty of money!
Sure enough, they arrived, over fed, over paid,........and..............over her.
About that time we had a guest at our dinner table, a german soldier. That was a superb piece of propoganda as we had excellent food, nearly all home grown, probably bacon with veg, followed by fruit and custard. I often wondered if he wrote home and told his family. I can't remember ever having an American in our home.
At busy times of the year we had German POW's to help with the extra work on the farm theyu came by a coach with only one guard, with a rifle and the coach driver.
I think they knew they were well off.
One day i decided to clean my mum's sewing machine, but, i couldn't put it back together! Someone had the bright idea fo asking the German if one of them could do it!! The one who did, said he made engines great and small, so we had asked the right one! By reward he was the one who had dinner with us. One of them stayed at out house while the others were at work, preparing the mid day meal and I remember them cooking potatoes on our gas cooker in a very tall container.
They ate on imporvised tables in our garage/shed.
One of them made me a pecking bird toy, which i foolishly gave to my neice when i got married... I WANT IT BACK.
The man i found in my father chair had sustained a head injury before being captured and he was waiting to be returned to camp, as sometimes he wasn't well enough to work..the authourites were aware of that and he waited at our house for transport to return him to the camp.
Food was getting short in Germany then, so they did well to be captured!

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