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(This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Suffolk on behalf of Ted Vandegrift and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Vandegrift fully understands the site's terms and conditions).

I was very aware of World War II breaking out because my stepfather, Les, was English and not yet a fully fledged American citizen, he was waiting for the final paperwork to become a U.S. citizen. He came to America in 1923 and in February 1939 he returned to England to settle his family estate because his parents had died (in Southampton). He was over in England for approximately six months and we were all worried about it because we didn’t know if he’d be called up in England, even though he was older. Also due to my stepfather’s training in electrical engineering at John J Thornycroft we thought he might be detained by the British government to use his valuable skills for the war effort in designing automated tooling and machinery, particularly suited for the fast production of munitions. But this didn’t turn out to be the case fortunately. He returned to America about six weeks before the war was declared in Europe and even though Bobby (my brother) and I were very young (seven and six years old) we constantly made aware of events in Europe.

So the first thing I remember about WWII was being indoctrinated about how bad Hitler was and the Germans and my own father being of German parentage was referred to by my stepfather as ‘The Hun’!!

My own family had been subjected to anti-German feelings during the first world war and consequently had changed their German spelling of their family name to an American sounding name. (Rayfeldt to Rayfield).

I vividly remember the week that war was declared because it was my first week of Kindergarten. What happened was, on Labor Day, an American bank holiday which is always the first Monday in September, Bobby and I had been with our parents to the county fair called the Ionia Free Fair, in Michigan. The day before on the Sunday, war had been declared in Europe. At the county fair on the Labor Day Monday my brother and I had bought whips that popped when you flipped them. The day after Labor Day my brother and I were pretending we had Hitler tied to the tree and were beating the heck out of the tree in our front yard with our new whips!

My mum came running out of the house yelling that she’d forgotten that it was the day I was starting school. So she dragged me inside and gave me a quick bath and hoiked me off to school!

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