大象传媒

Many people think of Lincolnshire as the bomber county but there were a lot of army personnel billeted in the area and at Longhills, Branston. They were taken in by villagers particularly at weekends. My home was open house and one of the soliders had got his family in Birmingham and he wanted to get them away. Mum, Dad and two children lived with us from 1940 until 1942. Then they went back to Birmingham when it quietened down but then they came back again.

Evacuees were billeted in the village but they weren't billeted with people who had big houses, we lived in a three bedroomed semi detached council house and I slept on a camp bed for the duration of the war, we had an outside toilet. We have kept in touch with the family over the years, and we are meeting this Christmas and it will be the first time we have met for 48 years, we spoke on the phone the other week as though we were long lost friends.

My childhood changed from being an only child to a very exciting time, once a month the soldiers saved their sweet rations, on the place was a small chocolate roll wrapped in silver paper, my best christmas present was when 4 soldier joined the family for chirstmas day and they each bought me a tin of toffees and I felt wealthy beyond my dreams!

We were surrounded by aerodromes and we used to count the Lancasters going out and in. The nearest we came to danger was when we used to be able to guess where a damaged aircarft coming back was going to crash so we rushed off to find them before the police got there. We used to collect the perspex glass and our dads made us broaches and rings out of it.

The grown ups in the village rallied round to make it ok for the children so we got a lot of care and attention. We would have fetes and fancy dresses, with costumes made out of parachute silk.

The first time I realised it was people who ere getting killed was Arnham, before they went they gave a party for us before they went and very few of them came back,it was the first time I realised it was people being killed and not just aeroplanes.

There was a lady who gave birth to twin boys, her husband was in the RAF his place crash, one parachute was stuck in a tree and it was her husband, this was on the day the twins were born.

Some of the evacuated children went to bed fully clothed as they were used to getting up for air raids in the middle of the night - that was when I realised how different our life was.

I didn't like having to carry a gas mask where ever we went, especially in the early years we had to wear them for so long every day in lessons. They smelt horrible.

In 1942 when my sister was born, babies were given a gas mask like a cocoon they were bright red and blue and done like Mickey Mouse. When they got a bit older they had facial Mickey Mouse ones.

Peter Owen has written a book called Escape to Branston about his memories as an evacuee in Branston.

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