大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Storygatherer Lucy Thomas Callington U3A on behalf of Kathleen Colwill. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

KATHLEEN'S WORLD WAR TWO CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

SIX YEARS OLD AND SCARED

It was in September 1939 when the war broke out and because we were living in the country, miles away from any large towns and cities, we thought it would not make any difference to us. Or perhaps that is what I imagined as a young girl, I was only six in the August so did not really understand what it was all about, but it did make a lot of difference to our lives.

My father and an uncle who lived nearby and all the men who were not gone away to the war had to join in the Home Guard, or Dad's Army as it was later known. During the evenings, they all met at Trekenner School to train to guard our country if the Germans came. In the beginning they had to take their own guns with them which were used on the farm to shoot rabbits, but as the war progressed each man was issued with a gun.

We had to take our gas mask with us to school, together with our dinner bag, and walk nearly three miles to get there by nine o'clock.

In the evening after we had all gone to bed it was very dark because we had to have dark curtains or shutters to keep any light from showing outside. I used to feel very scared when I could hear the German airplanes roaring across the sky to bomb Plymouth. My dad used to say to us that they can't hurt us, but I knew they were dropping their bombs on Plymouth and other places, killing the people and destroying their homes.

I remember hearing the older people talking the next day about the bombing and how they saw limbs of people hanging on the wires, where they had been blown to pieces during the night's air raids.

I had already learnt to tell the different sounds of the German planes roaring above our house. It was during one of these nights when our English planes chased the German planes and caused them to unload their bombs for a quick getaway.

I can still remember hearing the bomb whistling down through the night sky and hearing it drop with a very loud bang.

SENSIBLE COWS

It was not until the next day when we heard that one of the bombs had dropped about a mile away from the village of Higher Larrick only just missing it. It had landed at the bottom end of a large field missing cows that were standing at the top end. The cows must have heard it coming and made a run for it!

Other stray bombs dropped across the valley in woods at Illand near Coads Green. We wanted to go and see where the bomb had dropped but they did not allow us to go for several days. When we did we were very surprised to see how large the crater was. I remember seeing a dead rabbit in the bottom of the pit.

When the bombing began to get worse in London and other towns, the children had to leave their homes and come down to Cornwall, where it was safer, to stay with other families. A lot came to Trekenner School which meant some of the younger children, including myself, had to go to Lezant Church Sunday School for our education which meant I did not see all the evacuees who by 1941 had returned to London. We were then able to return to Trekenner School.

On Sunday evening we used to walk with our mother to Trebullett Chapel. When it was dark I remember seeing the searchlights crisscrossing across the night sky looking out for German planes. It always seemed to be a Saturday night when they came, or that is what I remember.

One day when we were at school, we had to go down to Trekenner Farm and go under the high trees and stay there until the airplanes went away. We younger children were told it was only for practice like we had done many times before, but this time it was different. When I looked up above the trees I could see and hear them as well.

But in later years, when I was older, I learnt it was for real and there really was an air raid going on in the sky above us and that our teachers were protecting us.

LIFE ON THE FARM

The other things that I remember about the time during the war years, firstly the food shortage, we were luckier than most because we lived on a farm and were able to eat some of the things that were produced at home.

The food was plain but good. The flour we bought was a light brown in colour and so the pastry wasn't white. The baking ended up all the same colour.

We were allowed to keep and fatten a pig a year which my mother used as ham and pork which had to be salted to be able to keep it. There were no deep freezers then.

Cows were kept on the farm and so we had our own milk and a little cream. Most of the milk had to be sold, as that was our living and where our money came from.

We kept hens for their eggs which we could sell, and we were able to use some ourselves. The butcher and the baker called twice a week and the grocer came once a fortnight. They all came from Launceston.

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