大象传媒

May 2005 was the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

As the years pass there are fewer and fewer people who lived through and remember the war. Some years ago a small group of members of RSVP Barnet started a project to go into the local schools and tell the children who were studying World War Two what it was like being a child during the war. A search of our attics showed that many people had kept their ration books, identity cards and clothing coupons, some had other mementoes such as a gas mask, tin helmet and shrapnel, all of which prove very popular with children.

It seemed a pity that these stories, which bring to life through personal experience the history told in the schoolbooks, should be lost and so we decided to write them down. They are not stories of heroic acts of war, but simply tell of the way the lives of ordinary people were affected by those events.

Many of the stories have common elements, the terror of bombing and the privations of rationing but among them are many individual experiences which are unique and which have stayed in the memory for over 60 years.

I hope they will be of interest.

Bill Ibbotson

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THE STORIES

Lillian and Trevor A Survivors Tale

Betty Abbott North London - Memories Of An Eight Year Old

Thomas Ainsworth Concerning My Experiences During 1939 - 45

Pat Arnold A Letter To Pamela

Ron Ashmore I Was No War Hero

Cedric Blaker Memories - A Poem

Raymon Benedyk Land Mines and Bevan Boys

Ann Bradford Newcastle To Alnwick - An Evacuee's Story

Pam Chatterton A Young Person's Memories

Pam Cox North London During The War Years

Roy Curtain The War In Germany

Ex LDV Driver Oh What A Lovely War (For the 'Look' - 'Duck' - 'Vanish' Brigade)

Audrey Fahey Some Went Into War Production - Others, The Forces

John Frost Read All About It - Germany - France - Home

Mildred Gordon London's East End

Pam Green North London - An Evacuee's Story

Molly Harris Three Bombs On Bath

Liz Hegarty A North London Childhood and My Father's Visits Home

Ernie Holden Dunkirk

Bill Ibbottson My Story

Rodney James Skirmish During The Battle Of The Bulge

Eric Jeffs They Fired The Last Shot

Dorothy Jones Living In Liverpool and An Evacuee To Wales

Edna Jury Kings Cross - West Malling and Leicester

Jean Lamont North London and Yorkshire Memories

Patrick Laurence Pregnancy and Buying Donkeys

David Lee My Closest Call Of All And In The Country Too!

Jack Lomax Pinpointing The Enemy

Jack Lumley Leaving France - (The Dunkirk Route)

Mary Mackie Living In Manchester Was Not That Bad

Molly Maloney Problems In Holland

Betty Martin Leaving London For Hever and Other 'Adventures'

Alan McDonald The Important Story Of 'Bomber Harris'

Doreen Miles Dunkirk, and Moving To London

Janie Mills On Joining REME

Cyril Mills Early Days - Italy - Romance (nearly) - Casino - England

Jean Moore Evacuated To Hertfordshire

Greta Morris A Childhood In Friern Barnet - North London

Bill Netherwood From Sixty Years

Stephanie Oral I Was Born At Folly Farm

Annie Painter The Army Service Corps and On Being A Secretary

Colin Pearce North London and A Near Miss

Hannah Piper Leaving Home For The First Time

Pat Powell The Day We Were Bombed Out

Roy Powell Air Raids and A Handbag

Jill Price Ballroom Dancing - Secret Operations and The FANY's

Percy Reboul Childhood Memories

James Roffey A Twelve Year Old's Memories Of VE Day

Roy Simmons Bombs In Barnet North London

Rosemary Siret North London and A Bomb In The Park

Margaret Stephen A Glimpse Of Life As A WREN

George Stott Words Of Comfort From The Padre

Renee Swain A Projectionist

Fredrick 'Duke' Thompson Everone Has 15 Minutes Of Fame and Other Stories

Albert Tyrer Ambush In The Desert

Stefan Waydenfeld The Ice Road

Carol Weight A Daytime Raid

Jon Westerby The Death Of A Brother

Irene White I Came As A Stranger

Albert Winstanley A Tale Of Love And War

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