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This story was submitted to the Peoples’ War site by Katherine Campbell of WW2 People's War Team, on behalf of Jean Sharpe de Vries and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Sharpe de Vries fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

My mother and I had a favourite wartime singer - Anne Shelton. She was very pretty, blonde, quite buxom, and she never received as much publicity as Vera Lynn but from the heart, she was a genuine lovely person. She lived in London. She looked after her elderly Jewish mother. She cared for her and she didn't marry when she was young. During the war, her mother also entertained troops, and she was a great favourite. She died in the mid nineties.

I remember listening to Anne Shelton on the radio, of course we didn't have television. She used to sing My Yiddish Mother with great feeling.

In Bournemouth, we went in the park one day and a German plane came, with an iron cross and started machine gunning the people in the park. That was really frightening. We went in to the rhodedendrun bushes. On another occasion, a German plane came down opposite where we were living. The pilot was only 18, and alone. My mother said, you must feel sorry as it was somebody's son. We think he tried to land in the sea, as we lived immediately on the coast.

There were lots of Americans and Canadians in the hotel next door. Because we had a fridge, they used to come for ice and have a cool friend. Sometimes we kept in touch. Two Canadians were killed, and one American. The Canadian was called Reg Medhurst. He died in a Lancaster Bomber. We used to write to his father in Tornonto. The American was called Eddie Morris. He knew he was going to die. My mother tried to comfort him. I think he died in the landings at D-Day; he was in the Infantry.

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