大象传媒

Although it was many years ago now, evacuation is a day that will stay in my mind until the end.
It was 3rd September 1939, the day WWII broke out, that clothed in a short trousers, a tight fitting peaked schoolboys cap and school blazer that I boarded a train with others with a gas mask and satchel bound for North Wales.

There were others and we visited farms and were deposited with farmers and their wives. The farm I stayed at, there were no children, a sheep dog (which I immediately took to), chickens, and cows. My memories of that period was the sorrow I felt when a hen, who had about a dozen hatched chicks under her wing, lost a number of them due to the cold weather. Later there was an episode when a cow chased me, an animal until recently, I had an aversion to. The dog? Well as sheep dogs sometimes do, turned against the sheep and I can remember with some sorrow at seeing it 鈥榠mprisoned鈥� in a disused stable, prior to it being destroyed. It was with some sadness that I was moved on after a short stay.

Then followed a place where I was given the task of stripping goosefeet, evidently the exposed flesh was considered a delicacy. But it was hard a difficult work for a young boy of 7 years which I was by them. I must have been a handful due to the conditions I was staying in, for it was shortly after that, I was returned to my parents, who by this time had moved to Hoylake on the Wirral peninsula. I remember my mother being so unhappy, there must have been problems between her and my father which was no doubt the war had some bearing on.

Maybe it was for other domestic reasons, it was never explained to me why but I found myself moved yet again to what can only be described as a hellhole, where children who didn鈥檛 conform for the slightest reason, were given what was known then as a 鈥榗old bath鈥�. This barbarous practice consisted of stripping the child of all clothing, placing him/her in the bath of cold water that was filled to the brim and holding them under for 30 seconds or thereabouts. It is sometimes said that when people are really frightened they 鈥榮oil鈥� themselves (to use a polite term). I have seen such a girl in abject terror do such an act prior to being placed in the 鈥楥old Bath鈥�. There were children who because the cruelty was so bad, ran away, only to be returned by the police, whereupon two tables where brought together, the child was placed between two tables, told to raise themselves by placing their hands on either table until their feet cleared the ground and were the told 鈥淎s you like running, do it now until we say stop鈥�. Terrifying practices, which if practiced today, would see the tormentors in court for child cruelty.
I must have been there during the May Blitz of 1941, which saw the dockland area go up in flames as I recall watching Liverpool on fire from a window.

Soon after the bombing stopped, so it was a visit from my parents, that my mother, seeing the place that it was, took me home, where I saw the rubble from blitzes piled high down Dale Street, Liverpool. I stayed home so see the war鈥檚 end, venturing out with my Aunt to the cinema where I saw British Troops liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the end of the war out.

Leaving politics out, if anyone saw Michael Hesletine do an interview at the Old Vic theatre, London and televised on 大象传媒4 on Monday 4th August 2003, then he gave out all the reasons for joining Europe with a single currency. For it is the single currency that will bind Europe and experiences that I have told in this short narrative will never be repeated. It is Nationalism and financial deprivation that are the root causes of war. Those who haven鈥檛 seen war face to face will never realise the horrors that it can bring.

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