大象传媒

My first realization of the War was when I was just 8 years old. I was on holiday with my mum and dad at Folkestone that is next to Dover
In those days the ferries used to cross to France from Folkestone. Although we hadn't actually declared War on Germany until the invaded Poland, people from France, Germany and Italy etc were trying desperately to get home to their own countries and likewise the ships returning from France were full of British people trying to get back to their own homeland, because once war was declared; you became an enemy immediately and would be placed in prison. It was very sad seeing people crying who had been friends for many years who all of a sudden Became enemies and watching this made me start to feel very frightened.

The town in which I lived, called Chatham, was a prime target for the Germans to bomb because the Royal Marines were based there, it was Naval dockyard where the HMS Victory was built and it was home to many British war ships. It was also a very large submarine base and the Royal Engineer barracks were there.

The first time the War began to affect me was when my school had to close and was only opened when everybody had to be issued with a gas mask, which again for children was very frightening. While all this was going on it was pretty quiet. It wasn't until the Battle of Britain started the following August, that the bombing started properly. By then, we were almost living in our air raid shelter in the garden. It was uncomfortable but at least safe unless a bomb actually fell on top of it. The Council came to houses and left a sort of do-it-yourself kit to build. These were called Anderson shelters but called dugouts because you had to bury it in your garden. Anderson was a viscount who designed them, hence the shelter named after him. If you didn't have a garden, you were issued with a shelter, which you put underneath a table indoors. This was called a Morrison shelter named after Herbert Morrison.颅
As the bombing was now becoming very dangerous, it was decided that all children should be evacuated to a safer place. As you know, children are the next generation and all countries would see that their children survive.

My brother and I were sent to Devon to a tiny village called Uffculme. When we were in London there was a really bad air raid taking place and the railways were trying to get everyone out of the city. Once again, for me, a feeling of dread and terror. The train was packed with children and refugees from Belgium and Holland with loads of crying people and babies. The train was packed, every space taken, whether sitting or standing and although frightened, that was when I first felt guilty in my life because I had a big china doll with me (called Ena), which was taking up space. We finally arrived after many long hours and went to live with a stationmaster called Mrs Richards. We enjoyed living with Mrs. Richards because she allowed us to work the signals, open and close the gates and telephone the next station to say the train was on its way. There were only 4 trains a day on a single lane so it wasn't exactly Piccadilly.

We stayed there for about three months and then we were taken to a big dairy farm called Silverlands. This was by horse and cart. There was another evacuee living there called Doreen from London. Most people who lived in safe areas were expected to take evacuees.

The farmer was told by the Government what to grow and any land not needed for pasture was used for growing wheat. As Hitler had many submarines in the Atlantic, which sunk many ships carrying grain, we had to try to feed ourselves. There were many, many brave men killed trying to feed us and many ships lost at sea. At this time there was a slogan called "Dig for victory" and everyone whether they had large or small gardens did away with lawns and flowers and grew food as it was vital to do so. As awful as it may sound to you now, most people kept rabbits just for their meat as the meat ration was a very small amount. (Rationing for farmers). Everybody on the farm had to work during harvest time.
We went to the local village school which was very backwards and the children there thought we spoke oddly for in those days few people traveled and most people in Devon, in the countryside, would have thought going to London would be like us going to the moon.

One day I was playing on a machine, which cuts up corn stalks and cut my hand really badly. The nearest town was 18 miles away and the only transport we had was the old horse and cart, so instead of having stitches done at the hospital like you would nowadays, I had to have my hand bandaged very tightly and to make matters worse, I got into really big trouble as I shouldn't have been playing in the barn as the cows were being milked!

My mum did visit us once whilst we were living at the farm and we wrote to one another weekly because as you know, there were no telephones then.
After 2 years it seemed safe for us to return home as we learned that the Germans were no longer going to invade Britain. I came home and only spent odd nights in the air raid shelter. In June 1944 the flying bombs started. Which again was very frightening, as no one knew what they were. You didn't know which way to run for as the engines stopped, they fell straight to the earth. They were very explosive and killed many people. Once again I was to be evacuated, this time without my brother who by then had reached the age of 14 and had then started work.
This time, I was sent to Yorkshire, which to us children in those days felt like the other side of the world as no one had heard of it. I was very lucky as I was billeted with a Mr. and Mrs. Holdsworth who had a daughter my age, 13 was a very large house with tennis courts. They were very kind to me and I even had piano lessons and singing lessons. I had a very happy time here and remember many experiences one of which was a commotion in the middle of the night. A lady was crying with a baby and two toddlers. -She was really distressed because she had been billeted in a really dirty house and they were all covered in hundreds of fleas. As previously mentioned, Mr and Mrs Holdsworth were very good, kindly people who took this lady and her children into their home bathed them and took care of them. Another thing I remember so well was meeting a British soldier who had escaped from Germany and who I felt was very brave.

I suppose really being evacuated was an experience, which helped me, grow up quickly and taught me the terror of war, for although I was very lucky where I was billeted; I was always very frightened of the Germans landing in our country. I could read before the War and was therefore aware of all the terrible things Germany were doing.

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