大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Violet Denning and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I experienced a lot of loss as a result of the war. My youngest brother was 21 and a Sergeant Air-Gunner. They had just dropped their bombs on Mannerham and were on their way home when they were shot down on the English coast. The plane came down in flames and no-one was saved.

My other brother, Walter, was in the Royal Corps of Signals. He joined the army before the war and went out to Japan. When war started he was taken Prisoner of War straight away. He was in Sarwark Borneo in the middle of the jungle. He lived right through til the war was over, but our people couldn鈥檛 get to him in the jungle. The only way they could get food to them was dropping parcels from the sky. But before they could release him he got ulcers on his legs and died as a result.

My husband was in the Royal Artillery and was stationed with the British Expeditionary Force in France. He was at Dunkirk and was on the beach for five days with nothing to eat by Marching Chocolate. He helped keep the guns going so that the little boats could get the other soldiers away. He became ill through not eating and when he came back to England he spent ten weeks in hospital. He was never able to eat normal size meals again. He died in 1990 of the affects of that illness, after 11 operations in which he had two thirds of his stomach removed.

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