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This story has been submitted by Margaret Payne of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf Ann Hinde and has been added to the site with her permission.

My father used to drink in the Whipping Stocks public house in Peover, with General Patton’s batman, because General Patton was stationed at Peover Hall — at the time they were planning the various elements of the war leading up to D-Day.

My father was a sergeant in the Home Guard and they had one gun of which he was in charge of. In the event of an invasion, they had to guard the telephone box at the Post Office!!

He also got friendly with a Polish prisoner of war called Josef, who was stationed at Table. He had been conscripted into the German Air force and shot down. He was very relieved to be taken prisoner by the British; They worked on farms as labourers. My father used to turn up with him for meals — my mother never used to know who was coming to the house! I was a very small baby and Josef used to cry because his daughter was perhaps slightly older or may be the same age when he last saw her. He made a pair of rope shoes (slippers) which I still have today. I also have a photograph of the prisoners of war stood outside the village hall.

After the war, Josef was repatriated by the Red Cross and his family were traced. He wrote to us from Graz in Austria where he was living in poor circumstances with his family. My father gave him a book of words and taught him English, but which he lost on the train. At the end of the war, his daughter wrote a note to me to say she heard I had a lovely house and many toys. We believe that later on they emigrated to Canada to start a new life. I still have that letter!

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