大象传媒

Being only 3 years old when it began one grew up to the fine old age of nine with the constant news of war and the tradgedy of it all. You could read it all by looking at the faces of family and friends. When the soilders were winning the battles against the enemy all were praying for an early ending -then days would be when we were having to retreat and thankfully ,able to regroup and go back to the front line and fight for britan and freedom. Hitler and his massive army had only one thing on their mind -to capture us and be ruler of the whole of Europe. Thankfully the British army had the sheer fighting spirit. After all they didnt have much else. Completly inadiquate regarding weapons as important as guns tanks and such. Unfortunatly many thousands lost their lives and many civillians too. As night raids from the enemy left many towns flattened. As youngsters we viewed it with awe After we would be visited over night with a regiment having moved in on a training exersise. They set up camp with tents everywere .Sleeping quarters, Kitchens, toilets eta and of course the officers had to be allowed a room in your home. This was all very exiting being young. We did not take the seriousness of it all. Then they would pracitce gun fire by fireing these massive machines futher up the vallry. Granted the farmers of these hills were warned of the exersises so that they could ask the sheaperd to move his flock. But it was not posible to bring all the stock from the hilsideso it was little wonder that a few sheep were unfortunatly killed. At times the firing range would go haywire and the bombs would fall within a mile of the site Again as youngsters this was viewed with great exitment. the cook house was the most visited by we children. never tased bacon and eggs quite like the way they tasted on those early mornings. What was most unusual in these war years was the lack of young men in the area. There was a clause in the enlisting ruling that a few must be released from call-up to what was called 'keep Britan fed'. That was young men who must stay and work on farms. Young woemen too known as 'the land girls army'. Then every other able bodied man in the district had to sign up to a movement know as the home guard. Its name describes its function. To guard us all. they met two times a week and were very sierous about the whole exersise. Had their commander, and other higher ranking officers men who probibly had experience in WW1, know nowadays with the popular T.V. programe 'dads army'! Days rolled by and we as children didn't take in the seriousnes of it all. What we did lack was the shortage of sweets, sugar was rationed, petrol was only available if you had a buisiness and aplied for coupons. Even clothes were only bought if you had coupons. Coupons were a valued thing in the war days They were to be exchaged for household goods. It was to be many years afterthe war had ended before you could go out and acctually get sweets eta without showing your coupons. In fact it was to be 7 years after before you heard the saying 'oh its off ration now!'. As with all wars there are prisoners of war and in 1946 the first appered in South Scotland. Firstly they were Italians who came and helped with the farm. Coming with transport from the local camp (armed) to see all behaved themselves. Later there were Germans and then Ukrainians. Many have settled in this part of the country and even their famelies are part of the community.
Proving its a funny old world. Nothing comes out of wars exept loss of life and much sadness.

Finaly my greatest memory of war was V Day. the winning of the war brought great celebrations.The like of never to be seen again. Everywere bonfires were lit and even on our own farm a massive fire was lit and sining and dancing went on well into the night. Today the actual hill is known as Hitlers Knowe.

Footnote

All this writing about war years and the effect it had on youngsters and I haven't mentioned Evacuees who came from the larger towns in Scotland. That was young children having to be taken away from thier families and taken in by the families in the countryside and to live as normal life as was possible. They were taken away for their saftey away from the air raids and other enemy attacks. That were aimed to destroy the heavy industrys in order to try and cripple the country. As you can well expect many young children felt very unhappy and took ages to settle in others however seemed to settle in straight away. They went to the local school and the wee school was bursting at the seams. Two extra teachers had to be brought in to help with teaching. Many friendships were formed and even today many return with their families to tell were they spent their childhood and visit the old school.
Remeberance day is a day when we all should show our grattitude to those who fought for our freedom.

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