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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Lesley Carrick of the Norfolk Learning Partnership on behalf of Daphne Woolsey and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

We left Redhill in Surrey in 1942 and came back to Gooderstone near King’s Lynn where there was half the number of bombs. I was one of ten children and I must have been about eight years old at the time. We then moved to a little village called Didlington. There were army tents and air force literally yards from our doorstep. The area was swarming with RAF and RAF policemen. There were RAF policemen at North Pickenham and Swaffham, and many more personnel at West Raynham.

I can remember when I was about ten, Colonel Harris used to be a guest in our house, and we used to invite other airmen in for their meals. The army would supply some food. There was also the ‘British Restaurant’ in the village which supplied meat pies for village people. With all the men around it was an excellent time for dancing parties.

I can remember my Dad married again at this time, and one day my two young step brothers were playing in the garden under the trees. A German fighter plane flew over, came back, and deliberately shot at my brothers with machine guns.

We went to school at Didlington Hall which we shared with evacuee children. It was a lovely place with lakes in the grounds. Our teacher was Miss Hankishon. We were naughty one day and weren’t allowed to go out for a walk with her. We were lucky because Miss Hankinshon was blown off her bike by a land mine. The owner of Didlington Hall was Colonel Zitler — a German who changed his name to Smith. The authorities interned their son Mark, but the Smiths remained there.

Three sisters were evacuated to us — Lily, Doris and Rosie — and they all had head lice.

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