大象传媒

Events just prior to evacuation

The year was 1938 and Adolph Hitler was starting his quest to conquer Europe. He began by Annexing German speaking Austria much to the delight of the people, who were mainly Nazi orientated anyway, he continued by taking the Sudetenland,the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia. Now the rest of Europe was beginning to worry as to where it was going to end. The Germans had their Siegfried Line and the French had their Maginot Line both sides thinking their line was impregnable, but they were both very much mistaken, as History tells us. The French had the strongest army but lacked leadership, we on the other hand needed to transport our troops and arms across the channel, in the meantime Hitler kept on saying that after this piece of Czechoslovaklia he had no more territorial gains but Mr Chamberlain and Monsieur Daladier of France were nevertheless very worried and rightly so, as it eventually turned out. I remember Mr Chamberlain returning to Croydon Airport from meeting Hitler in Munich,waving a piece of paper and saying, that Mr Hitler and I have drawn up a paper for peace, and here it is he said waving the paper.

Preparations for war were taking place, gas masks were being issued,trying them on was a horrendous experience, it was very difficult to breathe and everybody hoped that we would never have to use them. Identity cards were being issued, and we didn't have to pay for them either, I had a blue one and the adults a white one. Air raid sirens were being tested it all seemed like a game for us younger generation, but as time went by and the Germans were occupying more and more of the continent it became more serious. The Germans were at the Channel in no time and they were looking at us waiting to invade. The time had now come to evacuate the children to a safer place in the country.

At the time my family were living in a top floor flat in Gore Road Hackney overlooking Victoria Park in East London I remember who lived in tha 4 -story house they were, in the basenent lived Mr Mrs Mears, he served in the first world war and was badly wounded. He walked with a stick and was also suffering from the effects of being gassed, he coughed all the time,as young as I was (I was 10years old) you had to feel very sorry for him, being a kid I didn't take too much notice of his disabilities, but the consequences of them came to me in later years. He eked out a meagre living selling sweets and chocolates from a little barrow at the St Agnes Gate of Victoria Park. On the first floor lived a couple Mr and Mrs Deutch who had only recently escaped from Germany to the freedom of this country. On the second floor was a family named Mr and Mrs Kleinman also refugees from the Germany but I did'nt know what they did, and on the top floor lived my mother and father my two brothers and two sisters THE GORDONS.

One day late in 1938 council workers came with their lorries and tools and started to dig up the park right opposite where we lived, being a nosy kid always asking questions I asked what they doing, they told me they were making Air Raid Shelters. I asked again questions, what they were for and I was told that when the German bombers came and bombed us there was somewhere for us to go to be safe, eventually the shelters were finished, I made an inspection of them and saw that they were enough for two bench like seats, and an aisle the whole length of the shelter. They were very long, there and then I decided that I would never go into them, but as it turned out, but that was later on I consented to stand in the entrance.

The Evacuation

My brother Harry sister Teresa and I Ben went to Lauriston Road School in South Hackney which was Opposite Victoria Park, the talk started about us being evacuated. At the time it was considered a rumour, but it didn't takt too long for rumour to become fact and preparations were made for the school to go to Norfolk. There was a lot of talk amongst the children about where we were going and how we were going to get there. I at that time had never been on a train or in a charabanc which was the old fashioned coaches of today and it wasn't too long before a note was given for our parents telling them where we were to go and the date and time to be there. Eventually the time came and we all presented ourselves at Lauriston Road School on the appointed date and time with our gas masks slung over our shoulders our brown label with our personal details pinned on ourlapels and our small cases with all the necessary things to take and joined with all the other children going to Norfolk. the excitement was intense. Where we were going was to us the unknown, but we were looking forward to an adventure. eventually we were herded together, we said goodbye to our parents. I must admit there were a few tears, some of the children created quite a wail but we boarded our charabanc and with the teachers who were coming with us to see that we were properly settled into our new homes, and off to Liverpool Stree Station we went.

When we arrived at the station there were hundreds of children waiting to go to the unknown. it was a very daunting experience, fortunately the teachers coming with us kept a close eye on us. The great big steam train puffed its way onto the patform and the porters were there to help load there cargo of crying children into the right carriage. My brother Harry and sister Teresa and I were finally allocated a carriage and I made a dive for a window seat and got one,now we were ready for our great adventure.

As the train slowly puffed its way out of the station a song went up to which I joined in with enthusiam, it was Little Sir Echo how do you do, and into the country we went, as we passed through the countryside we saw animals which I had never seen before, I started to count the cows, the horses the sheep it was like a new world to us townies, we saw the soldiers in the fields, big guns pointing into the sky, barrage balloons floating in the air and I wondered what they were for and I eventually found out, at one point we saw planes on the ground and it was wonderland.

We finally got to our destination which was a place called Thetford. We got out of the train and were herded over to a side and the teachers got busy with the paperwork, who was going where. Eventually a mode of trnsport appeared I truly would't know what to call it but it served the purpose. We got in and our journey began as to where we were going to live whilst we were down here. The transport that's what I shal call it ,the transport kept stoping, children got off with it must have been the billeting officer and eventually our turn came. There were three of us and it wasn't too easy to find somebdy to take us in but at last a publican (there was only one pub in this village) decided he could manage three kids from the as he put it the Big Smoke.

We thanked the kind person who had found us such lovely accomodation and we then got used to all the does and dont's. We then went to find our sleeping places,you went up a spiral staircase right to the top of this massive place, I suppose we washed and changed our meagre clothing to go down to get something to eat. One of things we missed was sweets, you had to have sweet coupons to buy them, and even if we had the coupons we didn't have any money and that made us very miserable at times.

After we had eaten we decide to scout around or at least I did and found behind this great pub a field where harvesting had just begun, I joined in carrying the stooks and stacking them ready to be taken to and onto the haywagon, I managed to get job on the wagon and got a ride to the Haystack, my sister Teresa wouldn't have liked that job as there were quite a few mice scurrying out of the wheat and she was very squeamish.

We eventually went to sleep and the next day arrived, what was the drill to be, education,education we had to go school. There wasn't a school in our village so we had to go to Great Cressingham the big brother to our Little Cressingham. It really wasn't much bigger but it housed the school, the three of us enrolled I suppose as aliens from anther planet for the duration of the war, or so they thought. A problem we came across was the way they spoke, they had quite an accent and at times it was difficult to understand them, but gradually we did. I expect that many of the evacuees ended up speaking with a similar brogue. During this time nothing was happening on the war front, no bombing, no invasion nothing, it was dubbed the phoney war. We carried on for some weeks, then out of the blue our mother and our eldest brother arrived to take us back home, as our father was in the army. So the great adventure was short lived and we returned home to London.

THE ADVETURES WILL BE CARRIED ON ANOTHER TIME

BEN GORDON.