大象传媒

As I cast my mind back seventy years I am quite amazed that my recollection of my first ten years of life should be so vivid.
I am able to recall in detail those early years when the WW2 shadow was absolute.
Every minute of every hour of every day British children thought of little else.
From the time one awoke, and this would have been many times in an air raid shelter to the food that we ate, and this was drastically reduced in terms of taste and flavour, we were aware of the sacrifice our armed forces were making in putting nourishment on our plates.
Even at play we collected jagged pieces of shrapnel and held them aloft as a jubilant sportsman does with a trophy. In the playground we spread our outstretched arms wide and each took on the fabric and skin of a Royal Air Force fighter droning our way across the playground and spitting fire from our 20mm cannons. It was easy to duplicate - for we only had to cast our eyes skyward and spy the familiar vapour trails as our Fathers, Uncles and Brothers gambled with their lives in one to one battles against the foe.
Evacuation was a word that children soon became familiar with. Young folk between the ages of 5 to 15 were frequently separated from their parents and dispatched to places many miles away.
Some even to Canada and the USA.
More locally, the residents in rural communities pronounced 'open house' to the authorities and willingly offered to take care of evacuees in their hour of need.
There are many such stories on the 大象传媒 website pages. The writer contributed with the story of Evacuation X Three: Chipppenham, Grantham and Gloucestershire.
WW2 was the first nationwide conflict to involve citizens in life or death situations on a massive scale. Of the estimated 55 million war dead some 30 million were civilian. (Source; Phoebus's History of the Second World War).
Although the British figure covering civilian deaths was only a tiny fraction of this it was none the less on a scale never previously experienced. It was assessed as 80,000, the entire population perhaps of an entire English town!
Following the Normanday invasion in 1944 and an end to the flying bomb menace launched in that year, childen began to return to their homes.
By the time peace was proclaimed in 1945 most evacuees had already returned. Some had been away for more than five years and picking up the threads of schooling and a normal family life was in itself a major challenge.
Mind you, witnessing the spirit and happiness seen at the thousands of street parties up and down the UK in the summer of 1945 one could only admire the courage and optimism that the younger generation exhibited.
Perhaps it was this display of the true Bitish character that would ensure they would prevail in the post war years.
For most, their childhood had been stolen, for most the WW2 adventure would implant memories and experiences that would remain with them all their lives and they surely would have certainly grown alot wiser to the necessity yet futility of war.