The Children's War
Hockliffe Lower School
WW2 Home | The Home Front
Sophie
My
name is Sophie, here I am with my Grandma. When WW2 started my Grandma was
2years old. My friend Jake and I have written her story:
"My name is Mary. I lived in London. I got sent away to live with a
relative in Kent. I remember when my mum was an air raid warden and a bomb
went off and her legs and arms were cut. Two Irish boys who lived near me in
London were also sent to live with my cousins. Many years later I went to
their weddings!
I remember my dad's army number 01664179. Once when I was walking home from
school, I saw my dad. I shouted daddy except from it wasn't my dad.
One of my uncles was
seriously injured. He lost both his legs in a land mine explosion. When he
came home he spent many months in hospital but unfortunately died of his
injuries about a year later. I still have the model ship in a glass case
which he made in hospital. My dad paid him 30 for it to help him because he
couldn't work."
Alexander
Hello my name is Alexander, I am going to tell you about the amazing journey my friend Sophie's Grandad made when he was 10 years old during WW2.
"My name is Joseph. In 1942 I lived with my parents in northern Turkey,
when my father was told that his parents were ill back in Swansea. We had to
go back home to see them. The journey was quite an experience. I went in a
car from the south of Turkey all the way down to Syria and Palestine which
is now Israel. We had to go by car because trains were in use only for
military use. We were always stopping for me to be sick! We spent a night in
a transit camp outside Haifa. In Cairo we went on a ship through the Suez
Canal down the east coast of Africa to Cape Town. We boarded a large ship
which had four funnels called Aquitania. It had sister ships called
Lucitania, Mauritania and the Titanic. We sailed
from Cape Town up the west
coast of Africa to Britain. We sailed through the Atlantic Ocean. Our ship
carried P.O.Ws (prisoners of war) guarded by armed British soldiers. One of
them died and they slid him into the water. We were guarded by Royal Navy
corvettes and destroyers against torpedo attacks, some were close and some
were far away.
We
docked in Liverpool and caught a train to Swansea. When we got there it was
completely dark because of the blackout which I had never seen.
Because of the lack of petrol we had to walk three miles from the station to
my grandfather's house. Unfortunately by the time we got there, both
my grandparents had died which was very sad because we had travelled so far
to see them. My wartime journey was a memorable experience for a ten
year old."
Simon
My name is Simon and I asked my Grandad what it was like for him in the Second World War. My friend Jasmin and I have written his story.
"My name is Gordon. I was 5 years old at the start of the war. I had five evacuees staying with me but I was not evacuated. One of them didn't like staying away from his mum so he went back home to Portsmouth where a bomb landed on his house and he died. Wearing a gas mask smelled all rubbery. It got all steamed up. One day we went for a picnic at the South Downs and two airplanes had a fight in the sky. One looked like it was going to come straight down at me so I ran two miles home. My father was a home guard and a market gardener. He fought in the First World War but was too old to fight in WW2."
Oliver
Hello, I am Oliver and I talked to my Grandad about what it was like in WW2, this is what he told me.
"My name is Fred. I was 6 years old during the war. I lived in
Vauxhall in London. I was not evacuated. I went to the shelter when the
bombs fell. The Vauxhall car factory got bombed and lots of people got
killed. I didn't like wearing a gas mask but my teacher made me. It was
awful to wear. I couldn't breathe properly or see very well through the
glass.
The most scariest thing was when I went to the air aid shelter. I
could see the search lights and hear the bombs. When the war ended we all
went to a party in the street and everybody was happy."
Jaimey
My name is Jaimey and my Grandma was a teenager during WW2. This is what
she told me it was like to live then.
"My name is Betty. I lived in Totternhoe in Bedfordshire in the WW2. I practised wearing my gasmask in school for an hour. It was unpleasant and it made a funny noise when you breathed out. An evacuee called Pat came to stay with us. Pat stayed with us for three years. I was at school when the war started but I left school when the war was on and went to work in a factory that made paper and doilies."
Patrick
My Name is Patrick and my Nanny was four years old when WW2 started. This is her story.
"I lived in London all through the war and was never evacuated. I only
saw my father once in the six years of the war. When there was going to be
an air raid, you had to go to the nearest shelter. A big siren went off when
a raid was going to happen and another siren went off when the raid was
over. If you were at home and the siren went off you had to go in a shelter
called an Anderson shelter. Some people had an indoor shelter, it was a big
table made of steel and the whole family slept under it.
The most frightening bomb I can remember was the one they called a
doodlebug. You could hear its engine coming overhead and when the engine
stopped you knew it was coming down. One night a doodlebug fell on the last
two houses of our block of twelve and sadly all the people died.
All food was rationed in the war; you couldn't go out and buy what you
liked. There were no sweets or fruit available. You had to even have
coupons for clothes and had to save them up until you had enough to buy
something to wear. Once I queued up all night with my sister because we
heard a shoe shop was having a delivery, in the morning we were at the front
when the shop opened and used our coupons to get a pair of shoes each.
All the street lights were turned off in London during the war so it was
very dark in the roads. At home you weren't allowed to have any lights
showing so we had to have all the windows covered with blackout curtains.
Terrible things happened in the war, people lost their families, friends and
homes and some people were badly injured. But in London everyone helped each
other and they were very brave."
WW2 Home | The Home Front
Page last updated: 25th February 2014