My dear dad got evacuated to Laindon in Essex in 1939 !!! where by all accounts he had a time of his life ,from the streets of Lambeth to the countryside was like a great big holiday . He was 14 , so not such a scary move like some went through. but little did he know that by the time he was 19 he would be landing on the D-day beaches in Normandy .
However I think those days in Leafy Essex stood him in good stead for what was to follow, Slighty rougher maybe ;-)
A bit late ( me not the Guardian) but the Guardian are also doing a daily 30 or so insert on WW2 this week- Just read Saturday's one and tbh- a really good insight on the background to the start (if indeed this date is correct) of WW2.
Back copies can be bought and i for one will give these to my children.
[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]They (the Grauniad) did a similar series of booklets on WWI last year.
Talking about WW1- I'm in the middle of Sebastian Faulk's "Birdsong" at the mo- If you haven't read it- part 2 has some of the most graphic depictions of life in the trenches during WW1.
I was brought up on stories of what the Germans did to us in the second World War.
My grandad couldn't fight due to a medical condition so he spent the first part of the war in the east end, Canning town, pulling charred and dead bodies out from bombed buildings. My Grandad died when I was quite young, but my abiding memory of him was a pure and unadulterated hatred of the Germans.
One night, during one of the Luftwaffe's fire bombings of the East end, grandad took the family to the river where they basically stole a boat and rowed across the river, our great Auntie lived on shooters hill where our family spent the rest of the war.
Sometimes, when I'm down by the Thames, I look across and wonder what that must have looked like, sitting in a boat, looking back at the riverside in flames, searchlights in the sky, sirens and bombs exploding.
Over the years I've lived in Germany and Japan, visiting some of the most historically significant places of that terrible century. Cologne, Berlin, Arnham, Nagasaki, Auswitse, The River Kwai.. there are so many more.
I don't know. Nagasaki was something. I guess you had to be there.
Great story of your family experiences during the Blitz, caught in the same Luftwaffe raids as my Mum's family in Tidal Dock Basin/Canning Town ...... as I posted above.
Just across the river from Charlton.
Living in Cornwall, I frequently go to Plymouth which had the guts of the city burnt out with incendiary bombing in the Plymouth Blitz. The entire city centre was destroyed, thousands incinerated in their homes.
Plymouth city centre was rebuilt in the 50's, but the ruins of the bombed out and blackened Charles Cross church still stands as a monument to the courage and endurance of those dark days.
I remember being in Berlin some years ago and being amazed to see what appeared to be it's twin .....the burned and bombed out ruin of the Fraukirche (women's church), again preserved as a memorial.
The Dom in Koln somehow defiantly survived the Allied bombing, but in Dresden the fire infernoes wiped out almost the entire city. But then the London East End, Plymouth, Swansea, Coventry and many others had been charred and scarred in the same way.
Some great stories on here from those sad, tragic days.
For any of you out there who still have living relatives from WWII I would urge you to get their memories down on paper (or DVD) as a permanent part of your family's history.
My Grandfather was in the Polish Army and was separated from his family during the war - some were killed in concentration camps, others survived the war but emigrated to the US and he never saw them again.
He was captured by the Germans and put in prison camps but managed to escape (twice, amazingly) and made his way across Europe with a fellow Pole and they eventually managed to make their way to norther France from where they got shipped to England and then onto a resettlement camp in Scotland.
Even after he was released from the camp and allowed to come to London he was in a terrible state and told me he used to drink a bottle of vodka every day to try and blot out the memory of what he had been through and of losing his family.
He eventually took himself to a Polish doctor in London who he became great friends with and who helped him get his life back on track and off the booze - he never drunk spirits again - and he ended up meeting my Grandmother and settling in Brockley and then Catford.
Every year on NYE he had to report to the local Police Station to register with the authorities as he was not a citizen - until the Labour MP Bob Mellish helped him get UK citizenship in the 1970's, something for which he was always very proud.
The amazing thing was that he hated the French way more than the Germans! He said that the French were forever grassing up prisoners who were on the run and would never help you out with food or water. Even back in 1996 (he died in 1998) he absolutely refused point-blank to join a family holiday to France.
In contrast, he said that many Germans tried to help you out and that he met many Germans who detested the Nazis and were ashamed and embarassed at what was going on and would help hide you or help you despite the huge personal risk to themselves.
He told me one amazing story about being in a Prison Camp (where he was among the more senior Polish soldiers) and being called into the Camp Commander's office and thinking that he was going to be executed.
As it turned out the CC, who spoke Polish, explained that he had been a school headmaster before the war and he hated the Nazis and what was going on but had to join the Nazis to keep his family safe.
The CC explained that he really did not want to see any of the inmates come to any harm so asked my grandfather to keep the Poles under as much control as he could so as not to make trouble which could attract the attentions of the more bloodthirsty Nazis.
He had an amazing story yet we only know a tiny fraction of it and I wish so much that I had sat him down and gotten the whole story down on tape so I could tell my kids the full story.
RedZed333 Sep 3rd 2009 quote# 33 I hated Shooters Hill...!!
I went to Bloomfield in Plum Lane and we had to do our cross country runs up and down it every Friday morning in some of the most atrocious weather you could image....
Remember that quite well.......remember putting my foot on a rusty nail in the farm section at the bottom of shooters hill in my plimsoles
I was there from 61 till 69 stayed till sixth form then went to art college a year later v after i took a year out. If you were there you would have remembered me I had had long hair and was a prefect . John Austin/ Martin Chamberlain/John Davies played for the school football team.
Lou Martin from the rory gallagher band was at the school a year up from us. Only famous person to graduate from there!
[cite]Posted By: ken from bexley[/cite]RedZed333 Sep 3rd 2009 quote# 33
I hated Shooters Hill...!!
I went to Bloomfield in Plum Lane and we had to do our cross country runs up and down it every Friday morning in some of the most atrocious weather you could image....
Remember that quite well.......remember putting my foot on a rusty nail in the farm section at the bottom of shooters hill in my plimsoles
I was there from 61 till 69 stayed till sixth form then went to art college a year later v after i took a year out.
If you were there you would have remembered me I had had long hair and was a prefect . John Austin/ Martin Chamberlain/John Davies played for the school football team.
Lou Martin from the rory gallagher band was at the school a year up from us. Only famous person to graduate from there!
I served my time from 1966-1971, I can't say I remember you to be honest....
There are some good photos on Friends Reunited, you might recognise one or two faces on there...
Errol Kennedy, drummer with pop group Imagination went to Bloomfield, he might be about your age, Mark Penfold went on to play for Charlton and Charlie Buchan who is still Sunderland's all time top goal scorer with 224 goals also went there...
In the summer we used to stop off at the allotments and nick a few strawberrys, probably how I became such a good runner...
Comments
However I think those days in Leafy Essex stood him in good stead for what was to follow, Slighty rougher maybe ;-)
Back copies can be bought and i for one will give these to my children.
Talking about WW1- I'm in the middle of Sebastian Faulk's "Birdsong" at the mo- If you haven't read it- part 2 has some of the most graphic depictions of life in the trenches during WW1.
A truly wonderful read.....
My grandad couldn't fight due to a medical condition so he spent the first part of the war in the east end, Canning town, pulling charred and dead bodies out from bombed buildings. My Grandad died when I was quite young, but my abiding memory of him was a pure and unadulterated hatred of the Germans.
One night, during one of the Luftwaffe's fire bombings of the East end, grandad took the family to the river where they basically stole a boat and rowed across the river, our great Auntie lived on shooters hill where our family spent the rest of the war.
Sometimes, when I'm down by the Thames, I look across and wonder what that must have looked like, sitting in a boat, looking back at the riverside in flames, searchlights in the sky, sirens and bombs exploding.
Over the years I've lived in Germany and Japan, visiting some of the most historically significant places of that terrible century. Cologne, Berlin, Arnham, Nagasaki, Auswitse, The River Kwai.. there are so many more.
I don't know. Nagasaki was something. I guess you had to be there.
Great story of your family experiences during the Blitz, caught in the same Luftwaffe raids as my Mum's family in Tidal Dock Basin/Canning Town ...... as I posted above.
Just across the river from Charlton.
Living in Cornwall, I frequently go to Plymouth which had the guts of the city burnt out with incendiary bombing in the Plymouth Blitz. The entire city centre was destroyed, thousands incinerated in their homes.
Plymouth city centre was rebuilt in the 50's, but the ruins of the bombed out and blackened Charles Cross church still stands as a monument to the courage and endurance of those dark days.
I remember being in Berlin some years ago and being amazed to see what appeared to be it's twin .....the burned and bombed out ruin of the Fraukirche (women's church), again preserved as a memorial.
The Dom in Koln somehow defiantly survived the Allied bombing, but in Dresden the fire infernoes wiped out almost the entire city. But then the London East End, Plymouth, Swansea, Coventry and many others had been charred and scarred in the same way.
For any of you out there who still have living relatives from WWII I would urge you to get their memories down on paper (or DVD) as a permanent part of your family's history.
My Grandfather was in the Polish Army and was separated from his family during the war - some were killed in concentration camps, others survived the war but emigrated to the US and he never saw them again.
He was captured by the Germans and put in prison camps but managed to escape (twice, amazingly) and made his way across Europe with a fellow Pole and they eventually managed to make their way to norther France from where they got shipped to England and then onto a resettlement camp in Scotland.
Even after he was released from the camp and allowed to come to London he was in a terrible state and told me he used to drink a bottle of vodka every day to try and blot out the memory of what he had been through and of losing his family.
He eventually took himself to a Polish doctor in London who he became great friends with and who helped him get his life back on track and off the booze - he never drunk spirits again - and he ended up meeting my Grandmother and settling in Brockley and then Catford.
Every year on NYE he had to report to the local Police Station to register with the authorities as he was not a citizen - until the Labour MP Bob Mellish helped him get UK citizenship in the 1970's, something for which he was always very proud.
The amazing thing was that he hated the French way more than the Germans! He said that the French were forever grassing up prisoners who were on the run and would never help you out with food or water. Even back in 1996 (he died in 1998) he absolutely refused point-blank to join a family holiday to France.
In contrast, he said that many Germans tried to help you out and that he met many Germans who detested the Nazis and were ashamed and embarassed at what was going on and would help hide you or help you despite the huge personal risk to themselves.
He told me one amazing story about being in a Prison Camp (where he was among the more senior Polish soldiers) and being called into the Camp Commander's office and thinking that he was going to be executed.
As it turned out the CC, who spoke Polish, explained that he had been a school headmaster before the war and he hated the Nazis and what was going on but had to join the Nazis to keep his family safe.
The CC explained that he really did not want to see any of the inmates come to any harm so asked my grandfather to keep the Poles under as much control as he could so as not to make trouble which could attract the attentions of the more bloodthirsty Nazis.
He had an amazing story yet we only know a tiny fraction of it and I wish so much that I had sat him down and gotten the whole story down on tape so I could tell my kids the full story.
I hated Shooters Hill...!!
I went to Bloomfield in Plum Lane and we had to do our cross country runs up and down it every Friday morning in some of the most atrocious weather you could image....
Remember that quite well.......remember putting my foot on a rusty nail in the farm section at the bottom of shooters hill in my plimsoles
I was there from 61 till 69 stayed till sixth form then went to art college a year later v after i took a year out.
If you were there you would have remembered me I had had long hair and was a prefect . John Austin/ Martin Chamberlain/John Davies played for the school football team.
Lou Martin from the rory gallagher band was at the school a year up from us. Only famous person to graduate from there!
There are some good photos on Friends Reunited, you might recognise one or two faces on there...
Errol Kennedy, drummer with pop group Imagination went to Bloomfield, he might be about your age, Mark Penfold went on to play for Charlton and Charlie Buchan who is still Sunderland's all time top goal scorer with 224 goals also went there...
In the summer we used to stop off at the allotments and nick a few strawberrys, probably how I became such a good runner...
So probably put you on detention! for being late or some such crime!
Davies was the headteacher who took over from Smith.
I was good at passing exams, and after only having three or four lads doing ' A' levels had about 20 per year.
I did Art, English, Economics, and History