Coming back from the evacuation we had gone to a different school which always takes a little getting used to but it wasn’t long before Mam decided we had had enough of the bombing and began looking for a cottage in the country. Very soon she found a cottage deep in the wilds of Northumberland and off we went again.

Our Grandmother decided to come with us and also our two cousins so Mam had her hands full looking after us.

This photo was taken in 1940 outside our cottage. It shows Lily and me standing at the back with 'Uncle' Bill, a friend of the family, and Billy holding his prized Spitfire. Our cousin, Harry, is next to them with Uncle Bill's dog.

This second photo was also taken in 1940 in front of our cottage. Unfortunately part of it is torn but it gives a little idea of how we looked. The bandage on Billy's knee was an almost permanent fixture as he was always running and falling over, but he looks happy enough!

Within minutes of arriving in the village we made friends with two girls of my age, Marjory and Joyce. They showed us the river at the top of the cul-de-sac, the end of our garden, and we decided to jump across. I held hands with the two girls and on landing on the other bank I overbalanced and fell backwards into the river. I went back to the cottage soaked from head to foot. My Mam and Grandmother were not best pleased to see me entering the cottage dripping wet within 20-30 minutes of arriving in the village!

The cottage was like stepping back into the previous century. It was the last house in a tiny cul-de-sac of four or five houses with nothing but fields for miles around. There was no hot water, there was no water period! This had to be carried from a tap in the centre of the cul- de-sac, a great meeting place for the ladies of the village.

It was also our job to bring the water which wasn't easy as it slopped over the bucket kept especially for that purpose. It was kept in a walk-in cold larder just off the kitchen where milk and cheese was also kept.

There was no indoor plumbing. The toilet was a two-seater dry closet at the end of the garden - you didn't have to be in a hurry! It was a large garden extending both at the back and the side and was bordered by fields. In the side garden was an old well which we discovered in the undergrowth. The whole garden, in fact, was very overgrown and we were never able to make use of it for growing vegetables whilst we were there.

There was no gas or electricity in the cottage, lighting was by candles or paraffin lamp, and cooking was by a coalheated oven.

We opened the drawers in the sideboard and got such a surprise - we found there to be full of hair! The owner had kept every strand of hair that had ever been cut.

Our milk was delivered by horse and cart and we carried out our jugs to be filled by a measuring scoop from large milk churns - lovely fresh milk from the nearby farms.

Vegetables were also delivered to our door by horse and cart. Bakery items came round in a small van.

In the village there were two rivers - the one at the end of our garden and the other, much wider, at the far end of the village. I loved this river as it had an Island in the middle and in the Spring we paddled across to pick the bluebells, it was a magical place.
In the summer we paddled across and had picnics and explored. A wonderful place for children who, with a little imagination, could conjure up all sorts of wonderful games.

Further along this river there was a ferry with a ferryman who lived in a cottage on the opposite side of the river. There was a bell to summon him when you wanted to cross over and I believe it cost 1d. It was called a 'ferry' but it was more like a raft which was moved by pulling on a double continual rope. We loved using this ferry and thought it was great fun crossing over in this way.

All this time, of course, things were progressing on the War Front. On the 9th April the Nazis invaded Norway and Denmark which brought another sadness into our hearts. Then on the 10th May the Nazis invaded France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The map of Europe was slowly turning red as our teachers showed us by colouring one country after another in red and filling them with swastikas as they collapsed under the heel of the Nazi jackboot.

In May the Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk began. Not only did naval ships go to rescue the men from the beaches but a call went out to anyone with a little fishing boat to brave the waters of the Channel, the machine-gunning from enemy planes and the bombing of the Heinkels, to rescue our men.
As LB. Priestley said:
'Our great grandchildren, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.'

The Armada of little ships rescued many British, French and other soldiers 'from the jaws of death' - it was a magnificent effort and the country felt very proud of them.

On June 10th Italy declared war on us, and on the 18th, after the fall of France, Winston Churchill told the nation
"I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. The whole fury and might of the enemy must soon be turned on us."
How true these prophetic words turned out to be. Then on the 5th July Vichy France, the collaborationist government under Marshall Petain broke off diplomatic relations with Britain. This Vichy government aided the Nazis against the Allies throughout the war.

The village school we now attended was very small. It had two rooms, one for the tinies and the other for everyone else. If we were bored with our lesson we simply turned our head and listened to the other teacher. I enjoyed this school as we had a large school field which I had never had before, and this field was full of wild flowers. I remember the cowslips particularly and have loved them ever since.

The Headmaster and teachers were lovely. I remember the Headmaster, Mr. Waite would lie in the field with us and we would get his comb and comb his hair! We thought he was wonderful.

I remember once when I was on a school play all the children marched through the village so that everyone could see our costumes and I felt great as I marched in the costume of the King with his long pointed turned-up shoes!
I also played 'Babushka' whilst at this school - no wonder I enjoyed it so much! I also remember being in a Tennis Tournament here too. I lost as I was playing a much bigger boy.

My special friend, at this time, was Marjory and we were rarely apart. She lived in the same cul-de-sac as our cottage which had a small turning on the left in which were two or three houses. Marjory lived in the end cottage. It was rather strange as their garden was on the opposite side of this tiny lane and was reached by climbing a few steps! I remember her Dad grew many vegetables. There were tall peas and beans taller than us which we used to pick and eat. I loved being there, just standing amongst them was a pleasure to me. We used to pretend we were in the Jungle having to forage for food as we walked amongst the tall sunflowers, and it was amazing how wonderful those peas tasted as we played our game of children lost in the Jungle! He also grew gooseberries and blackberries which we ate and I can never remember being reprimanded for helping ourselves to this 'off the ration' food! No doubt the small amounts we took were never noticed.

Most, if not all, of the village children went to the Methodist Sunday School which, if I remember correctly, was also reached by climbing a number of steps. It stood quite high in the village street. When it was the Sunday School Anniversary Marjory and I were chosen to sing a four verse hymn as a duet. This was fine, except when it got to the actual day Marjory didn't sing the second verse and I was left to sing a solo. 'Two can play this game' I thought as I sang my solo so when it came to the third verse I didn't sing and Marjory sang a solo.
The fourth verse we sang together! We laughed at this afterwards, especially as our Sunday School teacher was amazed at what we had done!

In July German U-Boats made a determined attack on shipping in the Atlantic and Hitler declared a blockade of the British Isles in August. He was determined to starve us into submission by sinking both food and fuel supplies to our Island and, consequently, thousands of tonnes of necessary supplies were sunk with the appalling loss of thousands of lives.

At school we were encouraged to keep scrapbooks with the evening paper's headlines pasted in so we would know how the war was progressing or otherwise. Therefore, we learned in July that Hitler had signed the order for the invasion of England. This operation he called "Operation Sealion.'' 'But first' he said 'The R.A.F. must be eliminated.' This, he found out later, was not as easy as he had thought So, the whole of our country was put on 'Invasion Alert'. The Ministry of Information put out many leaflets, such as 'Stay where you are. If this Island is invaded by sea or or air, everyone who is not under orders must stay where he or she is. This is not simply advice; it is an order from the Government, and you must obey it just as soldiers obey their orders.' and 'Do not give any German anything. Do not tell him anything. Hide your food and your bicycles. Hide your maps. See that the enemy gets no petrol. Think always of your country before you think of yourself.'

During the summer the Italians went into East Africa, then invaded Egypt, and by October had invaded Greece. Later on in the year we began the western desert offensive in North Africa against them. All this was discussed with us at school.

One evening was very exciting. We awoke to the deafening sound of aircraft, the noise of dropping bombs, and brilliant light. We got up and dressed, but there was nowhere to go! No- one had thought of putting an Anderson shelter in the garden in such an isolated area. The next morning we found that one of the incendiary bombs had just missed our cottage, it had landed just outside our garden - the side garden which we had named 'the wilderness'. It was the talk of the village as everyone wondered why the German planes had peppered our village with incendiaries when we were so isolated. Obviously they knew something we didn't! Many years later we found that if the Germans had invaded then one of their landing sites would have been quite near our village! After the war Mam told me that if the Gennans had landed she, and my Aunt Frances, had intended drowning Billy and me in the stream rather than let us fall into the enemy's hands. Whether they would have actually done this we shall never know. But as for the village children this was our biggest excitement yet so Billy, Marjory, Joyce, Harry and I decided to walk across the field to see if we could find a live bomb - what an adventure we thought! So we began looking and discovered that by counting a certain number of steps we could find where the next bomb had landed.
On and on we trudged looking disappointedly at each empty hole where the incendiary had exploded and burnt out, the grass around being scorched and black, then, as we counted our steps, to our great delight we saw an unexploded bomb!! Looking around we found some sticks and we were poking at this bomb endeavouring to get it out when an older boy rode across the field on his bike yelling at us to leave it. We stood watching as he carefully prised it out and rode off with it to have it defused. We were all angry, shouting 'It's our bomb, you've stolen our bomb.' We were frustrated, but not deterred, so continued across the field counting our steps to find another one, this time determined to get it out ourselves! Fortunately all the others had exploded otherwise I wouldn't be here today to relate this incident! Looking back I realise how brave that 14yr. old boy had been to take an unexploded bomb to the nearest Home Guard unit for defusing, and how dangerously foolish we had been! He must have been a very nice boy as, instead of keeping the bomb himself he actually gave it back to us and Grandma kept as a souvenir.

Having seen the brilliance of a few incendiary bombs it gave us some idea of what it must have looked like when Coventry had 10,000 incendiaries dropped in the first wave of bombing. A second wave dropped 20,000 incendiaries followed by explosive bombs and parachute mines. No wonder the blaze could be seen by the Gennans hundreds of miles away on their air bases in France. This bombing went on until Coventry was virtually flattened into what the Luftwaffe triumphantly described as 'a dead town.'
This happened on November 14th and 15th 1940 causing shouts of triumph in Germany and much sorrow and distress in Britain.

Elizabeth Aynsley ©

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