South Shields Gazette Offices after receiving two direct hits.

One day when we came to school we saw written on the wall

'STALAG 4B'

The Headmaster was livid! He took us all out into the school yard and almost went berserk. Demanding to know who had dared write such an insult he threatened the whole school with a thrashing if no-one owned up. He was good at thrashing the boys and caning the girls so this was no mere threat. Of course we all had a good idea which one of the boys had written it but no-one told the Headmaster, nor did anyone ever own up! We didn't get the threatened thrashing but the Headmaster was angry for weeks. It meant, of course, that if the school was a Stalag - a Prisoner of War Camp - then he must be the hated Commandant. Not a bad description of him actually!!

I remember once when he called Kathy and me fools when we were waiting for a bus. I shan't write down the incident as it is still a very painful and distressing incident to recall but again it showed to us how cruel and sadistic he was.

On a happier note I remember Kathy, Nancy and I walking to school singing. 'Beautiful Dreamer' was 'Top of the Pops' at that time, I had even been given it at my music lesson to practice! So we happily sang 'I'll be loving you, Always' and 'Lilli Marlene' as we walked along. People would smile and say 'That's the way - keep your spirits up' which was another phrase often repeated during the war. The song 'Lilli Marlene' was a song we had pinched from the Germans! Our boys had heard them singing this song in the desert, and our Desert Rats liked it so much that someone wrote words to it and we adopted it as ours. It was a great favourite and I can still remember most of the words poignant words:-

"Orders came for sailing,
Somewhere 'over there'
All 'confined to barracks'
Was more than I could bear"

and so it went on, words that meant so much to us as our young men came home on embarkation leave not knowing where they were going, nor for how long. They only knew that when they said "Good-bye" it could be for the last time. I so vividly recall the tearful scenes at railway stations, men hugging their wives or girlfriends as if they would never let go. Mothers trying so hard not to cry as their precious sons said 'Don't worry Mam, I'll be all right.' 'Yes, I know son, and I'll write to you with all the family news.' Snatches of conversations and scenes that live in one's memory for ever. The steam train would then pull out with all its hissing and puffing, men leaning out of windows for their final glimpse of loved ones, steam bellowing backwards almost obliterating faces, and then it was gone. Tears so bravely held back now flowed as weary feet took the women back to the privations of the Home Front.

About this time the Board of Trade announced:-

'You'll be seeing more and more wooden-soled shoes about the place. They save rubber and leather - both badly needed for direct war purposes - and are snug well-fitting and waterproof.'

So wooden-soled shoes could now be heard clacking about the streets!

Economy frocks were also on the Board of Trade leaflets with patriotic words such as:-

'Keep up the morale of the Home Front
by preserving a neat appearance.'

'Spend less on yourself,
lend more to your country.'

'Patriotic patches are the order of the day.
Go gay with your patches and let them give a bright note to your clothes.'

Women were also told:-

'No woman can afford to neglect
to keep up her husband's morale.
Stimulating the spirits of the person
with whom you live, and doing so
efficiently, but without his noticing,
is what makes anybody a good wife,
daughter, or whatever your feminine
role may be.'

So women throughout the country would ensure they had good nourishing meals on the table, neat and clean homes and themselves as bright and cheerful as possible.

At the same time we saw Posters everywhere asking us to:-

This notice from the Ministry of Fuel was displayed in all hotel bathrooms, together with these words :- 'As part of your personal share in the Battle for Fuel you are asked NOT to exceed five inches of water in this bath. Make it a point of honour not to fill the bath above this level.'

Official Poster stating:- 'Switched on switches and turned on taps Make happy Huns and joyful Japs

 

On a lighter note the magazine 'Punch' wrote:-

"Germany has no desire to injure her friends" said the Berlin Angriff newspaper.
'As a matter of fact, Germany can now shoot in
almost any direction without fear of hitting friends.'

All during the war Churchill's speeches electrified us. His amazing voice and knowledge of the English language and his turn of phrase gave us strength making us determined to do everything we could for the war effort. His speech

'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat'

which he made in 1940 was proving to be true, but despite the many hardships there was the strong determination to come through this war victorious and all the stronger for it.

I remember the King calling the nation to Days of Prayer when the Churches would be full.
They were moving times as we all realised our complete dependence on God.

The fortunes of war were going back and forth. Montgomery's army - the Desert Rats - were beginning to make headway in Africa. The Germans began a withdrawal from Tunisia and we took Tripoli. However between March 16th and 20th we lost 27 merchant ships to U-Boats with a tremendous loss of life.

In the Spring of 1944 the Americans came to our town. A very large Camp was set up in the area known an Brinkburn and it was then we heard the magic word 'Nylon' a word we had never heard before. Evidently you could get stockings in this amazing material and they didn't wrinkle!! Soon a number of the young ladies in the town were wearing these wonderful stockings. 'Tights' of course hadn't been invented. Nylons weren't available in England and didn't appear in our shops until well after the war ended. We still had to wear our silk stockings, or lisle ones in winter. Many girls painted their legs with gravy browning or a dye made from onion skins in the summer and then someone would paint a seam down the back of their leg. They were then supposed to look like silk stockings. Perhaps I had better point out here that seamless stockings hadn't yet been invented.

The Americans were preparing for 'D. Day' but as yet this important day hadn't been revealed to us. A number of girls fell in love with the American soldiers and became G.I. brides. The American soldiers were known as 'G.I. Joe's' G.I stood for 'Government Issue' whilst our boys were always known as 'Tommies.'

I remember once we were walking past their Camp on the opposite side of the road and the G.I's, leaning on the fence, began to whistle at Moira and me. We ignored them and carried on walking, then they sent a boy across to us to ask us to come over.

I recognised this boy as he was in our school and I couldn't stand him!
He had been asking me to go out with him for months and took no notice of my constant refusal saying I wouldn't go out with him if he happened to be the last boy on earth! I thought this was clear enough, but he still annoyed me by sitting beside me on the bus, offering to pay my fare, and asking me to go to the pictures with him. Then came the wonderful day when he looked at my hand, took hold of it and said 'You have a very tiny thumb, that means you are very determined so I suppose there's no point in asking you to go out with me again.' Yippee!! He had at last got the message and never bothered me again. Clever thumb! So it was this little toad who had been hanging around the American Camp who now came across to us. 'They only want to talk to you' he said. BUT we hadn't been formally introduced to any of the Americans so of course we couldn't go across. 'Nice' girls didn't do such things so our parents had told us and had we disobeyed them we would have been in serious trouble and this ghastly boy knew this. However, true to his nature, he pestered us until I got fed up and pushed him hard. As he was smaller than me and taken by surprise, he lost his balance and fell on his back on the grass. A massive cheer went up from the Camp and shouts of laughter followed us as we carried on walking with our heads in the air!!

Perhaps I had better point out that had we been formally introduced to the Americans then we could have talked with them - in an appropriate setting of course!

On the 6th June 'D-Day' arrived - the Allied invasion of Europe and the Americans left our town.
Elizabeth Aynsley ©

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