Browse Items (336 total)

  • Tags: childhood in wartime

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Michael Kettleborough lived in Woodhall Spa during the war. His mother billeted RAF crew members in her home. One of them Jack Gibson asked for an early Christmas as there were some big operations coming up. Shortly before Christmas 1941 the…

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Ken Sleaford was born and raised near Coningsby on the family farm. Tells of life on the farm before and during the war, when it was handed over to the Air Force, to be converted into an airfield and incorporated into RAF Coningsby. Mentions various…

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Sydney’s father died when she was a baby. Her mother remarried and had another daughter and son. The son became ground crew in the Royal Air Force.
Sydney lived a few miles from London and attended Byron Court School in Webley. She was five when…

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Born in Peterborough, Eileen Widdowson’s father died when she was quite young, which resulted in the family moving to Grantham. With the East Coast main railway line and also a munitions factory, Grantham was a regular target for the Luftwaffe.…

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Frank was born in London. He describes V-1 coming over and taking shelter in the London underground.
Frank talks of his evacuation to the countryside near Croxton Kerrial when he was nearly five. He was accompanied by his two brothers and initially…

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Mike is the adopted brother of James (known as Sonny) who was in the Royal Air Force with 460 Squadron. The crew were all English apart from the Australian pilot. James was a wireless operator/mid-upper air gunner. Mike was seven in 1943 when his…

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Elizabeth Wickstead was born in Brighton, in 1928, and moved between villages in the Sussex area. Elizabeth remembers the announcement of the war in September 1939, and remembers the arrival of evacuees from London and the schools being separate from…

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Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe was born in London in 1938 and was evacuated with her mother at the start of the war to live with her mother’s family in South Wales

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Bernard Bell was a child in Scunthorpe during the war.

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Margaret was almost 12 years old and living in Romford, Essex at the outbreak of World War Two. She remembers the announcement being made by Neville Chamberlain on the radio on 3 September 1939. Margaret recalls being issued with a gas mask, and how…

AAn01023-170520.mp3
The informant recalls how he moved from Libya to Italy and lived for some years in various camps in Napoli, Marina di Massa, Trento, San Remo and Massa Lombarda. He describes a three-day bombing raid in Napoli where he managed to hide in a church and…

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Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories of a working-class family in Milan. Describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. Mentions alarms as greeted initially with joy because classes stopped and…

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Guido Dell’Era recollects daily life in wartime Milan, stressing inadequate war preparation. Describes a disciplined, regimented society which later turned to disillusionment. Recollects the declaration of war, the fall of the fascist regime and…

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Ferruccio Bergomi recalls his early life as a street urchin in the Precotto neighbourhood in Milan - describes monkey business, horseplay, fierce rivalries, melees, pilfering sundries and street games with friends. Gives an eyewitness account of the…

AMarianiE171209.mp3
Enrica Mariani recollects her wartime experiences in Milan: her brother dying of bronchitis after spending too much time in the shelter and her father working in an armaments factory. The aggressive fascist militiamen and the long hours she spent in…

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Gilberto Martina reminisces his childhood in Chiusaforte and in the Canal del Ferro area: disrupted schooling, fear of Germans, subsistence farming, saboteurs, and one of his mates being killed by a bomb found in a pile of litter. Stressed how the…

ANocchieriF170202.mp3
Franco Nocchieri recalls his early years as an orphan in several different towns in the Province of Pavia. He describes the bombing of the Voghera railway station, which started while he was heading to school. He goes on to explain how he and his…

AMartinottiF170309.mp3
Federico Martinotti reminisces over the Pavia bombing on the 26 September 1944. Describes the effects on the buildings near the Ticino River (the old bridge being the aiming point of the attack) and mentions the salvaging of valuable items from the…

AVaresiP170308.mp3
Pietro Varesi describes wartime life in Pavia, focussing on the Borgo neighbourhood. He mentions the Ticino bridges as primary targets for bombers; recalls bent shop shutters and debris on the streets; stresses the limited accuracy of bombing and the…

AAn00974-170413.mp3
The informants remember wartime hardships endured near Pavia and Piacenza. Several stories recalled: a farmhouse being thoroughly searched for partisans, children questioned, people injured by shell splinters, a makeshift dugout used as shelter,…

AMagnaniT170303.mp3
Tullio Magnani remembers his wartime years in the Pavia province. Although his father was blacklisted as a subversive communist he did not have any trouble at school. He recounted his role as a young resistance helper smuggling food rationing…

ABisioG-MascherpaT170308.mp3
Gabriella Bisio and Teresa Mascherpa recollect the bombing of Pavia and give a vivid description of its immediate aftermath. They describe food shortages, resorting to eating potatoes with milk and queuing up for a portion of salt. Gabriella…

APaganoA170712.mp3
Andreino Pagano (b. 1934) remembers his wartime experiences in the Pavia province. He explains how a parish church provided a good shelter owing to its thick walls. Recalls various stories: resorting to the black market, the bombing of the Voghera…

ABoiocchiS170225.mp3
Sandro Boiocchi remembers wartime memories at Travacò, in the Pavia area. Mentions various episodes: food shortages, the black market, fascist and German roundups, Pippo flying at night, bombing of bridges, giving shelter to evacuees. Tells how…

AAn00976-170419.mp3
The informant reminisces about her wartime experiences in the Voghera countryside, at the time when her three brothers where enlisted and it was hard for her parents to run the farm.
She remembers how she narrowly escaped an aircraft trying to…
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