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This story was gathered at the Bedfordshire County Show and submitted to the People’s war site by Gillian Ridley for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Keith Frank Coleman and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

The first thing I remember about the Second World War was my Mother saying “Those bloody Germans” as we huddled under the stairs on hearing the siren for the first time. The First World War had only been over twenty odd years previously, and the other thing I remember was my father saying that they may take the horses from the farm for the army like they did before for the First World War.

It was 1939 and I was nine years old, we lived at a place called Lillingstone Dayrell in North Buckinghamshire we lived in a gate house lodge on a Gentleman’s estate, not a village as we know it but a place where the houses were scattered over a wide area.

Nothing seemed to happen for a start, but I remember the estate workers and farm workers saying they would join the L.D.V. the Local Defence Volunteers later called the ��ѿ��ý Guard. After joining up they got an armband with L.D.V. printed on it.
After a while they had to go to the school playground to be drilled by a regular sergeant. They were also told to bring their own shotguns to drill with, which they didn’t like in case they got damaged.

In time they got uniforms of various shades of khaki and black leather gaiters. They had rifles sometime later but no ammunition. I remember my Dads rifle with its long bayonet standing behind the front room door alongside his own shotguns. At night they had to look for German paratroopers from the tops of Church towers or do map reading and Morse code or find their way from A to B across country in the dark at night. In the morning they had to go to work as Farm workers, Gardeners, Butlers, Gamekeepers, Grooms, Chauffeurs, etc. The ones that were N.C.O’s in the first war got their stripes back. Exmilitary police became special constables.

At the junction of our country lane with the main road, a ditch was enlarged and camouflaged with ivy to make a position to be able to shoot at the oncoming enemy.
A barrier was constructed by having a slender tree trunk with a cartwheel one end and pivoted at the other that could be swung across the road. All of the signposts were taken down and anything that could tell the enemy where they were.
A battery of searchlights were stationed at Maids Moreton which was about three miles away.
The soldiers stationed there sometimes marched by our Village School. Convoys of army lorries also used to go by.

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