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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from newcastlecsv on behalf of Colin Ross [name of contributor/author] and has been added to the site with his permission. Colin Ross fully understands the site's terms and conditions".

I was later to do my National Service in a field ambulance in Korea. In 1940 aged nine with a happy home life in Sunderland; my parents thought that mass bombing would annihilate Tyneside and Wearside.

I visited schools to talk about the Korean war, but most children are more interested in how as schoolboys we suddenly were removed from home, and in my case dropped on foster parents in distant Penrith.

Memories are of tears — counting the days to the holidays, but never fear for the future. Much to our parents horror the greatest excitement was one of frequent air raids in the holidays, and the joys of seeing a Heinkel shot down in daylight over the sea off Sunderland. On that occasion all the crew being picked up by a fishing boat.

We were always hungry as evacuees but spent precious pocket money on “chips” — 2p and something — long forgotten “carlins” which were a wild pea which came on a saucer swimming in a delicious gravy!

As evacuee’s you sometimes got “bashed up” by local kids whose school you had been dumped in, but no-one ever thought of complaining.

Though most children were hungry and this hardship continued long after the war, the diet was a good one. Children’s medical problems were; “chilblains” thigh sores from short trousers and Wellingtons scabies and the dreaded impetigo — all now consigned to history.

As D-Day approached, the Fifth Royal Tank Regiment assembled on the Lowther estates, and many were billeted with us in Penrith — fine fellows in their twenties — how many would get through it? We also witnessed the amazing roar of the first “thousand bomber” raids going out.

Like Vietnam — Korea — Malaya — Cyprus — Falklands — The Gulf — will it ever change?

THE END

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