I Remember the end of Peace and the beginning of War

Discussion in 'General' started by Joe Brown, Aug 12, 2012.

  1. Joe Brown

    Joe Brown WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Having lived happily and contently in the small Border town of Peebles for 18 enjoyable years, growing up and knowing most families and having close boyhood friends of school years around you, the scene changed for ever when War was declared on 3rd September 1939.

    There was for me and many other lads the tense activity of being sworn in as embodied men to serve with your Territorial Army Unit realising your oath meant you could now be posted to any unit of the Army and starkly realising you had undertaken to serve to the end of the War no matter how long that would take.

    My local newspaper days were now over having just started in 1936; when I returned seven years later the newspaper in the last year of the War folded up through difficulties of newsprint rationing and lack of advertising revenue.

    The stark reality of the first aid raid warning on Sunday 3rd September signalled the change in life everyone faced. Shopping was done earlier in the day because of the blackout. Cinemas closed at first, then reopened after a few days. Heavy lorries belonging to coal merchants were commandeered; garden railings and gates removed and collected for the War effort; direction signs that could help the enemy were removed from the approaches to the town.

    My former local newspaper carried advice about air-raid precautions and carried features about knitting patterns for balaclava helmets, scarves, gloves and mittens. A prominent local shop advertised gas-mask carriers in navy blue and dark saxe, 1s 3d (6p); available in artifical silk, lined and waterproof in brown and navy from 2s 3d (11p); or fancy checks at 2s 6d (12 1-2p).

    Soldiers' Canteens were opened and fund-raising for troops 'comforts scheme' [parcels] and 'Stranded Soldier's Fund' to provide Servicemen and women with a car service to get them home quickly on leave and not spend valuable hours being held up anywhere for lack of a transport, such as at a distant railway station.

    Our fathers rallied to the Home Guard when formed in 1940 or volunteered for the Observer Corps. The Editor of one of the local newspapers wrote
    in 1943: 'Nothing can dim the lustre of those early apprehensive days when the men of the field and factory manned their posts and scanned the evening and morning skies never knowing what they might bring.'


    Joe Brown
     
  2. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Thanks Joe. Must have been very unsettling days.
     

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