Sarah:They told us that Britain had declared war on Germany.
Alan:I used to go home looking up to the sky and hoping I would see a dogfight.
Mrs Campbell:It was like one big adventure.
Tyler:Hi.
Sarah:Hi, Tyler.
Sarah:Oh, that's lovely.
Sarah:How are you, all right?
Tyler:Yep.
Tyler:That's me, Tyler. I'm nine. And that's Sarah. She's a friend of my Nana. I'm starting rugby at the school–
Sarah:Have you? Great.
Tyler:Sarah's 83, but at the start of World War II, she was 11. During the war, Britain's cities were attacked by enemy airplanes. Bolton, in Northwest England, where Sarah lived, wasn't as badly bombed as other places, but the war had a big impact on Sarah and her family.
Tyler:She was in this church when she first heard that war had broken out.
Sarah:The priest was serving mass. And then he told us that Britain had declared war on Germany. I was very frightened. And I ran all the way home, thinking that on my way home there'd be Germans coming round any corner at any minute. I was just being silly, wasn't I, but that's how I was.
Tyler:Did you know anybody who was in the war?
Sarah:So my father was in the war from the beginning. Well, my mother wasn't very pleased because he joined up.
Tyler:In joining up, Sarah's dad had volunteered to be in the armed forces and fight for his country. As war went on, all fit young men had to join up.
Tyler:What did it feel like when your dad went to war?
Sarah:There were things… You know, you used to be a bit frightened of. That you always relied on your father, and… And it made it worse because they couldn't write to you. Just now and again, you'd get a little card. And it'd be censored by the officers. They couldn't tell you much, you know.
Tyler:Censored meant the soldiers' letterswould be checked to make sure they didn't give away any secrets. Sarah's dad was away for one period, but was given permission to visit her in hospital when she became sick with diphtheria, a very infectious illness. Sarah was kept away from all visitors for six weeks.
Sarah:If your mom came to see you, they had to look through a window outside at you. They couldn't come in. And in my case, they got my father home on leave. He was stationed in England at the time. But he could only speak to me through the window, which upset me a great lot.
Tyler:Who looked after you when your dad went to war?
Sarah:Well, my mom did have to work. I was the one that did a lot of things. I had a little sister to look after. She was seven years younger than me.
Tyler:During the 1930s, most women stayed at home to look after their families. But during the war, women did traditional male jobs whilst the men were away fighting. If I had to look after my sister, I would be happy, because I'd be with her, but sad because my mom would be at the mill and my dad would be at war.
Sarah:I used to cook a meal for when my mother came home from the mill. I was only 12. Do you know what I used to make?
Tyler:What?
Sarah:Corned beef hash. Because it was easy.
Tyler:During the war, there was far less food to go around. Rationing was brought in all over the country to ensure that everyone got an equal share and had enough to eat.
Tyler:What did you eat during the war?
Sarah:Well, would you like to see?
Tyler:Yes, please.
Sarah:Ready?
Tyler:Mm-hmm.
Tyler:That's quite a lot.
Sarah:Per person.
Tyler:Not a lot.
Sarah:For a week. For a week.
Tyler:The sorts of food that were rationed were jam, sugar, butter, cheese, meat, eggs, and even sweets.
Tyler:If that'd last me one week, I'd never feel full. And it'd be hard. Did you, when you were little, sometimes go sneak into the kitchen and take some?
Sarah:Oh, yeah. You couldn't get too much fruit at all. But now and again, you'd get word there was some somewhere. My mother, she got this tin anyway. Pineapple chunks, and put it away for a special occasion. And I just don't know what came over me, but grabbed it right off the top shelf and I made a little hole in the top, poured all the juice out, and drank the juice till it was gone. Hadn't had any for a long time. When my mom came to use it, quite a long time after, it was all furred up inside. Gone bad.
Tyler:Where did you get your bread from?
Sarah:They used to deliver that by horse and cart, and my mother used to say, before she went to run out, "We only need a loaf today." But sometimes I was a bit naughty. And it was too much for me and I'd get a doughnut. And when my mother came to pay the bill on a Friday, she wasn't pleased with me at all, because I'd had a few extra things. But it were where used to see them on the tray. I couldn't resist it.
Tyler:There were no supermarkets then, so Sarah's mom had to visit different shops to buy her meat, cheese, and vegetables.
Sarah:The shops weren't a long way between. You'd get them on every corner.
Tyler:I'd feel exhausted if I was going to every shop, and then coming back with everything ready, and then maybe have to go again.
Tyler:Many people added to their food rations by growing their own fruit and vegetables in gardens and on any spare land. The government started the Womens' Land Army to increase the amount of food grown in Britain. Over 80,000 women worked on local farms, and Sarah wanted to be one of them.
Sarah:I wanted to join the Land Army, but I was only 14. I was going to be naughty because I was a big girl and say I was older than I was, just to join the Land Army. But the sister at our school, I was ready for leaving school then, she said, "Well, if you're that keen," she said, 'You know you can't join the Land Army' 'because of your age.' 'But I can find you a job to help a farmer.' Which she did.
Tyler:Sarah spent hours and hours weeding fields like this one by hand to help grow food for the people of Bolton.
Tyler:Did you take any of your own food home?
Sarah:He used to give me cabbages and potatoes, and flowers for my mother. And of course my mother liked that, you know. And I could drink as much milk as I wanted during the day, when it used to get warm. So, you know, it was pretty hard work, really, but you had the sense that you were helping, and that's what we're all about.
Sarah:This is where I used to live, here.
Tyler:Has it changed much?
Sarah:One day my mother was taking me to a shop, and in the distance I saw this soldier walking up our road, and… You know, I said, 'That's my father.' So my mother said, 'It's not your father. He's in France.'
Tyler:But Sarah was right. It was her dad.
Sarah:He had a beard, which he didn’t have before. And he was just unkempt. Not tidy at all, you know, which is understandable. Anyway, we got him home, and he was… When he'd had a… A wash and a shave, a nice hot cup of tea, he came around a little bit, but when he did go to bed I think he slept for three days.
Tyler:Sarah's dad had been fighting in France in May 1940 when the German Army pushed the British forces into a small area of the French coast. Over the next nine days, he was one of 340,000 men brought back to Britain as part of the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Tyler:To welcome Sarah's dad back home, they had a street party. But it was not until the end of the war in 1945 that the whole country could celebrate.
Sarah:See all the happy faces there, everybody smiling?
Sarah:The party went on all night and all day, and the next day.
Video summary
Sarah was a child in Bolton during World War Two.
With family friend Tyler, she remembers the outbreak of the war and the effect that rationing had on family meals.
This short film is from the BBC series, Children of World War Two.
Teacher Notes
This short film could be used to spark a discussion about the impact of war on children.
Pupils could begin by formulating a comparison chart of the life of a child in World War Two and that of a child now.
You could provide prompts on such a chart, like 'food' and 'family'.
This could build up to an empathy activity where pupils write a diary entry as if they were a child during the war.
This short film will be relevant for teaching history.
This topic appears in KS2 in England and Northern Ireland, Foundation Phase and KS2 in Wales and Second Level in Scotland.
An evacuee's adventure. video
Betty was evacuated to Aberdare during the war. She describes her experience to a friend.
Living through the air raids. video
Alan describes his experiences as a child during World War Two to his grand-daughter Isabel.
