training and experience: Food and Agriculture in Britain, p. 32.
friend as well: FW, 1 September 1939.
given to Jolly Beeston to farm: Akenfield, p. 250.
the farmer was shot dead: War in the Countryside, p. 24.
out of their despair: Private conversation.
as “Barber’s folly”: Ibid.
almost a vice: CL, 10 February 1940.
the rules of good husbandry: Hansard, 4 June 1940.
fifty years later: Private conversation.
money does not enter into it: FW, 28 February 1941.
lined by tall trees: Hansard, 4 July 1940.
to many at the time: Agricultural History Review quoted in www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/54n2a8.pdf
40 lb when full: Ibid.
spoke no English: Kids in the Corn, by R. J. Moore-Colyer www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/52n2a4.pdf
Three: Exodus
would immediately appear: Rememberingscotlandatwar.org.uk/Accessible/Exhibition/140Declaration
with a .22 rifle: Anglesey and Gwynedd: the War Years, p. 17.
a high-explosive bomb: The shelters’ name came from Sir John Anderson, who, as Lord Privy Seal in Chamberlain’s pre-war government, took charge of air-raid precautions.
let them both in: Private source.
due to the boss’s cream: Glasgow West War Story. www.rememberingscotlandatwar.org.uk
they tasted delicious: BBC PW A3239930.
the younger ones: Orwell Past and Present website.
the seventy-two children present: Badminton archive.
his eyes peeping out: www.writingwomenshistory.blogspot.co.uk
fearsome terrors: CL, 23 September 1939.
while we were walking: Private source.
how potatoes grew: In the Heart of the Country, p. 59.
‘Never on Your Life’: The Oaken Heart, p. 49. In her book, written at high speed during the early stages of the war, Margery Allingham concealed the real identity of her village by calling it Auburn.
solved the immediate crisis: Ibid., pp. 91–2.
into that for the night: Daily Telegraph, 7 September 1939.
differing number of children: No Time to Wave Goodbye, pp. 29–30.
no longer his castle: CL, 9 September 1939.
the ones they liked: WW2 Talk.
under a table wetting herself: BBC PW A2007307.
the boss of the lot: No Time to Wave Goodbye, pp. 95–6.
corkscrew motion: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 122.
edge of the Cotswolds: Private source.
rewards at school: A woman in Folkestone saw an enormous swarm of cabbage whites flying into England from across the Channel, apparently to escape the clouds of black smoke cloaking the French coast.
‘astonishingly exciting’: Colyton at War, p. 9.
a long illness or something: BBC PW ID1130653.
his son in Northamptonshire: Wartime Britain, 1939–1945, p. 43.
they escaped unhurt: Private source.
they didn’t like it: BBC PW A3202039.
not expressible in words: Country Notes in Wartime, pp. 15–16.
their way in the dark: CL, 9 September 1939.
leering from the darkness: Wartime Diaries, p. 122.
to interrogate the priest: No Time to Wave Goodbye, p. 86.
somehow help the enemy: They did not return until April 1945.
came within range?: Private source.
Canadian red cedar: The camp at Sayers Croft, at Ewhurst in Surrey, is now a Field Centre, and has been preserved partly as a memorial to Tait’s work. The dining room’s walls are decorated with murals depicting the life of the evacuees.
sparks into the sky: Looking for Trouble, p. 17.
this fresh blood: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 195.
between town and country: CL, 23 November 1940.
seemed far-fetched: The RSPCA estimated that in 1939 the animal population of the capital consisted of 40,000 horses, 6000 head of cattle, 9000 sheep, 18,000 pigs, 400,000 dogs and 1,500,000 cats.
the private aerodrome: The Duchess’s son Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, who succeeded to the Dukedom on the death of his father in 1940, was a keen amateur aviator, and had created newspaper headlines by flying over Everest in 1933.
‘that lady of the dogs’: Bonzo’s War, p. 52.
Four: Braced for Invasion
to occupy it completely: German Invasion Plans for the British Isles, p. 7.
a minimum of delay: The Last Ditch, p. 13.
condemned to death inexorably: Ibid., p. 15.
a bit of trouble: Between the Thunder and the Sun, p. 141.
reaching to toes and fingers: Diaries 1939–72, p. 18.
be near the sea!: Western Daily News, 17 June 1940.
and ‘hubbies’: Diaries 1939–72, pp. 35–6.
into thin air: All England Listened, p. 46.
syrup for vitamin C: www.thurgartonhistory.co.uk/
foxed the Canadians: Invasion 1940, pp. 101–2.
innocent nun: I Am My Brother, p. 70.
or even tomorrow: Hansard, 4 June 1940.
favourite programmes: The immensely popular television sitcom ran for eighty episodes spread over nine years, from 1968 to 1977, and at its peak gained audiences of eighteen million. It is still repeated all over the world.
I salute him: The British Home Guard Pocket-Book, pp. 20–21.
so I shot him: Apley Hall, p. 112.
If so, what result?: North Highland Archives.
for 2d each: BBC PW A3516022.
on the offensive: The Defenders, p. 196.
shooting for the first time: With British Snipers to the Reich, p. 238.
into the dustbin: Orwell, Diaries, p. 274.
fields and homesteads: Postscript broadcast, 16 June 1940. Printed in All England Listened, pp. 14–16. These seven-minute talks attracted an audience of more than 30 per cent of the adult population.
they buggers at Axmouth, do us?: Colyton at War, p. 16.
two or three rows deep: A survey carried out sixty years later identified the remains of 20,000 structures.
over the whole island: Between the Thunder and the Sun, p. 140.
Skelton-on-Ure in North Yorkshire: Hindlip Hall, four miles north of Worcester, was requisitioned by the Ministry of Housing as a refuge for the War Cabinet and Ministers.
German agents in the Argentine: Invasion 1940, pp. 118–19.
hatred of Jews: The Times, 28 February 2014.
a long time to recover: Invasion 1940, p. 96.
and pails of water: Private source.
Five: Going to Ground
Calvert, a Royal Engineer: his nickname, ‘Mad Mike’, derived from the ferocity with which he attacked the Japanese while fighting with the Chindits in Burma.
got that far: Fighting Mad, p. 49.
and Eastbourne: At Folkestone, as a precaution, one of the celebrated water-powered lifts was hauled to the top of the cliff, but the cable on the second broke and it crashed to the bottom, never to be resuscitated.
fields and woods: In 1952 the house caught fire during renovations, and the blaze was so furious that it was visible from twenty miles away. The building was so badly damaged that the remains had to be demolished. The site now belongs to the National Trust.
tackled with enthusiasm: Peter Fleming, p. 235.
simply loved it: A Very Quiet War, p. 53.
what it was for: BBC PW A2685837.
messenger service: BBC PW 235141.
discreet munching: Peter Fleming,p. 236.
a cave existence: Ibid., p. 237.
enemy soldier to enter: Fighting Mad, p. 52.
middle of the 1950s: After stand-down Reg Sennet, Commanding Officer of the Dengie Group of Auxiliary Units, had 14,738 rounds of ammunition and 1205 lb of explosives left behind in his milking shed. In spite of his repeated requests to have the ordnance removed, it was twenty years before the army took the stuff away.
Six: Adapting t
o War
a working-class girl: Daily Telegraph: Britain at War: Readers’ Memories.
Western civilisation: FW, 15 March 1940.
grease gun and nipples: FW, 4 July 1941.
independent of good weather: Ibid., 28 February 1941.
saving time and fuel: Private source.
moving of an evening: Apley Hall, p. 77.
their cargo had disappeared: BBC PW A4520765.
known as sticky boards: NA MAF 44/6.
into the woods to roost: CL, 30 December 1939.
any the worse: FW, 15 March 1940.
live off his flesh for a week: Bertie, May and Mrs Fish, pp. 101–2.
after each broadcast: In September 1939 the regional and national services of the BBC were merged into the National Programme, which later became the Home Service.
their original owners: FW, 22 September 1944.
fish and chips: BBC PW A2553761.
worrying about the war: Ibid., A5937203.
collected in Yorkshire: FW, 26 September 1941.
Seven: Rain of Death
also heavily bombed: Dorset became a highly dangerous area: during the war as a whole, 4300 high-explosive bombs and 37,000 incendiaries fell on the county. Fifty-four British aircraft were shot down above it, eight of them crashing into the sea. German losses in the same sector amounted to ninety aircraft, thirty-five of which ditched in the Channel.
stick at nothing: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 117.
the width of the bole: Ibid., p. 121.
‘Lovely to watch’: Country Notes in Wartime, p. 79.
with the RAF: BBC PW AD2743607.
by comparison very playful: In the Heart of the Country, p. 57.
No one in the houses was hurt: The Oaken Heart, p. 227.
beyond hope of recovery: FW, 26 September 1941.
a few scraps of skin: Private source.
back over the Channel: Colyton at War, pp. 22–3.
west of Birmingham: The unpublished diary is in the archive at Newquay Zoo.
injured in the air raids: In the autumn of 1941 Doreen found work as a secretary in an engineering firm evacuated to Tenbury Wells from Birmingham. After the war she moved to Essex and became a teacher, finishing her career as Deputy Head at Prince Avenue Primary School in Westcliff-on-Sea. In her forties she met and married a serving police officer, Norman Lonergan; but they had no children, and Doreen lavished her affection on pet dogs. She and her husband left a legacy to the Blue Cross, the animal charity,
a taste to a stew?: Diaries 1939–72, p. 56.
for a cup of tea: FW, 13 October 1944.
and quickly absented himself: Private information.
their trust is never misplaced: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 137.
Eight: Food from Everywhere
measure of control essential: By January 1941 the normal supply of food from overseas had been cut by half.
intricate network: Food and Agriculture in Britain, 1939–45, p. 66.
in a British Restaurant: London at War, p. 253.
to do a little turn: Memoirs, p. 251.
my horse and cart?: A Very Quiet War, p. 122.
in the black market: Memoirs, p. 230.
war makes us do that: Wireless broadcast.
chased by my kettle: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 169.
a radio broadcast: The Times, 4 October 1939.
are [sic] immeasurable: National Allotments Society Annual Report for year ending 31 May 1939, p. 4.
contribution to the war effort: The Battle of the Land, p. 57.
demonstrations and meetings: Akenfield, p. 174.
tasters at the Ministry of Food: The Kitchen Front, 2 February 1942.
cabbages have vanished: Mass Observation diarist 5098.
mustard and cress: War in the Countryside, p. 13.
pain-killing drugs: Paper by Anne Stamper at the Second International Conference on the History of Voluntary Action, University of Surrey, September 2003.
the weeks are incorrect: Orwell, Diaries, pp. 29–30.
I shall have done this year: Ibid., p. 305.
out of the kitchen: Diaries 1939–72, p. 84.
said the vet: All Hands to the Harvest, p. 144. Gwen McBryde’s fifteenth-century farmhouse, Dippersmoor, stands on a high knoll. Its spooky atmosphere appealed greatly to M. R. James, the former Provost of Eton, who wrote several of his ghost stories there.
dropped down the mine: Memoirs, p. 242.
used for feeding poultry: They Can’t Ration These, p. 65.
permanent home and career: Ibid., pp. 11–12.
our national defence: Ibid., p. 13.
‘Oh – five bob!’: BBC PW 3943389.
performing a useful service: Members of the Women’s Institutes used rabbit fur to line thousands of coats, waistcoats, hoods and caps for export to Russian women via the Red Cross. They also bred rabbits and cured the skins.
it becomes a bush again: BBC PW A2792036.
nuzzling his hands: Ibid.
a couple of onions: CL, 7 October 1939.
kitchen had been opened: Abberley Lives website.
during the year: FW, 7 March 1941.
from 25,532 barrels to 32,667: The Brewers’ Almanack, 1955, p. 56. Specific gravity here refers to the density of beer compared with the density of water.
and three the next?: Orwell, Diaries, p. 352.
where a dahlia might grow: Unnamed colleague on the Sunday Express.
will the roses be with us again: Digging for Victory, p. 5.
you can’t swat them all: Ibid., pp. 17–18.
snow to get into it: Ibid., p. 62.
pleasant and profitable pursuit: London at War, p. 257.
Nine: Girls to the Fields
Trudie’s biographer Gervas Huxley: Lady Denman, p. 156.
I felt so trapped in: BBC PW A3287991.
I had been accepted: Ibid., AD2891955.
added mud to my dungarees too: Down to Earth on the Farm, Kindle edition, 69%.
by her new uniform: BBC PW A3996408.
girls to catch up: Ibid., A3027494.
or ‘Oo’ (she): A Pullet on the Midden, p. 6.
Work without end. Amen: Ibid., p. 240.
level with my ear ’ole: BBC PW 5705543.
react in this way: Ibid., A2690688.
tea like it since: Ibid., A3054106.
nothing like the real thing: Ibid.
trousers round her ankles: Ibid., A3287991.
and rousing Quicksteps: BBC PW A3996309.
for food and shelter: FW, 21 July 1944.
you felt the vibrations: BBC PW A3347246.
which formerly they tilled: FW, 19 December 1941.
on that sunlit morning: Country Notes in Wartime, p. 14.
required only two people: BBC PW A4060612.
carted off to hospital: Ibid., U526219.
missed it for anything: Down to Earth on the Farm, Kindle edition, 99–100%.
‘Keep low on they bushes, won’t ’ee’: A Cackhanded War, p. 18.
wishing myself a Fordson tractor: Ibid., pp. 85–6.
to do, love, would they?: Ibid., p. 29.
the way they’re going: Ibid., p. 47.
‘full of harpies’: Ibid., pp. 122–3.
a rare labour of love: The box is now in the museum at Edenbridge, Kent.
Ten: In the Woods
no place for debating societies: Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Website.
an orderly and law-abiding manner: Ibid.
a few people living there: Ibid.
all the cutting day: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, February 2001.
wearing nothing underneath: Ibid.
with ‘any man in the woods’: BBC PW A4682568.
and nearly killed her: Ibid., A4115585.
and very pleasant: Ibid., 4181988.
as ‘beings from another planet’: BBC PW A4311037.
for a whole night and a day: Don’t You Know there’s a War On?, p. 80.
on m
y face and leg: Ibid.
taking a Spit up to Prestwick: Ibid., pp. 80–81.
the plane would not explode: BBC PW A2064917.
heavier than we knew existed: Wartime Britain, 1939–1945, p. 61.
Eleven: Laying Up Treasure
and connected to it: During the 1950s a complete Cold War city was built 100 feet beneath Corsham.
the stocks had gone up: Grass, shrubs and trees have grown to soften the outlines of the crater, but it is still immediately obvious, seventy years after the explosion.
but in a haughty way: Daily Telegraph, 21 September 2008. Martin Davies became Director of the National Gallery in 1968 and was knighted in 1972.
should wait upon them: Second World War Secret Bunkers, p. 8.
solved itself for the moment: The National Gallery in Wartime, p. 24.
shall leave this island. W.S.C.: The Other Half, p. 5. In a letter to a colleague Clark gave a slightly different version of Churchill’s utterance. ‘Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island.’ The National Gallery in Wartime, p. 31.
We brought them down and set them: Saving Britain’s Art Treasures, p. ix.
nicknamed ‘the Cathedral’: The blue-grey roofing slates produced by the quarry were known as Empresses, Small Duchesses, Broad Countesses and Wide Ladies.
hellish town of Blaenau Ffestiniog: The Other Half, p. 5.
packing case passed through: Ibid., p. 6.
cleared of its contents stop: The National Gallery in Wartime, p. 83.
a few pictures: The Other Half, p. 7.
by Raphael had hung: After 1945 the repository at Manod remained in much the same state until the early 1950s. Then, in the depths of the Cold War, when a nuclear strike by the Soviet Union seemed all too likely, the Government ordered an exercise over one weekend in which pictures from the National Gallery were again taken to the quarry.
Twelve: White Elephants
monasteries in the sixteenth century: Brideshead Revisited, Penguin Books, 1960 edition, p. 8.
the more desirable it has seemed: CL, 30 September 1939.
fancy brick chimneys: Evidence in Camera, p. 107.
in position for launching: Ibid., p. 223.
each twenty-four hours: Ibid., p. 224.
overwhelming victory for the Allies: Ibid., p. 225. In 1942 Constance Babington Smith was mentioned in dispatches, and in 1945 she was awarded the MBE.
Allied photographic reconnaissance: Ibid., p. 232.
unfocused and incomprehensible: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, p. 34.
Our Land at War Page 41
