NEN Gallery

Reg:

“Some children were evacuated in to London. These were Maltese. Italy had entered the war on the side of Germany. Malta was a small island and British navy base, just south of Italy. It was sure to be heavily bombed, so lots of children were evacuated all the way from Malta to England. The children first arrived in London and were housed in two big almost empty blocks of flats next to my school.

A friend and I decided to be nosy and say we were visiting a friend still living on the top floor, so we climbed three flights of stairs. Dozens of Maltese children were sitting on the stairs, talking away in Maltese and staring at us. We felt like strangers in a foreign land and quickly, rather frightened, hurried down and outside. After a few days they to were evacuated to the country [side].

The war really started, when the Germans invaded France. They were more prepared and better equipped and soon drove the British troops back to the sea at Dunkirk. At Dunkirk dozens of little sail boats, from England, rescued our soldiers and also brought back to England a lot of French troops who did not want to surrender to the Germans.

The French soldiers were first billeted in a big building used for exhibitions known as the Olympia. At first the French were not allowed out because they had to have their names checked. They would stand on the roof and look over the parapet and called down to us. We would call back ‘have you got any souvenirs?’ They would throw down French coins, badges and cigarettes,which we didn’t smoke of course.