From: Tom Holloway (tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk)
Date: Thu May 20 1999 - 17:48:36 PDT
. Hello Holly - I expect Heinz Barthel will tell you about the situation he found in Germany; but here are my replies to your questions from the LONDON SCHOOLBOY... > What changes, if any, were made to food during the war? (what did you miss the most and what was your favourite food during the war?) I was 6 years old when the war started and so I missed sweets and chocolate most (only 12 ounces per month - or 6 small bars of chocolate) and after that JAM. The ration was very small and we had to spread it very thinly... (If you would like to see some wartime recipes, go to http://visitweb.com/recipes) Where did you live? (were you evacuated?) I was evacuated to Exeter for a short time, but returned to London just before the blitz started. How did the war effect your school? All windows had sticky tape criss-crossed over them (in case a bomb fell near) and all buses and trains had the same criss-cross tape for the same reason. There were lots of sandbag walls around the outside of one the lower school halls (this was our school shelter during air-raids). We had gas-mask drill the first year, and right through the war we had to swallow a spoonful of extract of malt (Virol) once every week. > What sort of clothes did you wear? (were they different to what you were used to and what material were they made from?) No they were the same as we we were used to, but they were nothing like modern clothes. Thick woollen (serge) clothing was standard clothing for everyone, very rough by today's standards - no smooth cloth such as we wear nowadays. > Were any of your relations fighting and if so who were they? I had an uncle in the army, serving somewhere in North Africa (but I didn't know that during the war - troop movements were very secret). Did your mother have any duties to perform during the war and if so what were they? My mother had to work in a factory making radio parts (because my father was in a reserved occupation - engineer - and wasn't in the army, so he had to join the Home Guard and my mother had to do war service too). =================== Tom Holloway tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk Tel: (+44) (0) 1926-771772 Fax: (+44) (0) 1926-771707