We Were Young and at War: The first-hand story of young lives lived and lost in World War Two. Sarah Wallis
you know. Dad and I think Chamberlain’s an old woman. We want more men like Churchill.
I am sure your new dress looks very sweet, so let me add another compliment to your collection. What colour is it? No the boys don’t take much interest in girls clothes here, but we would not dream of taking a girl out who was not smart.
I am looking forward to the time when we will meet. It certainly would be fine.
We have a lovely pine forest only 6 miles from home. We went through it two weeks ago and it nearly broke Mother’s heart to see that they were chopping lots of the trees down for war purposes. One of the damnations of war.
Our district is getting more war-minded. Wincham Hall only 3/4 of a mile away from home has been turned into a training centre for troops. The first batch of men arrived last Wednesday. Real raw recruits marched from the station by a sergeant.
I have got a German helmet that father brought home from the last war. I have decided to paint it with red, white and blue stripes and wear it if air raids come. Mother is ashamed of me for touching it.
I went to the end of term dance last Thursday, the first one for about two months. I and the boys arrived a little late and the best girls had been picked up and some chaps weren’t letting them go. So the only dances we could enjoy were foxtrots and general excuse-me dances. So being, I and the boys went home by ourselves. We decided to sing and make a noise until a policeman arrived and told us to shut up.
I am enclosing two newspaper cuttings one about Jitterbugs and the other a picture of our top-score fighter pilot. Don’t you think he’s a fine chap?
Yours,
Brian
Though in Britain it still seemed as if nothing much was happening, by the spring five newly created divisions of the British Expeditionary Force were ready for combat and had joined the troops already stationed in France. In Normandy, Micheline and her mother were having increasingly frequent rows. After one, in which she was accused of being selfish, Micheline decided she needed a new confidante and began to keep a diary.
6 April 1940
I met an English soldier this afternoon. He was very young, very handsome and distinguished, and unusually for an Englishman, he had magnificent teeth. Another one joined us, he was nice too, and then another one with glasses, who took the first two away with him. They all had motorbikes.
Our Latin teacher wasn’t there and I think our laughter could be heard from 20km away.
24 April 1940
Yesterday I spent all day talking with two very nice English soldiers, laughing the whole time. Two lorries arrived at 5 o’clock this afternoon and I went to talk to them too (the four soldiers in them, not the lorries).
Oh I’d better finish off writing about yesterday. We had so much fun…I did something terrible, I hardly dare confess…I skipped school. It’s amazing how easy it is! I was so happy to miss Latin! I was sad when the soldiers left. But today’s ones! The first thing they did was invite me to come and sleep with them in their lorry and to go for a walk that night…To which I replied: ‘Don’t be stupid.’ They called me ‘Sweetheart’, etc. Luckily all the English soldiers are not like that, if they were I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my one source of entertainment in Verneuil.
5 April 1940
Lots more English soldiers passed through. Some of them asked for my address. I hope they write to me. They behaved much better than yesterday’s lot! Besides, they didn’t have too bad a time. They offered me a cigarette, which I smoked in the street! If the people of Verneuil don’t like it, I don’t care. Another one asked for my address. I gave it to him. Will he write to me? Will he write to me? That is the question!
Page from Micheline’s notebook, 1939.
I love watching the English go by!…My one source of pleasure is talking to them. I think I’m going to get told off by the Latin teacher for missing my lesson last Tuesday, but I don’t care!
On 10 May, a week of good weather was forecast and Hitler launched ‘Operation Yellow’. One hundred and thirty-six German divisions attacked Holland and Belgium. Within days Holland capitulated and German troops made the first breach in the French defences. Flieger (Aircraftman) Herbert Veigel was serving as a radio operator with the staff of the Supreme Command of 2nd Army Corps behind the German lines. He wrote home to his family from an area already conquered by the front-line troops, just over a mile away from the French border.
9 May 1940
My dear family,
We crossed the border into Belgium yesterday, and after we did, the first villages we came to had been destroyed, their bridges blown up. They’d been abandoned. Cows ran around in the fields, mooing because they hadn’t been milked for days. Everywhere we went we saw the same thing, endless columns marching along ruined streets, passing bombed-out villages, every now and then a wooden cross with a steel helmet next to it. There are Belgian tanks and lorries in the ditches. And our Stukas 9 and Jaeger constantly overhead. If it weren’t for the sound of the artillery day and night, you wouldn’t know there was a war on…Who would have thought that I would be here!
Fondest hellos to you all, from your loving Herbert
22 May 1940
Dear family,
I just wanted to write a quick note, to let you know I’m still alive. What with eating, drinking, sleeping and **** [self censorship] duties there’s hardly any time for writing. The day before yesterday our whole division advanced by 90km. The retreating troops can’t get away from our front-line troops. Prisoners stream in the other direction, all different and jumbled up: French, Belgians, Negroes, Indians, Chinese, etc. They look so terribly dejected. In most of the towns there are only a few houses still standing, the rest shot to bits and burnt down…
…The way we live needs to be described. All the villages have been cleared, so all the houses are at our disposal. We ended up in an outwardly unremarkable house, which is quite magic inside. Ten of us have moved in, we each have a bed; there are two in each room. And we have everything we need. There’s a lovely kitchen with beautiful crockery and an unbelievable stock of food. The cellar is full of wine and champagne. The cupboards are full of valuable things. It is such a shame we can’t take anything with us. There’s a piano here too and we’ve been playing and singing…We are living like ‘Gods in France’. When
Herbert’s letter, 6 June 1940.
you see a scene like this you can truly say: our greatest victory so far is that the war has not been fought in our own country…Please send me a map of France, Belgium and Southern England…
Send my greetings to everyone, with a Heil Hitler!
Your Herbert
3 June 1940
My dear Parents,
We’re off again tomorrow. I can’t tell you where to. Fifty letters have been opened [by the censor] and I might get into big trouble. Please don’t tell anyone about what I wrote in my last letter. Our lodgings are still excellent. We always seem to find the best houses: there’s even a bath, which we have all been using, of course. It’s the first house we’ve found with running water. These people must have had lots of money to be able to afford all this. If we want coffee, we have only the finest coffee beans. There are kilos of it. It’s such a shame I have no room in my rucksack. Otherwise, Mummy dearest, I would bring you a