Bomb Alley 18

                                                                      Bomb alley kid No 18


On the news to-day they are saying that we have landed troops on the  French Beaches, and so far have made good progress against the
German Forces,also in the news papers they show a map of France and draw a line on the map to show how much we have advanced inland,so people are now hoping that this time we shall win against the Germans,and the war will soon come to an end., but listning to the radio  it seems things are not going that well, and the Germans seem to be holding us back,and we are taking heavy casualties,we hear from the local people that many are comming in through Dover and Folkestone sea ports.but according to the news we are still doing well,my Dad hears from a lot of the locals that there is a downward trend to the war against  the German troops.and the maps in the papers tend to bear this out with the line now being pushed back.toward the coast again.this is really serious as it shows that we are not containing  the Germans  in France,.and we are being pushed back to-wards the beaches at Dunkirk my Dad says that when he is down at Dover and Folkestone, he can see great clouds of smoke over on the French coast and even hear Gun fire in the distance,also you see a lot of German planes  diving down.Next day when Dad comes home from work dilivering down in Dover and Deal,there are many boats going over to France to try and help get our troops off the beaches in  Dunkirk every  available boat is being used, even some rowing boats,and the old feries boats,he says its really a terrible situation for us  to be in,our Navy is also doing its best to  ward off  the german fighters and bombers who are pounding our troops with bombs and  bullets,unfortunatly the  Navy cant get close enough inshore to allow soldires to swim  to them,but the small boats  can help to get the troops to the Navy Boats that is for those who can be helped, there are even pleasure boats  ferrying soldires home from over there,.and  one pleasure boat has come  all the way  from Scotland, and is called the Waverley { this boat is still running to-day in Scotland },but it appears that we are taking heavy losses over  on the Beaches in France.those who are wounded are brought back and are  being looked after at the big house across from my house,until they can be taken to the hospital,most of the men { or boys } as thats all they seem to be, one day we see a young soldier sitting on the grass outside the big house his hands over his face,and is crying out loud, and sobbing,we approach him  and can also see he is shaking as well,we ask one of the soldiers that we know why he is like that he tells us he is  frightend as he has seen such terrible  things over there on the beaches.and he is suffering from what they call shell shock,we ask the if we might go and try to talk to him,and our friend say we could try if we like,but he will be difficult to approach, so our friend  takes us over to see him,and tells to him that he has some friends  to see him  { meaning us . } and tells us to let him make the first move if he does,  and not to mention  anything about the war at all,.so we are left to sit beside  him  and just wait for him to make the first contact,all we say is hello,I think he must be about the same age as my  friend Raymond who was in the R A F. about 17 or 18. years old.he eventualy does say hello   and wipes some tears  away,I have nevr seen a man cry at all let alone a soldier,we stay for awhile but he dosnt say anything more,so we tell him we will come and see him to-morrow.after school.
              We do manage to get to school in the morning but again the old siren goes yet again so its  into the old shelter at school untill the siren sounds the all clear then we  are allowed to leave and go home.so after tea we go over to see if we can see the soldier that we were with yesterday,and yes he is sitting on the steps of the house,he seems a little  better this time, and even says hello to us, we say he looks a lot better, and  he  says he is going home on sick leave .for two weeks,so thats good news for him,one of the other soldiers say they have never been so scared in their lives,as the bombs and bullets were comming down like rain over there, and thought they were all going  die as many of the others were killed on the beaches and in the sea.this is not  good news for Britain as it looks like the Germans are winning again
and could follow  across the chanel but,for some reason they dont, some people say it is because the Chanel sea  at this time is too rough or  they may be building up for a big push to invade us,so for now we are  O K..I hope, Dad and Mum say not to worry we will be O K