The Day War Broke Out: Untold true stories of how British families faced the Second World War together

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The war was, of course, to change everything. On the night of August 4, tens of thousands of people crammed into the Mall, to cheer the King and sing the National Anthem. The King and his family came repeatedly to the balcony of the Palace to be greeted by cheers from the crowd.

Standard Snippet: Dudley Moore punctuates the scenes in "So That's The Way You Like It" with a brief bit of fake-Tudor music (stately piano chords and falsetto warbling). Do I know...' I said, 'Now, don't talk rubbish, Rita... do I know Hitler, 'ow would... I'm not even in the paint business or anything, 'ow would...?'

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Well,' she said, 'I think we'd be a darned sight better off if you were on the other side!' she said, 'Do yo... do you know this Hitler? 'ave you ever...?' Alan Bennett: Very many years ago, when I was about as old as some of you are now, I went mountain-climbing in Scotland with a friend of mine, and there was this mountain, you see, and we decided to climb it. And so, very early one morning, we arose and began to climb. All day, we climbed. Up and up and up. Higherrrr, and higherrrr, and higherrrr, until the valley lay very small below us, and the mists of the evening began to come down, and the sun to set. And when we reached the summit, we sat down to watch this magnificent sight of the sun going down behind the mountains. And as we watched, my friend, very suddenly, and violently...vomited. [ Pause] Some of us think life's a bit like that, don't we? But it isn't. Another Aunt, Addie Watson, her husband Charlie and their daughter Adele, lived in 5, Lilac Gardens and we shared their air raid shelter. I don’t know why Uncle Charlie was there because all the men were in the Services. One night Dad was home on leave and he and I were walking home when the air raid siren sounded. A bomb or some ordnance landed nearby and we saw what I think was shrapnel skimming along the road like white hot needles The Government issued posters galore — “Dig for Victory” (using the garden or allotment to augment the food supply), “Holidays at Home” (exhorting people not to travel — to make the most of the immediate environment), “Be like Dad — Keep Mum” (discouraging careless conversation on transport — spies might be listening, “Is your Journey really necessary” (because of the petrol shortage.)

Evacuees and Prisoners of War started to arrive at various points in the country. Gilbraterians were settled on a demesne at Ballycastle and Millisle. P.O.W’s had military camps built in various areas mostly for Germans and Italians. At some stage the Yanks arrived in great numbers and set up their Headquarters in the best hotel in town. The Brits in those days were a clipped up, taciturn race ,as an example if you got on a train no-one would speak for the whole journey. I suppose after years of war what with the blitz and men being killed at the front line or taken prisoners you could hardly expect anything less but the thing is, the Yanks were quite different from any other men I had ever known. As children we found them kind, decent and charming young men, always ready with a smile, good natured and friendly.The next four months were spent in re-equipping in various arid bivouac areas in Setif in ALGERIA with, as a diversion, a thousand-mile trip to TRIPOLI in case they were needed for SICILY. Having done the trip it was decided by higher authority that they were not!! Continent Latest news, analysis and comment from POLITICO’s editors and guest writers on the continent.

My home in Jubilee Crescent was open house to anyone in uniform. I had six sisters and a brother. My father had served in the First World War and he understood just how good it was to be able to relax. Therefore whether he was British, French, Canadian or American the door was always open. We lost nothing from it, we had quite a house full — we never lost out on it. We met some wonderful people in the war and they were able to relax. When the Americans arrived there was friction in the town, but not in my home. They were treated equally and the ones that came to our house respected each other as they were expected to do. I know my grandparents went down to Brighton on a motorbike. There is a really strange mix of crisis and Bank Holiday Britain. Dad told me that a German Pilot had landed by parachute at the bottom of our road onto some grass area, I think this was Beltinge Road, anyway,as soon as he landed he was surrounded by some of the locals who said they were going to kill him but when they got to himn they found he was, as Dad described him, "Only a boy" and a couple of women there felt sorry for him and wanted to mother him instead. Wilton's comedy emerged from the tradition of English music halls. He was a contemporary of northern comedians Frank Randle and George Formby, Sr. He portrayed the human face of bureaucracy; for example, playing a policeman who shilly-shallies his way out of acting upon a reported murder by pursuing a contrarian line of questioning. Wilton, rubbing his face in a world-weary way, would fiddle with his props while his characters blithely and incompetently went about their work, his humour embodying the inherent absurdity of everyday life.We were all issued with Anderson Shelters - a corrugated iron affair that was half buried in the garden. We had to share with our neighbours as there were 2 of them and we were 3 in our family. It was in their garden. Later some people had a Morrison Shelter, which was like a steel cage and it was a table in the middle of the room and you could sleep in it. As we had a cellar in Park Road my Dad shored it up with heavy timbers so we could go down there. The day war broke out-that’s quite a good way to start things that, at the time, were serious, but now, can be laughed about.