St Andrew's Anglican Church Moncton

The trip out, less than an hour in balmy weather, was bliss and restored my well-being, so I returned to the little cabin on deck with the large parcel, eager for the return journey.

We were barely out into the wide Solent waterway when the wind sprang up and

with it, thick fog surrounded us. The seamen were anxious, for such freak storms were only too common in these waters. As minutes went by and the seas rose rough around us, the Coxswain at the wheel became unsure of his bearings and called out for directions from a passing freighter looming out of the fog: The response was inaudible in the howling wind, and the Sub-Lieutenant took over the wheel, sending the (Cox’n) back to join me in the cabin.

He was even more apprehensive than I, and even more dubious as we drew ever closer to the derelict pier looming out of the fog off the shores of Lee-on–Solent, well north of the channel and in the opposite direction from our own home base at Cowes.

The young officer’s idea then seemed to be to take refuge from the wild wind under the lee of the broken pier, but the Cox’n rushed out on deck to take over again.

He was too late – the worst occurred: the boat lifted high on a wave and we were driven by a great gust full-force into the iron girders surrounding us, the reverse gear failed to hold and we were left with no means of retreat, pounding against the pier’s iron frame with every wave.

I emerged from the cabin to find that the impact had done disastrous damage to our crew, crushing three of them between the iron girders in front and the cabin roof behind them.

One sailor lay inert in the boat, his neck twisted at an impossible angle and showing no signs of life. The Cox’n appeared to be semi-conscious from concussion, and bleeding from the ears. The young officer had caught the full force of the crushing impact on his lower torso and was suffering a great deal of pain in waves, which incapacitated him.

Apart from myself there remained only a young sailor, blessedly unhurt and ready to assist right away. Pulling off his jersey, he plunged over the side, calling out to me that he was swimming ashore to get help from the naval base nearby, which he knew to be beyond the open beach visible some hundred yards away. They would certainly respond as soon as they were aware of our plight.

Meanwhile it was apparent to me that we could not stay in the rocking boat any longer, being hurled violently into the iron pier every few seconds; swimming ashore was impossible with the injured, so supporting each other on a horizontal girder above seemed the only answer, and I urged the Sub. to climb up there with me, hold onto a side railing and help me to pull up the Cox’n between us and both support him there.

This he agreed to do, between bouts of severe pain, and thus we three slowly became free of the battering in the boat below. Our feet were planted on a narrow iron bar a few feet above the stricken sailor whose body lay beyond our help in the boat while we hung on for dear life to upright stanchions on either side. The Cox’n held tight between us as he swayed silent and barely conscious.

It seemed like an eternity that we gazed out at that stretch of beach, empty and silent except for the pounding surf, with no sign of human activity. Then there appeared miraculously a group of young sailors carrying a row boat, with an officer giving instructions. This they tried to launch over and over again, only to have it overturn.

At last in exasperation a few of the young sailors tore off their uniforms and plunged into the wild waves, anxious to come to our aid. Progress was not easy, but at last three of them drew near, followed by a sturdier motor boat in capable hands.

But, all our problems were not solved: I had not reckoned on the innate modesty of youthful naked males.

Eager to help they might be, but the realization that there was a woman present, even though uniformed as a petty officer, caused consternation and kept them paddling uselessly underwater, until I had an inspiration. “I’ll look away while you board the boat” I shouted in my best parade-ground voice, “then break open that big package in the boat and you’ll find some officers’ jackets. Put them on to cover up and keep warm!” It worked, and they clambered aboard our boat slowly, draping themselves proudly in the officer’s gold-striped jackets to stop their shivering.

In due course they all helped us lower the half-conscious Cox’n slowly into the motor-boat, followed by the young officer, still suffering great pain, and lastly myself, undamaged and hugely relieved. We limped ashore, held by gentle hands, to see to the removal of the dead sailor and to removal by ambulance of the Cox’n, who had now collapsed.

Then the Sub-Lieutenant and I experienced the joy of hot sweet tea, in a shoreside canteen manned by numbers of volunteer ladies laden with food, galvanized, it seemed, by the word “shipwreck” and expecting dozens!

Sometime later we were both driven by ambulance to the nearby naval base, he for medical treatment and I to the comfort of an empty bed and the care of a kindly naval nurse who checked on me intermittently all night – but I couldn’t sleep. After breakfast next morning, a boat was sent from Cowes to take two of us home, the young sailor who so gallantly swam for help, and myself, tired but thankful to be undamaged. We were greeted with many expressions of concern, and, because of the death and injury involved, word of an official enquiry to be set up when everyone was in better shape to testify.

I was due to leave in a few days for Greenwich and officer training, but our medical officer was reluctant to let me go, fearing delayed action stress. I persuaded him not to interfere, unaware that he called his fellow medic at Greenwich anyway, to alert him to the possibility of reaction on my part.

A wise man, as it turned out, for I had to seek help only a few days into my course, when my hands started to shake uncontrollably.

Sent home for two weeks’ rest, I was recalled to train with the next batch of officer-trainees and duly emerged in October with my commission.

At some point, I was reminded that the Wren motto is “Never at Sea”!

flight was scheduled to take off at 1 P.M. to the J.F.K airport in New York. When noon rolled around we were called to go through security, to begin boarding the plane. And that was when the bomb was dropped. Our plane had been delayed after many time changes for our plane to take off, eventually; our flight was cancelled all together. Luckily for us though my dad had arranged for us to get on another flight leaving for Boston, at 3:00 pm. When we arrived in Boston at 4:00 pm, we were notified that our new flight to Orlando, Florida, would be leaving at 7 pm. Although, yet again, another bomb was dropped. Our next flight had now been delayed to 9:15 pm.

Eventually our plane did arrive and we took off from Boston around approximately 10:00 pm, Florida time (11:00pm here). When we arrived in Florida at around 1:00 Monday morning, I was exhausted. Although, as I stepped off that plane it felt wonderful just knowing I was in Orlando. But, much to my dismay, my journey for that day wasn't done yet. We still needed to find our way to our home that we had rented for the week. Just to cut it short, we got lost. Finally at 4 am (Florida time), we arrived at 4907 Tennyson Court, to find my grand-parents there waiting for us.

Monday morning is when it finally set in on me that this was the trip I had been waiting for. For an 11 year old girl like me, this was paradise. Monday my family and I spent the whole day lounging in our own private pool with my grandparent. Right then is when I realized why all my friends loved it there.

Tuesday morning with our book bags in hand we set off for Magic Kingdom. If you were to ask someone what came to their mind when you said the word “Walt Disney World “they would most likely say "magic" or “Cinderella’s castle". Well Magic Kingdom is where the magic begins. For me, it was magical just being able to look up at the castle and marvel at its beauty, but I wasn't about to sit around staring at it all day! Next came what I had waited for my whole life. THE RIDES. Basically we went on most of the rides, like Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain railroad. We spent our day going on rides watching parades and getting autographs from all of the Disney characters. At 9:00 P.M. we made our way to the center of Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks show "Wishes". If I say so myself, you have never seen fireworks until you have seen these! They are truly amazing!

Wednesday was awesome. We grabbed our wallets and went shopping! For me being a girl it was really fun, especially because in Florida they have way better stores than we have here in Moncton. Another thing is they have a lot of outlets, which means everything is less expensive.

Thursday was one of the best days by far. We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I liked these parks better because they had rides better oriented for my age. The two parks are right next to each other so it is very easy to do both parks in a day. The rides at both of these parks were more thrilling because a lot of the little, little kids wouldn't be there. I would have to say my favourite ride of the two parks would have to be, Popeye’s Barges. On this ride you go through a white water rapids ride, on a circular boat. The only downside to this ride is you get soaked!!! I also liked Camp Jurassic. It was pretty cool to learn about dinosaurs! At Universal Studios, I really enjoyed JAWS! A ride based on a movie, where a great white shark is killing people in the harbour. On this ride you go through the harbour, where the shark is following you.

After the park we went out to supper at Olive garden. This is by far the best restaurant I have ever been to. If you are ever in the United States and you have a taste for Italian Cuisine, I recommend you take a trip to this restaurant.

Friday, we took the day to go to North Ruddington, a place just after Tampa, to visit my great uncle. It is very beautiful there, and the beaches are amazing. The day we were there, the waves were huge because the day before they had received the effect of a tropical storm. If you are a fan of beaches I recommend you look into Clearwater Beach.

Finally, on our last day we went to Sea World. This park is suited for people of all ages. It is amazing there. They have all sorts of sea creatures from dolphins to whales, to polar bears and penguins. The animal trainers there have trained these magnificent animals to perform amazing tricks.

Sunday, April 6th we started on our way home. It was wonderful as we faced no delays with our planes, and good weather.

When I think back on our trip, I get a little sad to know that I'm not in that paradise anymore. I definitely want to go back to Orlando, and I know that my sister and I had the trip of a lifetime.

Thanks for reading my article

Nicole Leighton

I was six years old when the war started and had been in school for two years and I can't remember much of those very early months of the war, but as time went on, I had more of a realization of what was happening.

Many of my school friends had their fathers and uncles taken away to fight in the war and mothers were left to look after the children by themselves. I was lucky in that my father worked in a strategic industry needed for the war effort, and so he remained at home being designated as a “protected employee”. However I did have two uncles and one aunt “called up” to serve in the war and one aunt who was given work in a manufacturing plant, as a machinist (a trade until that time, being the sole preserve of men).

One of those uncles died in Burma at a P.O.W. camp and the other was wounded in Burma. The aunt, in the war, served at an Air Field, directing take off and landing of British aircraft. The aunt who was the machinist worked her way up to machinist supervisor and remained in that job well after the conclusion of the war; in fact she retired in 1962 after 20 years in the industry.

The bombing of cities such as London, Hull, Sheffield and Leeds lead the government to embark on three strategies. The first was to construct air raid shelters in the gardens of houses in the “air raid prone” areas, as well as large shelters in fields and parks near built up areas for up to fifty people each to seek refuge. The second was to supply every child and adult with a gas mask in case the German war effort involved the use of poisonous gas. Luckily the use of gas was never employed. The third was to arrange for children to be sent out of the cities being bombed to live with families in rural areas. Our area was classed as rural and so we had two boys sent to live with us for the duration of the war. They were eight years old, and Doreen, my wife, had five year old twins sent to her home for the war's duration.

At night time, we had to close thick heavy curtains over the windows to prevent light escaping which might be seen by German bomber crews, which might lead them to drop bombs on us.

Several people were called up to serve as A.R.P's (Air Raid Police) and their job was to walk down the streets to make sure that all curtains were well drawn and that no light was escaping. Windows in the houses had tape stuck in patterns on the glass panes to prevent them from shattering with bomb explosions.

We were lucky in that although we had taken all of the precautions there were no bombs dropped in our village, but bombs were once dropped in Doncaster three miles away.

On some summer evenings we could sit in the garden and see the flashes from bombs being dropped on Sheffield, the steel centre of England fifteen miles from our village.

When I was eight, I transferred to a junior school which had been surrounded by a decorative steel fence, but this fence had been cut down and sent to Sheffield as scrap iron to be melted down to make armaments for the war effort. The fence was never replaced until the mid 50's and by that time, I was at another school from being 11 until 18 years old.

Parts of our parks and school playing fields were converted to “allotments” where food could be grown and all householders were encouraged to grow their own vegetables as certain foods had become difficult to obtain because of the sinking of food ships coming from Australia and Canada and America by German submarines or “U” boats.

In fact sugar, eggs, butter, milk, oranges, bananas, lemons etc. were rationed out to each house depending on the number of people living in the house. The sugar we did get came mostly from “sugar beet”, which is a root crop similar to turnips, and not from sugar cane.

On nature walks from school we often saw Italian prisoners of war working in the fields harvesting the sugar beet.

We each had ration books which would be stamped when we picked up our food. I will always remember my mother picking me up from school one day at the end of the war saying “Let’s go to the grocery store, they have just received their first shipment of oranges since the start of the war”. Remember, I had not seen an orange or a banana for 5 years so you can guess how excited I was.

Candies, toffees, chocolate etc. had also been in very short supply and it was only after the war that shipments of these began arriving in our local stores.

Clothing was also rationed, so mothers had to do a lot of sewing and darning to keep us well clothed.

Most of the eggs and milk we received were in the form of dried powder so it was difficult to have a fried egg for breakfast; it had to be an omelette made with the powered eggs and milk.

After air raids, we would go into the forests around the village to collect strips of aluminum foil which had been dropped by the German planes to disrupt the “RADAR” coverage of the area. The foil would be seen by the radar controllers and it made it difficult for them to detect the German bombers.

As the end of the war drew close, we could see the British and American planes circling overhead above the local airfields, forming squadrons before flying off to bomb targets in Europe. Sometimes as many as one thousand bombers were sent off from our airfields across the channel to Europe. Many of the British planes were crewed by Canadians, Australians, Poles and members of the Free French Air Force.

Our school sports programs continued but playing games such as cricket and football in parks around the village was restricted because of the shortage of sports equipment. Cricket bats were cut from wooden planks, cricket balls had to be repaired using nails and wire to fasten down the leather covers onto the core and football bladders (the part inside the leather outer case) had to be repeatedly repaired to seal air leaks so that the ball would stay inflated. Professional sports teams were decimated with many of the players being called up to fight in the war.

Eventually the war concluded and I remember being in the school garden picking turnips when one of the other classmates came running into the field to tell us it was all over.

The villages had street parties to celebrate the end of the war with everyone joining and bringing their own tables and chairs and whatever food they had for a fabulous day of thanksgiving.

Buntings consisting of strings of Union Jack flags were strewn across the roads between the houses and we had party games and competitions such as egg and spoon, sack and slow bike races.

War is not fun but I believe that we were lucky not to be as deeply involved as children in other parts of the country or in other parts of the world. We must all do whatever we can to prevent war happening again anywhere.