The Durham Light Infantry were stationed here from June to September 1940. They formed a Cycle Platoon and later a Motor Bike Platoon. George Iceton recalled w e even got as far as collecting push bikes and w e’d formed this Cycle Platoon to go out looking for tanks and reporting back on the bicycles to see if anything was there, to report back to their own individual Commanders. George Richardson recalled we had cyclists, a cycle platoon, and we also had cyclists for our section so we could whisk around from Battalion headquarters to every one of our Battalions using cycles. We couldn’t use transport, transport was limited, most of the transport was behind and we carried on like this. William Watson recalled we had formed a tank hunting platoon and of course it was in readiness behind. The Tank Hunting Platoon rode bicycles of every description. They also had a tiny little van in which they carried Molotov cocktails, a very heavy load. This little van was almost breaking its springs. They were ready in the lanes and highways of Dorset.

George Iceton: Two of us went off with two three tonners and I don’t know where we went, but we collected about thirty motor bikes, and we started a motorcycle platoon. That was great fun. One bike we brought back was a Triumph Twin, which was really an up-to-date bike in those days. My mate Corporal Handley liked a bike, but I liked a bike as well. I fancied a BSA which was a really good bike, a heavy BSA 500. Corporal Handley fancied a trip on this Triumph Twin and said, “Come on, jump on the back we’ll go for a spin”. He twisted the throttle, let the clutch in and I was left standing, it was so fast that the bike just left me. I just dropped off the back sort of thing when it took off, He got a shock, because it was a speedway start, standing on his back wheel, away like mad. Poor Andy, he looked around and I wasn’t there. The Motor Bike Platoon, that was great fun, except we were forever putting clutches in because a lot of the lads weren’t bike riders, and they were driving on the clutch more than they were on the gears. They were using the clutch to take it away gently rather than take it away bottom gear. We were forever putting clutches in. It got to the stage we went to the pub, on the A35 where we used to go fairly regular, it wasn’t too popular as they were trying to make it an officer’s club and we didn’t like that, but we still went. We went there to get corks out the bottles to try to put some clutches back in these bikes. They were made up of segments in a steel plate and we had to get these corks and level them off and put them in the segments. It didn’t last very long, it used to keep them going for a spell, so we had a platoon working. Paratroopers, spotting paratroopers going out and locating them and getting word back to where they were. This was a great fear now, after the Belgian episode and the Dutch episode if any attacks, any invasion did come it was going to be from the sea and from behind with paratroopers. This was a Battalion recce platoon, they were faster than the carriers, the carrier was really the recce platoon for the Battalion, but the motorbike was faster. All the south coast roads very narrow and nearly all sunken, you’ve got go along the road to a spot, get off the bike and go on the path and have a look around the countryside off the top of road. The carriers weren’t too good for this, they were alright going across the fields, they weren’t too good on these sunken roads. At this time, we were trying to keep the farmers as busy as we could, trying to protect the farms as much as we could. We were trying to save the farms because we needed all the stuff we could get from the farms. So, the carriers weren’t a great advantage in Dorset. Not in this situation. If we had gone across the field that would have been alright but to protect the fields the carriers weren’t much good. So, the Motorcycle Platoon was sort of taking over their work. That’s if you wanted a bren gun forward it would have to have been a carrier that went forward with, but that would have meant destroying the fields. We had accidents, for instance I was out trying a motorbike one day and I finished up in a ditch and split my head open, and David Joy had the great joy of stitching me back up. William Watson recalled all officers were instructed to learn how to ride motorcycles. Well, I found that particularly difficult. I got into a side car with the MTO, Mike Lockhart, to be shown how to ride one of these bikes, how to work the gears, the levers and all the rest and we go straight into a stone wall, so I didn’t learn very much on how to ride a damn motorcycle. I did eventually manage to get on one and go very slowly along some of the lanes of Dorset. I remember trying to pass the padre’s wife who was on a push bike, I never got past her. I daren’t go any speed on this wretched machine and I gave it up after that.

The Durham Light Infantry were stationed here from June to September 1940. They formed a Cycle Platoon and later a Motor Bike Platoon. George Iceton recalled w e even got as far as collecting push bikes and w e’d formed this Cycle Platoon to go out looking for tanks and reporting back on the bicycles to see if anything was there, to report back to their own individual Commanders. George Richardson recalled we had cyclists, a cycle platoon, and we also had cyclists for our section so we could whisk around from Battalion headquarters to every one of our Battalions using cycles. We couldn’t use transport, transport was limited, most of the transport was behind and we carried on like this. William Watson recalled we had formed a tank hunting platoon and of course it was in readiness behind. The Tank Hunting Platoon rode bicycles of every description. They also had a tiny little van in which they carried Molotov cocktails, a very heavy load. This little van was almost breaking its springs. They were ready in the lanes and highways of Dorset.

The Battle of Britain was a major air campaign fought largely over southern England in the summer and autumn of 1940. After the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and the Fall of France, Germany planned to gain air superiority in preparation for an invasion of Great Britain. The pilots of RAF Fighter Command, flying iconic aircraft including the Hurricane and Spitfire were supported by a vast network of ground crew during the battle. Ultimately the Luftwaffe was defeated by Fighter Command, forcing Adolf Hitler to abandon his invasion plans. Many aerial battles were observed in the skies near Litton Cheney. Belinda Brocklehurst remembered her arrival at the Cottage in August 1940: a s we ran into the house we found a haven of peace, despite the ‘dog fight’ going on overhead. My grandmother was in the drawing room pouring out tea. My grandfather sat smoking his pipe in a large armchair, his two dogs, lying at his feet. Great Aunt Sylvia sat in her rocking chair doing her knitting. The ‘Dog Fight’ was a fascinating and horrifying sight with our brave fighter planes swirling around above us in the blue sky as they tried to shoot down German bombers on their way to bomb Bristol and Exeter- the period was the height of the Battle of Britain. Looking up we saw aeroplanes hurtling and weaving high above us, white vapour streams flowing from their tails, guns rattling as our fighters took on the German bombers which were making a daylight raid on Bristol. A ‘dog fight’ was in full progress, planes in flames, parachutes floating earthwards and, if it were not for the fight to the death, it was a magnificent sight. Before Christmas one year, the Germans were dropping long silver strips of paper with black paper backing, which apparently stopped our radar picking them up. It came fluttering down and we used to go out into the fields and collect this and make very pretty Christmas paper chains from them. George Stephenson, stationed here in 1940 recalled we often saw dog fights. We often went out with our Intelligence Section, usually went out with our Intelligence Officer to grab any information from any remnants of the aircraft that had been shot down, Royal Air Force or enemy. We saw quite a few enemy fighters brought down. I never saw a bomber brought down in that area, but quite a few dogfights overhead. The Battle of Britain was in full progress. One of our jobs in our Intelligence section had been to look at all the fields in our area, there was quite a lot up on the ridge between Puncknowle and Chesil Beach, a long road there and quite a few fields. Our Intelligence Officer deemed that they could be used for landing not only parachutists, but also aircraft or gliders. They advised to put wooden spikes, about four or five feet long stuck in the fields, which we did. William Watson, stationed here in 1940 recalled round about the middle of July, about 12 th July there was a parachute scare, and we sent out a party to search the countryside to see if any German parachutists had been dropped in the area, but they found nothing and returned at 2am in the morning. I took advantage of that to call out the inlying platoon and they turned out in seven minutes; this was after the scare had died down and the whole company turned out in 25 minutes. I took advantage of the half-light of dawn for that purpose. I remember two bombs were dropped near Burton Bradstock, in a field, I think a couple of rabbits were killed, this would be about 26 th July. A pane of glass was broken, and twenty yards of fencing, forty square yards of meadow. Well, we filled it in for the farmer. It was quite a novelty to see two bombs dropped, and subsequently more bombs were dropped. I remember going with our friends to Baglake Farm, Ann and Nancy on our way to have a drink somewhere in the evening and we weren’t the only ones looking at a bomb crater in the middle of a meadow field. George Iceton stationed here in 1940 recalled one day I just laid on the grass and watched the air battle going on above me. There was a lot of air activity. But this was a beautiful day, and I just laid there and watched them, and a girl came and lay beside me, I don’t know who she was yet. We just laid watching the battles going on. There were quite a few planes shot down. It was hard to tell with the naked eye what was what, every plane looks alike more or less, the spitfire had a distinctive pointed wing, the hurricane was more of a longer wing which wasn’t quite so pointed, but they were hard to distinguish whether they were German, when they were coming down you just saw a pall of smoke and you looked to see if any parachutes coming. Not really bombed. At harvest time, end of August, early September they tried to destroy the fields with incendiary bombs and a lot of incendiary bombs were dropped right around us to try to set fire to the corn stacks. That went on for about three weeks I should think, purely to try to destroy the corn so we were short of food. I don’t recall many planes, there might have been two or three. I think there were three we had to put guards on, one was against Swyre, one was close to Bridport, one somewhere in the Long Bredy area. We had to put guards on them till they were removed, to stop people from pinching them, just protect them, keep what they could.

In January 1940, the British government introduced food rationing. The scheme was designed to ensure fair shares for all at a time of national shortage. The Ministry of Food was responsible for overseeing rationing. Every man, woman and child was given a ration book with coupons. These were required before rationed goods could be purchased. Basic foodstuffs such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon and cheese were directly rationed by an allowance of coupons. Housewives had to register with particular retailers. A number of items, such as tinned goods, dried fruit, cereals and biscuits, were rationed using a points system. Priority allowances of milk and eggs were given to those most in need, including children and expectant mothers. Not all foods were rationed. Fruit and vegetables were never rationed but were often in short supply, especially tomatoes, onions and fruit shipped from overseas. The government encouraged people to grow vegetables in their own gardens and allotments. The scheme became better known as ‘Dig for Victory’. Certain key commodities were also rationed, petrol in 1939, clothes in June 1941 and soap in February 1942. The end of the war saw additional cuts. Bread, which was never rationed during wartime was put on the ration in July 1946. It was not until the early 1950s that most commodities came ‘off the ration’. Meat was the last item to be de-rationed and food rationing ended completely in 1954. Belinda Brocklehurst recalled it must have been difficult to adjust to the restrictions of the war. Suddenly no petrol for those that had cars and no buses for those who did not. The farms still used cart horses for much of their ploughing etc, so tractors were not the only source for farm work, and those with them were given fuel as part of the ‘war effort’. Food was the real problem. We in the country survived well with home grown vegetables, and eggs and endless rabbits and birds shot by my grandfather. But for the less fortunate it must have been very difficult to survive on a weekly ration of 2oz butter/fat, 2oz sugar, 4oz meat, 1 egg. We all had ration books. Bread rationing came later. In our family we each had our own butter dish and marked out our 2oz square into tiny blocks for our daily use. There was also an extra allowance of sugar for making jam. I never remember feeling hungry, and my mother and grandmother were very ingenious with inventive ways of spreading the little we had between us. We always had afternoon tea with sandwiches- usually in summer cucumber and tomato from the wonderful greenhouse which was my father’s pride and joy. There was often a cake, somehow made with no fat. We did not have sweets, cereal, ice creams, fruit juices, fruit such as bananas and oranges- all our fruit came from the garden and was apples which my grandfather stored wrapped in tissue paper and kept in his shed on wooden racks, together with fresh fruit from the fruit cage, rhubarb and through the winter, grapes from the greenhouse and a constant supply of bottled fruit. Runner beans were cut and stored in earthenware jars in salt. Potatoes and carrots kept in piles under sand, sea kale grown under earthenware jars, and throughout the winter months a constant supply of greens grown by our gardener Hall. Water was restricted, or perhaps the power to heat it was, and as a result everyone, including the King had a line painted on their baths 6” from the bottom which was as far as the water was allowed to go. You did not wallow in the bath in those days. Coal was rationed and my grandparents managed to get squares of peat to burn- it gave off good heat, burnt very slowly and smelt very pleasant. Clothes were strictly rationed, and people were surprisingly enterprising. I had a lovely dressing gown made out of an old pink blanket. My mother managed to buy parachute silk from somewhere, bright yellow, and made us all knickers and handkerchiefs out of it. Everything was saved and used and nothing thrown away. Elastic was taken from old knickers to be reused. Buttons taken from old shirts. Clothes were made out of anything from old curtains to old evening dresses. Old cardigans were unravelled, and the crinkly wool rewound into balls and reknitted into new garments, often using several colours from different bits of knitwear- could be quite colourful. Socks and stockings were darned over and over again. We used to knit squares about one foot square from old, knitted clothing, all different colours, and they were sown together and sent as blankets to the soldiers. Socks and mittens were also churned out by the knitters in the house for the soldiers. Right across Britain this was happening, and every scrap of knitting wool was used and reused. My mother was very good at sowing and knitting. She made us lovely, smocked dresses, sometimes using some of her old clothes for material. We always had nice dresses and cardigans etc made by her out of whatever she could lay her hands on. Ingenuity was the name of the game! My grandfather grew his own tobacco, having got permission from customs and excise to grow it for his use only. I used to help him harvest the huge leaves and pick off the pink flowers, to make sure all the plants’ strength went into the leaves. They were then hung in blackening bunches, like a lot of bats, in the carpentry shed to mature, then pressed into packs, sometimes soaked in strange things like molasses, prune juice, whisky, beer and anything else he could think of to make it taste all right. Finally, it was pressed and cut into thin strips and smoked. The smell was appalling, but he enjoyed it. As the war progressed, and food became shorter, the Government encouraged everyone to grow as much as they could at home. Allotments were started for those living in towns, or without gardens, people dug up their front lawns to grow vegetables. There was DIG FOR VICTORY splashed around on big signs in stations, notice boards and in the papers, and the people dug. Every bit of space was used. There was a large garden with lawns, a huge greenhouse, where my grandfather grew his tomatoes and prize cucumbers. There was a very big vegetable garden, which kept us well stocked throughout the war, two fine asparagus beds, lots of ancient apple trees and a tempting fruit cage with strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and red and black currants. At the top of the garden was the massive chicken run and a field. There were a lot of chickens, which kept us in eggs and the odd Sunday bird, throughout the war. During glut time the eggs were put in huge earthenware urns with a mixture of water and lime. This preserved them, but they could only be used for cooking and were no good as boiled eggs. I used to spend hours watching Mr Hall skin rabbits and pluck pheasants, partridges, and even rooks if we were really short of meat! Not far away was an Italian prisoner of war camp and I remember my mother buying some very nice wooden toys which had been made by the Italians for sale. You could not buy toys in the shops at this time as all metal and paint was needed for the war effort. Even people’s garden railings, garden gates and wrought iron balconies were removed throughout the country to melt down to make guns.

During the late 1930s, the British Government began to prepare the civilian population for war. As well as the widely expected and feared bombing raids, it was also thought that poisonous gas might be used against civilians. Gas masks were issued from 1938, and over 44 million had been distributed by the outbreak of war in September 1939. The Air Raid Wardens Service was set up in 1937. Wardens were responsible for reporting incidents, reassuring the public and providing Air Raid Precautions (ARP) advice. They were also expected to extinguish small fires, administer first aid and investigate reports of unexploded bombs. The Women’s Voluntary Service was set up in 1938 to involve women in ARP. From 1 st September 1939 ‘Blackout’ was enforced. Curtains, cardboard and paint were used to prevent light escaping from houses, offices, factories or shops, which might be used by enemy bombers to locate their targets. Householders could be fined if they did not comply. Messengers, ambulance drivers, rescue teams and firefighters all proved essential to ARP. Sixteen residents were awarded certificates for anti-gas training in connection with ARP in August 1939: Alfred Pitcher, William Staple, William Thorner, Alfred Trevett, Charles Hiscock, John Downton, A. Andrews, Frances Dunham, Daisy Fry, Mrs Elsie Coombes, Miss Olive Gladwyn, Miss Alice Courty, Miss Anne Trenchard and Miss Alice Gladwyn. Mr R.B. Howarth was the instructor. Belinda Brocklehurst recalled we all had gas masks issued to us early in the war and had to take them in boxes with us everywhere. I had a Micky Mouse one. We had gas mask drill. I often used to wonder if they would really work if any gas really fell on us. The following people had roles with ARP in September 1939: Alfred Pitcher (White Cross) and John Gray (Thorner’s School) were Air Raid Wardens and Albert Andrews (Laurel Cottage) a Deputy Warden. William Thorner (Fernleigh) and John Hiscock (2, Church Path) ARP (Bridport District Rural Council). Gladys Bush (Stancombe) ARP Ambulance Driver. Isabel Courty (Redway Cottage) ARP First Aid Post. Olive and Alice Gladwyn (Barges Living/Brewery Cottage) ARP First Aid. Daisy Fry (Myrtle Cottage), Harry Dunham, Frances Dunham, John Dunham (The Paddocks) and William Staple (Townsend Cottages) ARP. George Slade (1, Rose Cottage) ARP Messenger. Frederick Hansford (Puddlehole/Malter’s Cottages) and Alexander Harper (The Cottage) were special constables. Belinda Brocklehurst recalled the windows all had paper crosses across all the panes of glass to stop the glass blowing in and cutting us if there was a bomb blast. All houses had black-out curtains at night, heavy black cotton, and air raid wardens, local volunteers, went round to make sure no tiny cracks of light were showing. Apparently, airplanes can see light from above and could pick out villages, towns etc. if a tiniest light showed. There was a strict black-out throughout the country. There were no streetlights, cars had special covers for their head lights which pointed the little light which came down straight onto the road instead of beaming it. Even a lit cigarette can be seen from the air, so light restriction was very strictly observed by everyone. All the signposts were removed so the enemy would not know where they were or the way to anywhere if they landed.

8 th May 1945 VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) was one that remained in the memory of all those that witnessed it. It meant an end to nearly six years of a war that had cost the lives of millions; that had destroyed homes, families and cities; and had brought huge suffering and privations to the populations of entire countries. Millions of people rejoiced in the news that Germany had surrendered, relieved that the intense strain of total war was finally over. In villages, towns and cities across the world, people marked the victory with street parties, dancing and singing. Many people in Britain didn’t wait for the official day of celebration and began the festivities as soon as they heard the news on 7 th May. After years of wartime restrictions and dangers, from food and clothes rationing to blackouts and bombing raids, it was understandable how eager they were to finally be able to let loose and enjoy themselves. Colourful bunting and flags soon lined the streets of villages, towns and cities across Britain. On the eve of D-Day, bonfires were lit, people danced, and the pubs were full of revellers. Belinda Brocklehurst recalled so the European war headed for its end and the great day came when the Church Bells all rang, bonfires were lit on the beacons and the village had a huge party to celebrate the end of the European war, fancy dress and all.

Philip Shave, a licensed victualler and his wife Annie were running the pub along with their daughter Mildred during the war.

George Iceton of the Durham Light Infantry recalled that in 1940 pubs were still open, initially with no shortage of beer or cider, although some of the cider was a bit rough. George Stephenson of the Durham Light Infantry recalled I was in Litton Cheney, with Headquarters Company. Now I didn’t know who my officer was at the time. I was in a single platoon and we were to stand to and I was billeted in an old house, thatched roof, it was an old barn actually I remember because there just across the road was a pub and we went across there and the only drink we could get was cider and we found out that two pints of rough cider was more than we could stand.

Local people were astonished the first time that the GI’s lined up for beer, the first man handing in a bucket and asking for eighteen pints, explaining that it was for the cooks who couldn’t come to the inn as they were on duty! At this time there was no vehicle bridge or car park, and the ground was mostly a vegetable garden. Numerous rabbits would be hanging up in the skittle alley.