Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(Special Edition Mid-March 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
World War Two--Questions and Answers. (Their
finest hour).
I thought that the time had come, for me to see
how you the readers feel about the questions that children
of today’s world, who have not been subjected to
real war, pose with respect to conflicts that happened
so long ago, and so I have reproduced questions recently
asked by today’s twelve and thirteen year old students
about World War Two.
Some Background Information.
The question and answer session, which I’m
about to describe, was initiated originally by a communication
from a teacher located at Trinant Junior School in the
small mining town of Pentwyn, near Newport, South Wales.
The school teacher, Miss Seren Berry, sent me an e-mail
in March of 2001 asking me if I would be prepared to answer
questions generated by children of her class who were
studying World War Two. Miss Berry had apparently split
her class into groups of two or three students who were
tasked with submitting written questions to me. These
were children in the twelve to thirteen years of age class.
The young members of Miss Berry’s class had many
questions, and so I have selected some of the questions
they asked and the answers that I gave.
Students, Jodie, Lauren and Carly were interested in
what life was like for the people of Britain during the
war years. Students, Joshua and Sean were interested in
the events of war, (typical boys), and students, Calie
and Laurie were interested in how the children, (especially
the evacuees), managed to survive the rigors of war and
presented me with a series of very sensitive questions.
The reason that this essay came to mind, is that my Granddaughter
Julia and two of her school friends, Kristen and Ingris,
(who are in the same age group as the previous correspondents),
have been given the same assignment and approached me
recently on the same subject. So here are composite answers,
which I gave to the young people of today, who are trying
to learn what happened during the dreadful war that occurred
some 60 years ago. (1939-1945).
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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