Paine, Sheila C.: my Second World War recollections (April 20, 2011)
ABSTRACT: Sheila Paine lived in Shrewsbury England throughout the Second World War. She was approximately ten years old when the war started in 1939. For the most part, Paine’s experience was centered around school and day to day life. Still, significant events occurred such as the bombing of a railway station, air raid drills, farmers being shot at, mines being dropped in fields, citizens being stopped at checkpoints, and Americans arriving for the D-Day landings. Sheila Paine remembers that children were not concerned with the war, but rather more focused on their own lives. Paine travelled to Finland in 1947, and recalls the dual communist and pro- German attitudes during her visit shortly after the war’s end. 0:00 – 4:50 – Initial memories of life in Shrewsbury, school, billets, children moving to the United States. 4:50 – 11:10– German bombing of railway station, Jewish refugees, sound of German aircraft, sitting in bomb shelter, life with rations. 11:28 – 18:45 – Bomb shelter, Bombers on the way to Liverpool, rumours of German Paratrooper nuns, soldiers guarding bridges, Messerschmitt shooting at farmer, German plane circling above school, plane dropping mine in a field 18:55 – 27:15 – BBC and war news was boring to children, British Home Guard being insufficient, thoughts on a German invasion, Americans in England for D-Day, found a Nazi book, V-E Day, interested in day to day life rather than the news. 27:20 – 39:15 – procedure for a raid in school, channel island billets, Finland 1947, communists, pass port revoked.
Interviewer: Hughes, Declan
Interviewee: Paine, Sheila C., b. 1926
An interview/narrative of Sheila Paine's experiences during World War II. Interview took place on April 20, 2011.
- In Collection:
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Canadian
- D-Day, 1944 (Normandy invasion)
- Messerschmitt airplanes
- United States--Army
- Shrewsbury (England)
- Shrewsbury (England)--History--Bombardment, 1940-1945
- Shrewsbury (England)--Social life and customs
- World War, 1939-1945--Children
- Soldiers--Billeting
- Soviet Union
- Liverpool (England)--History--Bombardment, 1940-1945
- World War, 1939-1945--England--Shrewsbury
- Great Britain--Home Guard
- World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy
- Bombing, Aerial
- Jewish refugees--Great Britain
- World War, 1939-1945--Radio broadcasting and the war
- Survival and emergency rations
- Communists
- Rationing--Great Britain
- Parachute troops
- World War, 1939-1945--Children--Great Britain
- Paine, Sheila C., 1926- --Interviews
- V-E Day, 1945
- Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
- British Broadcasting Corporation
- Air raid shelters
- 1 sound recording (MP3)
- 49, 0
- 39.76, -98.5
- 54.75844, -2.69531
- Original sound recording (WMA) also available.
- Canadian Military Oral History Collection
- PSC_681
- Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection
- April 27, 2011
- Digital sound recording in .mp3 format at 192 kbps and 44 kHz. Recorded in digital format by interviewer, technical and cataloguing metadata provided by JF and JP. Interview recorded in digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2011. Migration metadata by KD and MT.
- Rights
- This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca
- DOI
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