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General Questions for use when recording recollections:
- Can you tell us your name for the tape?
- What year where you born?
- Can you tell us a little bit about your life before the war?
For Members of Forces:
- Did you enlist or were you called up?
- Which service and unit were you in?
- What did your family think about your joining up?
- Do you recall your first days in the service?
- How did you feel?
- Where did you do your training and what was it like?
- Did you soon make friends with others?
- Where were you sent to?
- How did you stay in touch with your family?
- What was the food like, did you have plenty of supplies?
- What was the accomodation like?
- How did people entertain themselves?
- What did you do when on leave?
- Where did you travel while in the service?
- What was the journey like?
- Is there any incident that really stands out in your mind?
- Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual event?
- What were some of the pranks that you or others would pull?
- Did you meet your wife while in the forces?
- Do you have photographs, who are the people in the photographs?
- What did you think of officers or fellow soldiers?
- Was there something special you did for "good luck"?
- Where were you and what were you doing on D-Day?
- Where were you and what were you doing on VE-Day and VJ-Day ?
- How did you celebrate the end of the war?
- How did you get home, what was it like arriving home??
For Prisoners of War?
- Where were you captured, How did it happen, What were you thinking?
- Where were you taken, how did you get there?
- Were you interogated?
- What was the camp like, what did you think of the guards?
- What sort of food were you given?
- Did you get letters/parcels from home, what were you sent?
- Were you put to work, what type of work did you do?
- What did you do for entertainment?
- Who were your friends in the camp?
- Did you or any other prisoners try to escape?
- Were you involved in any of the forced marches?
- How were you liberated?
- How did you get home, what was it like arriving home?
For Civilians:
- Where did you live during the war?
- How did you prepare you home for the war?
- What was the blackout like?
- What sort of shelter did you have and what was it like?
- Were there any air raids in your area?
- If you were bombed out, what happened, how did you feel, where did you go?
- How did your community respond to the war and civil defense (or other home front) initiatives?
- Did you have family and friends in the service or doing war work?
- What sort of entertainment was there, did you have chance to socialize?
- How did you cope with wartime shortages and rationing?
- Did you have a victory garden or other ways to get enough food?
- To what extent was there hoarding or black market activity in your area?
- How did you feel about war news from newsreels or radio?
- Where did you work?
- How did you get to work each day?
- Why did you choose that activity?
- What kind of training were you given?
- What kind of activities did you perform?
- What was your specialty at work?
- What did you like and dislike about it?
- What special rules or conventions did you have to follow?
- If you had children, who looked after them while you were at work?
- Did you develop friendships at work?
- Is there any incident that really stands out in your mind?
- Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual event?
- Were there any forces stationed near to your home?
- Did you see any prisoners of war working near your home?
- How did you feel about the POW's?
- Do you have photographs?
- Who are the people in the photographs?
Closing Questions:
- Is there anything else I should ask you?
- Is there anything that you would like to add on this subject?
For Wartime Children:
- How old were you in 1939?
- Where did you live?
- Was that with your parents?
- What was your house like?
- What did your parents/brothers/sisters do during the war?
- What was school like?
- Who were your friends?
- What sort of things did you get up to?
- What kind of games did you play?
- What sort of toys did you have?
- Were you a member of any youth clubs?
- Did you do things to help the war effort?
- If your father was away in the forces, what was it like when he returned?
For Evacuees:
- Where were you evacuated from?
- How did you feel when you were told about being evacuated?
- How did your parents feel?
- What did you take with you?
- What happened on the day of the evacuation?
- How did you travel, what was the journey like?
- Where were you evacuated to?
- Who did you stay with?
- Were your friends/family evacuated to the same place?
- What was your new home like compared to your old home?
- How long did you stay there?
- Were you home sick?
- Did you go to school?
- Did you do any thing to help the war effort?
- Did you have to help your new family with their work?
- Did you keep in touch with your family back home?
- What were your parents doing during the war?
- Did any of your family visit you?
- Is there any incident that really stands out in your mind?
- Did anything amusing happen?
- When did you go home again?
- What was it like being reunited with your family?
- Had your home town changed while you were away?
Closing Questions:
- Is there anything else I should ask you?
- Is there anything that you would like to add on this subject?
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