The Casualties Were Small
My Grandmother, May Hill, lived in Chapel St Leonards, a small seaside village to the north of Skegness in the county of Lincolnshire. Her Diaries are filled with anecdotes about family, village life, poems, recipes, her own childhood memories and comments on the war, politics and the policy makers of the time.
Wartime Poetry and Diaries*
of a Lincolnshire Seaside Villager
May Hill
Chapel St Leonards, Near Skegness, 1940-1944
Edited by Tom Ambridge and Margaret Ambridge
May Hill began her Diary soon after the outbreak World War II. The strategically important East Coast area of Lincolnshire around Skegness had been transformed from a bustling holiday centre into an armed encampment. Butlins became 'HMS Royal Arthur' a Royal Navy training centre, RAF air bases sprang up throughout 'Bomber County' and soldiers were billeted in surrounding villages, including Chapel St Leonards.
My father, May's son Ron, volunteered for the RAF and May began to express her thoughts and prayers in verse. The poem "The Casualties Were Small" reveals her worst fears as his exposure to danger increased even before being posted abroad.
As the War continued, May maintained her eloquent record of family and village life as well as the events of the War itself - including the sad loss of three nephews and an early hint of victory with the 'D-Day' landings.
The selection of Diary entries in this compilation has been chosen to include those which reveal the specific experiences and events which inspired over twenty poems. May's own writing is supported by additional explanatory notes and illustrated by over thirty photographs from the collections of the family and others from the village.
Published:
June 2009 UK PRICE 
8.99
For further details and to order copies - please Click Here to go to the Ambridge Books Website
May Hill's WWII Diaries - Seventy Years On' blog
The
following extract is from May's writing on D-Day:
The
people featured are: May
Hill (widowed a few months
earlier), Rene (married daughter),
Jean (younger
daughter), Ron (son,
serving with RAF in Italy),
Emmie (Ron's wife), Mrs
Russell (Emmie's mother), Ciss
(May's husband's niece), Percy
(Ciss's
husband), General Field
Marshall
Bernard Montgomery, Archbishop of Canterbury
William Temple, King George VI.
Tues June 6 1944, D.Day 9.30 pm *
SECOND
FRON
An Ordinary Day
So,
at last the long-talked of Second Front has begun. I have not even given it a
new page and that seems a fitting symbol of how it appears to me. What
excitement there may be in towns or elsewhere, in the country does not seem to
have touched us here. It is just an ordinary day, after nearly 5 years of war
it takes a lot to make us demonstrative. I went on with my ordinary work and
made my first toy for sale, a white duck with green wings and yellow beak and
feet. It is for Mrs Russell to give to a baby friend. I must make the rabbit
for Emmie next and try to send an extra one too. Ciss cleaned her pantry and
Rene washed. Jean went to school, indeed she had gone before the announcement.
Listening
to the Radio
4000
ships and a great many smaller craft crossed the channel. Great air-liners
took air-borne troops behind the German lines.
Montgomery is speaking now, a
message to the troops of which he is the head. Now a service. Almost
10 o'
clock. The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken and now they are singing
"Oh God, our help in ages past." At nine o'clock the King broadcast
a call to prayer, not just one day but all the days of
crisis. In
the news afterwards we heard that all was still going well in France. I fear
the "little people" like us would not just go on with this ordinary
work. However pleased they may be at the thought of deliverance, at present it
means danger and hardship and war. Many will have
to leave their homes and
many I fear will lose their lives. The service is over, a beautiful service,
ending with the hymn, "Soldiers of Christ Arise."
At
the End of the Day
We
are in bed. A motor cycle has just gone by and a swiftly moving plane. Percy
was with Home Guards last night. I am pleased he is at home next door tonight.
God be with us all those whose sons or husbands or other dear ones have
already fallen in this new front. Be with the wounded and comfort the dying
and those who are afraid. We had 12 letters from Ron to-day - a record. I had
6, the others 3 each. In the most recent one, only a week since he wrote it,
an air mail letter, he says his hopes of return are practically nil. I am
almost pleased much as I long to see him but somehow he seems safer there at
present. I must try to sleep now. The longed for D-Day has arrived.
Deliverance Day, Jean says it means.
* All extracts taken from the book "The Casualties were Small" and reproduced on this page are Copyright The Editors and Estate of May Hill 2009 - All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Music
Composed by May Hill's grandson Brian R Hill
Novels written by May Hill's grandson Brian R Hill
Copyright Brian R Hill 2003-2022
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Last updated 04 June 2022
