This is a little story I wrote......

This is a story that I wrote for History Class at Homeschool Group. It is set in The Battle of Britain.

A CHAP'S DIARY
Diary Of Conrad Fletcher
WWII

6 June 1940
Before I begin writing about my life and thoughts I am going to write a quick listed profile about myself:

NAME: Conrad Fletcher
DOB: 18 January 1926
ADDRESS: 43 Stamford Lane, Tilbury
HOBBIES: Stamp Collecting, Football

My mother made this diary for my 14th birthday in January but I thought back then “What was the use of writing about my life?”

Two nights ago, my father (whom I might add has always been firmly against the war) slammed down his newspaper and said rather loudly “I can’t bear the thought of it”
“The thought of what?” said Mum.
“The thought of all my mates fighting and giving up their lives to save Britain while I sit here twiddling my thumbs? I am going to sign up to the Air Force!”
Mum gasped and stared horrified at Dad.
“You are joking aren’t you, Dad?” I said.
But sure enough the next day he went and signed up. He was given orders to report to an air-base in Dover on July 19. This made me think that I could use this diary to record my private thoughts and views on things that are happening in this world.

18 June 1940
I wish Dad wasn’t going off to war like this. I am now going to have to do all the jobs that Dad does now. I’m going to miss him terribly. Dad’s business (helpfully, it seems now) closed down a couple of weeks ago because it went bankrupt so at least Dad won’t be unemployed for that long. Winston Churchill will be making one of his stirring speeches over the wireless tonight. I suppose that I need to write in the Diary sometime, about school. It is not really that interesting except for when Chappy, Ronny and I play tricks on our teacher, such as putting a spider on our teacher’s chair and a frog in her inkwell. We are actually studying the Treaty of Versailles and how Hitler has broken it, in History lessons at the moment.

19 June 1940
Churchill’s speech last night was amazing. He is a great leader in this time of trouble. Here are three parts of the speech that I can remember: ………the Battle of France is over and I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin……..; the whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands. Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say “This was their finest hour”.

27 June 1940

We went to Church this morning. The Reverend preached an interesting sermon.

Dad started to build an air-raid shelter for Mum and I to use if we need it, when Dad goes away. The whole area has been given orders to build an air-raid shelter. As soon as you hear the air-raid sirens go off you have to go and get into it.

Mum, Dad and I are going out to the Pictures for our last outing together before Dad leaves, so I have to leave this now.

4 July 1940

Tuesday night was awful. There was a Dogfight in the skies above, between one of the Jerries and one of our boys in the RAF. It started at 1.30am and woke us all up. We raced out to our air-shelter, which Dad had finished on Monday, and waited the fight out. The next day we found out that our boy got shot down into a field outside of town and had burst into flames killing the pilot. The pilot was actually Chappy’s Dad. The next day Ronny and I made Chappy a paper model Spitfire to cheer him up and picked a bunch of wild flowers for his Mum. We took them around to his house and said how sorry we were about what had happened. We have been woken up by air-raid sirens every night since then but we haven’t seen anymore bombers or fighters from our air-raid shelter.

10 July 1940

There have been continued Dogfights up above us, over the past few nights. I am going to try and get some extra sleep now.

16 July 1940

Mum and Dad gave me such a surprise tonight. I am to go with Dad to Dover so I can bring the car back after Dad has finished with it! Dad has made a portable air-raid shelter that we can set up in a ditch to protect ourselves. Adolf Hitler is being very indiscriminate. He will never occupy Britain. He will lose half his army before he captures one part of our mighty country. I have heard the drone of planes every night from our air shelter.

18 July 1940

Leaving for Dover in about half and hour.


18 September 1940

A note from Conrad’s Mother:
I am going to write in this Diary what happened on Conrad’s trip:

The night after they left they were staying in the house of a friend of my husband. During a part of the night the Luftwaffe carried out a bombing raid on London. It was a stormy night, the searchlights were activated, looking for enemy aircraft. The house was bombed leaving no survivors. This Diary survived the blast and was delivered with the awful news. So now all who read this Diary will know why so many pages are left unfilled.

5th of October continued............

Cont'd from last post

The Captain (this is what we are now starting to call Dad) said that we could go for a walk when we get there and go down into the WWII tunnels with our headlamps, he also said that there would be some old barracks that we would be able to explore. Laura isn't looking forward to it because somebody (we all think it was Ben) told her there would be rats. Anyway I have to go because the Captain is calling me to take over the tiller so he can go and check the chart around Home Bay for rocks and reefs as I haven't had time to look for him.

12:00 Miles: 2 1/2

We've just arrived at Home Bay about 5 minutes ago. Did I ever put in this Log that we have two Kayaks on board? Well if I didn't we do have two, and Mum and Ben have just started to paddle over to the shore from our now anchored boat. Mum is going to set up a couple of our small tents for everybody but me to sleep in.

TBC

Go the All Blacks!!! My guess is the All Blacks 45-15

5 October 2000 The Adventures really begin!!!

5 October 2000
6:30am Miles:0

Mum and Dad decided last night that we would go on an overnight cruise to Home Bay, Motatapu, this weekend. So Dad and I were still getting the boat ready for the trip at 11:30pm last night.

Currently we are just motoring out of the Westhaven Marina.

TBC

Return to Port

5:45 pm Miles:1

We have just arrived back into Port from our trip. The Captain is taking down the sails while we are moored to the wharf at Westhaven Marina.

Dad has said that he will buy us a chart of the Hauraki Gulf so that we can record all our adventures on it.

Next entry coming sooner than the last.

28th September 2000

The Log Begins

28th September 2000

12:00 Miles:5

Today's the day!!! Today at 9:00 we officially launched Swallow. Our plan is to sail round to Takapuna and back for her maiden voyage with us. We've just rounded North Head in four knot winds. As I (Peter) am log keeper I have decided that on an overnight trip I will make three entries a day and on a day cruise I will only make two entries. I can smell the delicious lunch (I haven't tasted it but I know it will be) Mum the Cook is making.

Next entry coming soon.

Prologue,Prologue and more Prologue

Prologue Continued Again:

We made Mum 'First Mate and Cook', Laura was given the positions of 'Second Mate, Sail Repair Manager', Ben was made 'Able Seaman and Rigging and Ropes Manager' and I was made 'First Lieutenant, Chief Navigator and Logkeeper'.

After painting her new name on her we decided on a date when we would first take Swallow out: the 28th of September.

That is the finished prologue,I hope that you have enjoyed reading it!!!

Prologue Continued 2

This is the continuation of the Prologue but I have also decided on a slightly modified version of the title:

The Beginning of the Never-Ending Story

That weekend we went and picked up the boat which was named Flyer, but we all decided we wanted to call her Swallow. The next day, with Dad, we made the Ships Papers which said that Swallow was owned by Hill and Co, and everybody's position on the crew. We had already decided that Dad was going to be Captain, so we just had to decide who had the other positions on the crew.

TBC

Continued Prologue

Dad told me to tell Mum(Susan) that it was super cheap and that we would have a family conference tonight with my brother and sister (Ben and Laura) about whether we should buy it or not.

So when Dad arrived home that day we sat down and had a discussion about it. In the end, after some convincing, we all decided that we would like it and before we had even seen it, we had hit the Buy Now icon on the online auction site Trademe. We ended up getting the boat for $2500.

TBC (To be continued).

Prologue

Hello to everybody who is reading this blog I hope you enjoy reading my stories and adventures.

This is a story which I have been writing especially for this blog:

In The Beginning:
One Family's Adventure's on a Hartley 16 Foot Trailer Sailer Recorded in The Ship's Logbook

Prologue

It all began that day the 14th of December, 2000, when I (Peter Hill) answered the phone, it was my Dad (Brian) saying he had found a 16 foot Hartley Trailer Sailer in great condition on the online auction site Trademe.

To Be Continued