Too young to serve but not too young to suffer...

NEW BOOK WAR BABIES GIVES A VOICE TO THE UK CHILDREN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. MARION MCMULLEN LOOKS AT THE CHALLENGES YOUNGSTERS FACED

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THEY may not have borne arms, or worn a uniform, but children across the country survived the horrors of the Second World War and bore its scars.

In November every year we remember the sacrifice and courage of soldiers, sailors and airmen in service of their country, including both world wars.

Sadly, as each year passes, only handfuls of veterans from the Second World War survive to tell their stories, and those of their comrades who paid the ultimate price.

But there's another group of women and men, themselves also now elderly, who survived a war and faced hardship, danger, brutality and terror.

Author Chris Manby and Second World War expert Simon Robinson give them a voice in their new book War Babies.

They say: “Many millions of children also lived through the war.

“Alongside their parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings and friends, they too lived on rations, faced the bombs and were, in many terrible cases, imprisoned, subjected to torture and used as slave labour.

“Though the children of World War Two were too young to serve they were not too young to suffer, both small privations and great tragedy.”

Bright red and blue “Mickey Mouse” masks were issued to small children in the early days.

It was hoped the cartoonish design might make putting on a mask less frightening.