Pupils from Year 6 of Golden Grove School-Ysgol Gelli Aur went back in time last week.

Operation Pied Piper the greatest evacuation of children in British history, began on Friday, September 1, 1939. Over the six years of the war, more than two million children were sent away from their family homes. Most returned, but how they had changed and how the separation affected their relationships with their families is seldom considered.

Being an evacuee must have been scary and exciting at the same time. The children had to leave their families and homes behind and try to fit in with host families in the country. Children had labels attached to them, as though they were parcels. They stood at railway stations not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had gathered with them. They felt scared about being away from their families, but also excited about going to a place they had never seen before and only read about in books.

The children arrived in the countryside, tired, hungry and uncertain whether they would ever see their families again.

And so it was that the pupils were ‘evacuated’ from Pembroke to Carmarthenshire. Dressed as closely as possible to the children of yesteryear, they gathered at the school, bidding fond farewells to mums and dads before being ushered in to the school to be issued with a box ‘containing’ a gas mask. Each child was labelled and counted before being put on to their transport. Their destination, to continue their evacuation, was to Gwili Railway where they would travel on a steam train complete with its 1940s style carriages. A wonderful day was spent with Gwili Railway with the pupils learning about the trains of the war era and enjoying a ride on a narrow gauge railway. They also learned about the role of air raid wardens and the importance of the blackout. The day over, unlike many evacuees, they returned to the safety of Pembroke and Golden Grove School, no doubt glad to see that there had been no enemy action!

The day was a part of the work the pupils have been doing about World War II. Class 7 teacher, Mrs. Harries, said: “The pupils gained an appreciation of what the war children went through. The day certainly reinforced the classroom work. The Gwili Railway staff were very informative and we would like to thank them very much.”