After experiencing the early raids over Liverpool we left to seek a new home as near as possible to Ysceifiog, my grandfather's birthplace. We stayed with friends in Rhes-y-Cae, then at Lixwm before settling into our own home in Ysceifiog.
We were in Rhes-y-Cae on the night of 9 January 1941 when a very heavy raid took place on Liverpool. We always knew when Liverpool was being bombed because there was an ominous glow in the north sky. The aftermath of this particular raid was partly played out over Flintshire. Bombs were dropped on Halkyn Mountain and the school, chapel, institute and several houses were damaged in Rhes-y-Cae.
On 1 June 1941 bombs fell in Babell, Lixwm and Ysceifiog. Three fell in a field at Groesffordd Farm between Lixwm and Ysceifiog, damaging buildings. I remember seeing the craters made by the bombs which fell behind Ysceifiog church. The blast blew in the bottom parts of the three-lighted east window, destroying the inscriptions, which have since been reinstated.
On another occasion we were making our way over Halkyn Mountain to Pentre Halkyn when we heard German planes approaching. They had been on their way to Liverpool but were intercepted by our Spitfires over the Wirral. A dog-fight began over the Dee estuary. We flung ourselves into the gorse bushes and stayed there for about half an hour peeping up now and again to see what was happening. The Luftwaffe decided to head back home and as they headed inland towards us they jettisoned their bombs as they went.
Social events in Ysceifiog continued during the war. The horticultural show was always held annually on the August Monday Bank Holiday and was well supported as most people had joined the Dig For Victory campaign. My mother joined the National Garden Club through which she obtained seeds. We also kept hens, ducks, geese, sheep and pigs. When a pig was killed the meat had to be sold through the Ministry of Food's arrangements but you were allowed to keep half a pig for your own use, thus supplementing the weekly rations.
In those wartime days most foods were wrapped in the shop when you bought your rations. Sugar was put in royal blue bags and tea in red paper. You could have golden syrup and treacle but you had to take along your own jam jar. I remember these being filled from a barrel in a building behind Rhes-y-Cae stores.
When VE Day finally came plans were made for a social evening in the school and a bonfire in the school yard. Later we climbed up Bryn Golau in the Clwydian Range to see the glow of the other bonfires across the area. The boys came home in their de-mob suits and life began to settle down, but things never returned to what they had been like before 1939. Time had moved on and many things had been lost forever. 
