THE REFUGEES

It is a plain fact that many wars over the last century have been fought with bombs, bayonets and bullets, and no doubt many more conflicts will follow suit; but increasingly, the constantly redefined art of propaganda has also entered the equation. Anything you can do to show your enemy in a poor light is generally thought to be good for the cause. I have no doubt the theory works, too.
By 1942 the military authorities had been infiltrating Norfolk's Breckland area for 25 years or so, appropriating more and more acres for training and equipment testing, creating at the same time increasing levels of local resentment. By the summer of that year, however, the War Department had already decided it needed an even greater area for 'realistic' training using live ammunition, and at least one of the inhabitants of one of the affected farms firmly believed they would take all of the land south of the Tottington-Stanford road towards Thetford. She was subsequently proved right, but in fact the real situation was worse than even she supposed.
In 1947, two years' after the Second World War, Norfolk County Council produced a Review of the Facts, and here, for the first time, the full effects of the War Department's requisition of what became known as the Battle Area was fully revealed. It probably caught the general public by surprise, for much of this War-time activity had been cloaked in secrecy, and in consequence had hardly been publicised at all.
According to the NCC report, the villages of West Tofts, Stanford and Tottington were taken in their entirety, while Sturston and Thompson were sorely affected. The Army was thus in control of 5,600 acres of arable land, 7,800 acres of heathland, and over 4,500 acres of grasslands, private woodlands and Forestry Commission holdings. They had also appropriated over a hundred acres of land under water. All roads in the designated area were closed (which effectively cut off Watton from Thetford and Brandon), while the B1108 and the B1110 were closed in part, along with four rights of way.
And the inhabitants of the farms and villages? Well, over 1,000 people were said to have been evacuated from 160 houses and 16 farms. This little locality would never be the same again.
Five years' earlier, in July, 1942, at an open meeting for the affected communities, the Army actually gave quite different figures. The GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, said the overall requisition involved 18,000 acres, 30 farms, 150 houses and cottages, three schools, two pubs, 34 miles of roadway, and affected some 800 people. There were promises of compensation and alternative housing, and so, with little actual alternative, the people began to leave their homes in dribs and drabs.
Farmstock and implements were auctioned off, final crops harvested, the animals - particularly farm horses - sold, and many pets destroyed. So folk straggled away, some in groups and some in convoys of vehicles and wagons, their possessions piled high, accompanied by troops and the police. Alas, there were more hardships to come, and much distress, not helped by the knowledge that the evictions were not even debated in the House of Commons until August of that year.
But to get back to the subject of propaganda. Not many photographs were taken of these refugees as they straggled away from their homes and farms and villages. At least, I have not seen any. And if any were taken, how much would they have been worth to the enemy? 'British troops forcing British people away from their homes.' You can even sense the Nazi captions. To the enemy, the pictures would have been invaluable, I think.