In Britain’s coalmines, the Bevin Boys made a contribution to the war effort that went unrecognised
The Second World War wasn’t only fought on land, sea and in the air — it was also waged hundreds of feet underground, in the bowels of the earth. Ten per cent of the hundreds of thousands of young men conscripted to serve King and country became colliery warriors, or Bevin Boys, who took on Hitler with pick and shovel at the coal face.
The danger and physical hardship this entailed can be seen in an exhibition of sketches, diaries and letters at the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Wakefield. They belonged to Martin Hill who had to leave