Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2014-06-10 22:38:34.622105 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA1611111 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Donor The story provides a context for children to consider the effects of war on children’s lives. Get them to consider why people might make particular choices and consider how they might respond themselves in a similar situation. So you'll no be speaking to me anymore. You've nae time for Glasgow hooligans. It was you who said to do him proper."

The Machine Gunners - Wikipedia

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The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall - AbeBooks

The last few years have, and I think I can say this without fear of contradiction or reprisal, been a bit much. Published in the early 1970s, The Machine Gunners is a book about childhood in trying circumstances, about facing bullies (again, very graphically), about friendships, about write and wrong and the grey areas in between, about adults vs children. It's the middle of the night when three church bells ring; the Germans are raiding Garmouth on foot. Chas, Audrey, and Cem, much to their parents worry, run out of the bomb shelter to fort Caparetto. Friend or Foe?: The Home Guard averts this trope with the Polish force after realizing that there was no enemy invasion and that the Poles were merely acting on their own to the rumors. This is later played straight when the Poles, having failed to find any Germans, aid the police in searching for the children, who assume they are German by their language and fire upon them, causing both sides to believe they are German invaders. The children work on the base a lot, and make many improvements to it. They steal and scavenge. Cem gets blueprints for the machine gun, and finds out how to work it.

After school, Chas and his friends “Cem” (short for Cemetery, his dad is the local undertaker) Jones and Audrey Parton return to the wood to retrieve the machine gun. Taking turns sawing it off, they finally free the gun and sneak it out of the wood up the leg of Cem’s Guy Fawkes effigy.* They get caught in an air-raid by Chas’ father, who takes the Guy and puts it in his greenhouse for safe keeping. The next morning Chas hides the machine gun in an old drain pipe. A few days later, Cem tells Chas he had returned to the plane and found four thousand rounds of ammunition clips for the gun. The adventures start in Garmouth, a town in England, when Chas finds a machine gun from a dead German bomber. The story is excitingly fast and fun, but more than that, it can teach you a lot. No Communities Were Harmed: Garmouth is a fairly obvious version of real North Eastern town, Tynemouth, where Westall was born and raised. At least, to anyone familiar with the area.

The Machine Gunners. 1: The hunt for war - BBC English KS2: The Machine Gunners. 1: The hunt for war - BBC

Concealment Equals Cover: Averted. From the outset, one of the most major concerns the authorities have about the missing machine gun is that, in the wrong hands, its bullets can accidentally kill people some way off by going through walls. Indeed, towards the end of the novel, the police sergeant pursuing Chas and the gun gets a lead precisely because a bullet from the weapon lodged in someone's wall.Explore propaganda from the era - eg propaganda posters or short films. Encourage pupils to think about how we receive information today, and why the government at the time used posters as the main way of communicating information to people during the war years. Following this, pupils could design and make their own propaganda posters. These could then be added to the historical display that they have created. Supporting resources can be found here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/government-posters/ The Machine Gunners is a children's historical novel by Robert Westall, published by Macmillan in 1975. Set in northeastern England shortly after the Battle of Britain (February 1941), it features children who find a crashed German aircraft with a machine gun and ammunition; they build a fortress and capture and imprison a German gunner. The author also wrote a play based on the book, and others have adapted it for television and radio. A sequel, Fathom Five, set two years later, was published in 1979. Robert Westall was born in Northumberland and went to school in Tynemouth. He studied fine art at Durham University and after he graduated he worked as an art teacher. Despite having two degrees in Fine Art, and majoring in Sculpture, Robert Westall spent his working life teaching art in secondary schools, and writing only in his spare time. He loved teaching and worked in Birmingham, Yorkshire and Cheshire as a head of department. Oop North: Aye lad, we're gannin' oop North for this ane. Justified, since it's set in the North East of England and based on the writer's own childhood there.