Let ’em Have It • D-Day 80 Years On • Wimborne Town Centre (2024)
Let ’em Have It – a short piece of theatre to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day on Thursday June 6th, was performed in 5 locations around Wimborne as part of the town’s events to mark the Normandy landings. The use of 5 locations picked up on the 5 landing beaches in Normandy: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno.
WCT appeared at the Jubilee Gardens behind the Town Hall; the Royal British Legion; the Minster Green; the Museum of East Dorset and Willow Walk. We also added a performance at Streets Meadow Residential Home to entertain the residents, some of them in their 100s who had memories of the time.
As well as reflecting on the impact on the town of this historic event, the performance told the true story of Frank and Betty Rattley, the parents of one of our members, Clare Small. Frank sailed to Normandy from Falmouth on June 6th, leaving Betty behind to continue her work in a munitions factory in Bournemouth.
Read the story of Frank and Betty told in their own words.
About the production
WCT was invited by Wimborne Minster Town Council to create a short piece of theatre to portray the story of the town’s involvement in D-Day. The play was directed by John Billington.
Clare Small brought us her parents’ story, an account in their own words of their experience of D-Day. Clare recalled that it had been a significant event in their lives and one they often spoke about and shared with their family.
We took their stories as the centre piece to our production. We also researched the local context at the time and imagined how D-Day may have been experienced by the local people living through it.
We used much of this research in the production, interspersing Frank and Betty’s story with the conversations of the Wimborne townsfolk – the shopkeepers, the gossips and the farmers. American GIs were stationed at Kingston Lacey near the town, ships sailed from all along the south coast and Tarrant Rushton Airfield played a significant role in the D-Day invasion. RAF Tarrant Rushton, a former Royal Air Force station near Blandford Forum, was in service from 1943 to 1947. The gliders who flew from there were the first to land in Normandy on D-Day.
The title, Let ’em Have It, came from a wartime poster which we used in the opening of the production.
“This is the Year, This is the Day. It’s Up to Us to Let ’em Have It.
Photos
Photos from the performance in the garden of the Museum of East Dorset. Photos taken by Max Gonzalez Bridger from In Jolly Good Company.
Art Work
An artistic impression of the performance at the Jubilee Gardens by local artist, Hilary Foley.
D-Day Programme of Events, 6th June 2024
Wimborne Community Theatre’s production was part of a day of events to mark the anniversary organised by Wimborne Minster Town Council.
Read about the event
Songs
The wartime classic We’ll Meet Again was sung by Jane Skellett as part of the performance – here are the lyrics:
We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where, don’t know when,
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.
So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know,
Tell them I won’t be long.
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song
We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where,
Don’t know when,
But I know we’ll meet again,
Some sunny day.
We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where, don’t know when,
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.
So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know,
Tell them I won’t be long.
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song.
We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where, don’t know when,
But I know we’ll meet again,
Some sunny day.