The story of Lowestoft's evacuees told for the first time

Watch a report from ITV Anglia's Kate Prout

A new book tells the little known story of the Second World War evacuees from a Suffolk fishing town.

For its population, Lowestoft is thought to have been one of the most bombed places in Britain. Three thousand children were taken by train to the North to avoid the danger and now nearly forty of them have told their stories for the first time.

It may have happened 80 years ago but for many of the surviving evacuees the memories of June 2nd 1940 are still vivid.

For most it was a very extended holiday as they spent up to five years in villages and towns in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

What's so fascinating about their stories is that you might assume it was only children from large cities or the capital who were evacuated but Lowestoft was actually the most heavily bombed town in the country.

Lowestoft's location on the east coast made it vulnerable to enemy planes not just heading to Britain to attack but also on the way home when they offloaded spare ammunition.

Clive Capps, a surviving evacuee who has written a book on Lowestoft's evacuees said: "I didn't realise there was a war on. At five years old I didn't notice. I was billeted to a farm in Cresswell, near the famous crags and I have quite good memories of it. But the displacement factor was not good"

But not all the evacuees were as lucky as Clive, as some of them ended up in miners' cottages shoveling the coal and some of them ended up being treated like slaves.

In total 3.5 million children were moved across the country - shaping many of their lives forever.