IT was the Sound of Music in real life - a young Gwent woman one jump ahead of would-be German captors as the dark clouds of war descended over Europe.

"I was one of the last Britons to leave Germany. Another few hours and I dread to think what would have happened.

"I would have been detained in Germany for however long the war lasted," Vera Machell, nee Smale, says, 66 years after the dash through Germany hours before Britain and the Third Reich were at war.

Vera Smale was the daughter of a railway engineer who early in her school career displayed a passion for literature, music and the stage.

Born into a family of Seventh Day Adventists she went to Somerton School and then to Brynglas.

"In 1939 the clouds of war were gathering but at 17 you don't think about politics. I was one of 25 young Britons attending a Seventh Day Adventist youth gathering in Denmark and to tell you the truth I was having the time of my life," Vera, whose blue eyes still twinkle her passion for life, says.

"The gathering was at a college in Denmark which we had reached by way of Hamburg in Germany and was attended by young people from all over Northern Europe.

"I was 17 and full of life, so much so that they called me Brighteyes. We were by a fjord and, despite war being only a few weeks away, the British and the German contingents got on marvellously.

"It was a wonderful and carefree atmosphere. I don't think any of us gave very much thought to what was happening on the world stage although thinking back, our leader, Pastor Ernest Warland, must have been aware of the potential danger that lay just over the border because he looked rather anxious and kept disappearing.

"I realise now that he was trying to negotiate our escape."

One boy in particular, by the name of Helgeleyer and an ethnic German from the Baltic states had become a special friend, but as the congress broke up each of the national groups fled for home, harmonious illusions shattered.

"He was a lovely boy but I never saw him again though I still have the photograph. The most important thing was to get back to England."

At 17, and in the Indian summer of that fateful year, a feeling that life was to be viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of youth prevailed. Such a carefree attitude was dispelled the moment Vera and her young British companions reached the Danish-German border.

"There was a terrible palaver with none of us young people knowing what was going on, the upshot being that German soldiers with fixed bayonets shepherded us into a railway station waiting room," Vera recalls.

"I remember very well that one of the soldiers prodded me in the back with his bayonet although to be fair the Germans generally acted in a kindly manner towards us.

"There was a toilet, and we each had the remains of our packed lunches, but it was made quite clear to us that on no account were we to leave the station waiting room.

"I went to sleep on the waiting room table. We had only the sketchiest idea of what was going on but of course Pastor Warland must have understood a great deal more.

"When he came back to us after speaking to the Germans the sweat was running down his face. I remember him putting his fingers up to his lips and whispering 'Follow me'.

"We crept out of there like little mice, along the platform and across a small railway line and into a cattle truck. There was an iron grille in the window but I don't remember looking through it.

"By now, all we wanted to do was to get home. At this point Pastor Warland told us that war was imminent and there and then in the railway wagon we all prayed.

"The train took us to the Hook of Holland where the ship the Princess Beatrix was waiting to take us home.

"By the time came to clamber aboard and she set off for Harwich we understood full well that had we have been another couple of hours later, we would have been interned for the duration of the war.

"In those days before mobile telephones there was no way of letting my parents know what was going on and what was happening. By the time I got back to Cedar Road they were frantic."

Vera became one of the first female volunteers for the St John Ambulance. After a period of recovery from a typhoid virus she went to work in the tally office at the Royal Ordnance Factory that had been set up in Corporation Road and it was whilst there she celebrated her 21st birthday.

In 1941 she was doing voluntary work at the YMCA in Newport, preparing drinks and meals for soldiers, when she met Bill Machell, a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, who asked her for a dance.

"I badly wanted Bill to come to my 21st and when he didn't I was a bit upset to say the least.

Then a letter came from Gourock in Scotland saying that he had been drafted overseas.

"I didn't see him again until he came home at the end of the war.

"During that war one of my brothers, Samuel, worked for ENSA which organised entertainment for the troops and William was a rear-gunner in the RAF. My cousin Richard, who was brought up as our brother and now lives in Canada, was an RAF pilot."

Vera and Bill were married in Newport in October, 1946. After the war Vera joined the British Red Cross which she still actively supports.

They have a daughter, Camille, who lives in Tasmania and who has five children of her own. Vera's interest in the Seventh Day Adventist Church is undimmed.

She is church clerk at the Eveswell church and has been Pathfinder leader for 21 years. The couple now live in Gaer Park Lane, Newport.

Among their mementoes are an ink blotter and a box which Vera brought back in her luggage from Denmark 66 years ago.

"I can't believe that we were so innocent," Vera says now, with a smile.

"Looking back, the thought of being one of the last to escape Germany before war broke out is a chilling one. How blissfully unaware we were of the terrible events that were about to befall the world."