大象传媒

Memories of WW II

I was six years old when the war started in 1939 and at the tender age of eight in April 1941 became a border at a boarding school in Bushey, Herts where I was to spend the rest of the war apart from school holidays. We were close enough to London to spend the best part of two years sleeping each night in an air raid shelter as opposed to being dragged out of bed each night around midnight to return some hours later.
Two memories are most vivid during this period, both involving aircraft.
The school had an outdoor swimming pool which was still operational as its main function was to provide an emergency water supply for firefighting should the need arise.
One summers day, in May or June 1944 my house, forty of us boys of a total of 250 , were spending our allotted twenty minutes in the pool. It was a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was the practice to bathe in the nude.
While enjoying ourselves we suddenly became aware of an aircraft (or so we thought) approaching at a very low altitude and making a noise like a motorcycle engine without a silencer. This aircraft flew almost directly over the pool heading towards Watford. Although I am short sighted I could see the aircraft without difficulty. No one including the two masters supervising us had any idea what it was and we just stood there watching. Approximately 10 seconds later the sound ceased and just a few seconds after that, there was an enormous explosion as this V 1 had landed in Watford.
Can you imagine forty boys, all in the nude streaking - literally for the air raid shelter. That was the one and only V 1 I saw during the war but I saw something else equally remarkable
I鈥檇 always thought this event occurred at the time of the D Day invasions in 1944 but the timing was wrong, .It must have been the spring of 1945.
The boys slept in a long dormitory and the bell to get up went at 7.15 am during the weekdays and 7.45a.m. on Sunday. This particular morning, very early but already daylight, we were woken by the sound of aircraft., but this was very different.. The sound was unbelievably loud.. I recall rushing to the window along with many other boys to see this armada of aircraft flying past, mainly D.C.3s each towing a glider. They stretched almost as far as one could see and in a space of forty five minutes I counted over seven hundred aircraft, including gliders. A scene never to be seen again (By me anyway and I doubt anyone else)
The rest of the war seemed fairly tame in comparison, the regular warnings on Anti personnel bombs and practise in wearing our gas masks, to be carried at all times when outside the school grounds, etc.
My home at the time was in Somerset so each time I travelled home and returned to Bushey I was aware of the bomb damage, especially in the west end of London, and the huge build up of Materials to the west of the capital, for the eventual invasion and liberation of Europe.
I am now seventy. I believe at the time I was sufficiently young not to appreciate the full dangers of the war
John A Cox e mail 100641.3250@compuserve.com
Memories of WW II

I was six years old when the war started in 1939 and at the tender age of eight in April 1941 became a border at a boarding school in Bushey, Herts where I was to spend the rest of the war apart from school holidays. We were close enough to London to spend the best part of two years sleeping each night in an air raid shelter as opposed to being dragged out of bed each night around midnight to return some hours later.
Two memories are most vivid during this period, both involving aircraft.
The school had an outdoor swimming pool which was still operational as its main function was to provide an emergency water supply for firefighting should the need arise.
One summers day, in May or June 1944 my house, forty of us boys of a total of 250 , were spending our allotted twenty minutes in the pool. It was a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was the practice to bathe in the nude.
While enjoying ourselves we suddenly became aware of an aircraft (or so we thought) approaching at a very low altitude and making a noise like a motorcycle engine without a silencer. This aircraft flew almost directly over the pool heading towards Watford. Although I am short sighted I could see the aircraft without difficulty. No one including the two masters supervising us had any idea what it was and we just stood there watching. Approximately 10 seconds later the sound ceased and just a few seconds after that, there was an enormous explosion as this V 1 had landed in Watford.
Can you imagine forty boys, all in the nude streaking - literally for the air raid shelter. That was the one and only V 1 I saw during the war but I saw something else equally remarkable
I鈥檇 always thought this event occurred at the time of the D Day invasions in 1944 but the timing was wrong, .It must have been the spring of 1945.
The boys slept in a long dormitory and the bell to get up went at 7.15 am during the weekdays and 7.45a.m. on Sunday. This particular morning, very early but already daylight, we were woken by the sound of aircraft., but this was very different.. The sound was unbelievably loud.. I recall rushing to the window along with many other boys to see this armada of aircraft flying past, mainly D.C.3s each towing a glider. They stretched almost as far as one could see and in a space of forty five minutes I counted over seven hundred aircraft, including gliders. A scene never to be seen again (By me anyway and I doubt anyone else)
The rest of the war seemed fairly tame in comparison, the regular warnings on Anti personnel bombs and practise in wearing our gas masks, to be carried at all times when outside the school grounds, etc.
My home at the time was in Somerset so each time I travelled home and returned to Bushey I was aware of the bomb damage, especially in the west end of London, and the huge build up of Materials to the west of the capital, for the eventual invasion and liberation of Europe.
I am now seventy. I believe at the time I was sufficiently young not to appreciate the full dangers of the war
John A Cox e mail 100641.3250@compuserve.com
Memories of WW II

I was six years old when the war started in 1939 and at the tender age of eight in April 1941 became a border at a boarding school in Bushey, Herts where I was to spend the rest of the war apart from school holidays. We were close enough to London to spend the best part of two years sleeping each night in an air raid shelter as opposed to being dragged out of bed each night around midnight to return some hours later.
Two memories are most vivid during this period, both involving aircraft.
The school had an outdoor swimming pool which was still operational as its main function was to provide an emergency water supply for firefighting should the need arise.
One summers day, in May or June 1944 my house, forty of us boys of a total of 250 , were spending our allotted twenty minutes in the pool. It was a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was the practice to bathe in the nude.
While enjoying ourselves we suddenly became aware of an aircraft (or so we thought) approaching at a very low altitude and making a noise like a motorcycle engine without a silencer. This aircraft flew almost directly over the pool heading towards Watford. Although I am short sighted I could see the aircraft without difficulty. No one including the two masters supervising us had any idea what it was and we just stood there watching. Approximately 10 seconds later the sound ceased and just a few seconds after that, there was an enormous explosion as this V 1 had landed in Watford.
Can you imagine forty boys, all in the nude streaking - literally for the air raid shelter. That was the one and only V 1 I saw during the war but I saw something else equally remarkable
I鈥檇 always thought this event occurred at the time of the D Day invasions in 1944 but the timing was wrong, .It must have been the spring of 1945.
The boys slept in a long dormitory and the bell to get up went at 7.15 am during the weekdays and 7.45a.m. on Sunday. This particular morning, very early but already daylight, we were woken by the sound of aircraft., but this was very different.. The sound was unbelievably loud.. I recall rushing to the window along with many other boys to see this armada of aircraft flying past, mainly D.C.3s each towing a glider. They stretched almost as far as one could see and in a space of forty five minutes I counted over seven hundred aircraft, including gliders. A scene never to be seen again (By me anyway and I doubt anyone else)
The rest of the war seemed fairly tame in comparison, the regular warnings on Anti personnel bombs and practise in wearing our gas masks, to be carried at all times when outside the school grounds, etc.
My home at the time was in Somerset so each time I travelled home and returned to Bushey I was aware of the bomb damage, especially in the west end of London, and the huge build up of Materials to the west of the capital, for the eventual invasion and liberation of Europe.
I am now seventy. I believe at the time I was sufficiently young not to appreciate the full dangers of the war
John A Cox e mail 100641.3250@compuserve.com

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