大象传媒

I was about 8 when the war broke out and I had just started Headcorn School in Maidstone. My father was a farmer who owned a strawberry farm so he was not asked to sign up for the army as he had to grow crops for the soldiers and the rest of the country.
Through the war for some reason I did not feel any fear at all. However I do remember that one of the things that did make me frightened were the doodlebugs. I had a couple of near miss experiences with them. One of these experiences has to be when I was about 10. I was a big fan of fishing and had set out of the house with my fishing rod in hand, towards the nearest pond. I walked past a hedgerow on my way just as a doodlebug was dropped behind me. I looked back and the hedgerow I had just walked past had been completely blown out. There wasn鈥檛 a hole in the ground or anything; the hedge simply wasn鈥檛 there anymore. I also saw that where the field next to it had previously had beans stacked up neatly, all of the beans had been swept to the other side of the field.

As I was quite young in the war, I didn鈥檛 really understand what was going on. So when spare fuel tanks were dropped around us, I thought to myself what great boats they would make for myself. I found one and pushed it all the way back to my house where I had big plans for turning it into a boat. However, just as I reached my house an Observer Corp spotted me, and the fuel tank was taken away. This still did not stop me wanting to turn one into a boat and it was not long before another was dropped nearby. This one was much bigger and better than the one before, and I pushed it home eagerly to my father鈥檚 tool shed. I found his big heavy wood axe and used it to try and make a whole in the tank. My first attempt was unsuccessful; I only managed to create a big dent in it. In my second attempt though, I managed to create a big whole in the middle of it. Luckily for me though, the fuel inside did not explode. It made a great boat.

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