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I was born on 14th December 1921 and lived at Hedge-End, Southampton with my parents, sister and three brothers.

They were happy times with plenty to do — swimming, dancing, skating, coach trips and exploring the countryside among other things. A bicycle was a must - but not 10 speeds in those days, not even three! We would travel miles to a dance or to a sandy beach to swim. Everyday swimming was in a river nearby our house and it was fun cycling through the woods after school and then later from work.

Then came the rumblings of war. As we all sat listening to the wireless, the mood was sombre when on 3rd September 1939, Neville Chamberlain announced that we were going to war with Germany. No one made any comments afterwards, probably, like myself, we all wondered what the future held.

We were soon to find out when preparations were made. Ack Ack guns and balloons were sited discreetly around the area, air raid shelters were erected in gardens or in one's house. My family had a huge steel table-type of shelter in the living room which we all sheltered under, including a mother and her three children, who we befriended as they walked to the country looking for a safer refuge when the bombing increased around Southampton and Woolston. Blackout curtains were hung at all windows and doors of course.ac

As time moved on, we often spotted a lone German plane being picked out by the searchlights and fired upon. I think they were usually on reconnaissance before the main force of German bombers swooped into the area.

The call soon came for those who were able to joint the services or factories. I decided to work at Woolston near Southampton at the "Supermarine" aircraft factory, five miles away from my home. My eldest brother was already working there on the "Spitfire" aircraft.

At the same time, the factory were also completing work on the "Supermarine Stranraer" flying boat. I was able to test my sewing skills by sewing the fabric over the wings, etc. of the flying boat. The fabric was pinned and stretched very tightly then sewn around the edge with buttonhole stitching. Later the fabric was treated many times with a special solution to give it strength.

It wasn't long before the air-raids started. The first one that I experienced was the afternoon of 15th September 1940 which started very soon after the warning siren came. We just had time to reach the shelter underneath the building I worked in, which fortunately held up as most of the attack was directed at the building opposite ours.

A few days later we had to make our way to the shelter again and we knew the bombings were much heavier than before as there were people there who were injured from a previous raid. I thought they were very brave to come back and I guess it made us all feel rather nervous. However, we later scrambled out amid plenty of debris and I made my way home carefully on foot.

The third raid I remember on 20th September 1940 was much, much heavier. A lone plane was heard and the warning siren came rather late. We were instructed to go to the shelter about half a mile away and ran quickly as we heard the drone of many German planes following the path of the river. They were flying quite low, so low in fact that looking up one could see very clearly the bombs leaving the planes and hear their whine as they descended. All we had time to do was fall to the ground and lie flat until there was an opportunity to get up and run away from the target. The shelters we were heading for were destroyed in the raid and we learnt later that there were many casualties. I saw devastation everywhere as I walked home. I did not know whether my brother and his fiancé had escaped — thankfully, we were all fine.

I later learnt that the task of eliminating the Supermarine Works had been given to Gruppen Fuerher Martin Sutze, who, after a raid on Bristol, was subsequently shot down and killed over Cranborne Chase in Dorset.

Eventually, I moved on to Cunliffe Owen works at Eastleigh, another aircraft factory only 4 miles from my home. It was in this factory that I prepared skin panels for riveting onto partly assembled aircraft. Later I fitted instruments into "Hurricane" cockpits. The cycle journey to Eastleigh was very hard work, but sometimes I was lucky and rode pillion on a friend's motorbike, which was great fun. We experienced the occasional air raid at Eastleigh, but not quite so severe. The Cunliffe Owen raids were led by Oberst Leutnant Otto Hinze, the Staffel leader of the ME 104 attacking aircraft. He became a POW and survived the war.

Before D-Day, I chanced to be in Southampton to watch the troops marching down the High Street on their way to France on 2nd June 1944. It was an emotional moment as they were singing and calling out to the crowds, not knowing when or if they would return to English shores. Little did I know that my future brother-in-law was one of those departing soldiers. He was one of the lucky ones and returned to record his experiences and still talks about that time - at 90 years of age!

Despite the loss of life and devastation, new friendships were formed during those difficult years and I will always remember them with pleasure. It was in those days also that I met my husband. We have now been married for 58 years.

Betty Young December 2005

Footnote
Doug Young (Betty’s husband also in aircraft construction), and Roy Young (Betty’s brother-in-law in the Royal Engineers) have both recorded their WW2 experiences on the People’s War web site.

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