大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was about three years old when war broke out. One of the earliest things I remember was that people had to stick tape on their windows and dig air raid shelters in their gardens; all the neighbours helped each other to do that. Another early memory I have is that almost from the beginning of the war, we had lodgers. We started off with some 鈥榙isplaced persons鈥� 鈥� an Hungarian gentleman, very distinguished; no one knew what he did. He gave me a mouth organ made in Prague, so I held him in high esteem. We then had a Pole who got arrested on the Downs because he went up there for a walk without his papers. We had a French lady and various RAF personnel. One evening in particular I remember, we had knock on the door during a blackout; there were loads of RAF personnel all over the place with clipboards, trying to get lodgings for these blokes. They were pleading with people to take one in. They asked us to take two and my mother said yes; we had them for some time. Then we had WAAFS and a string of people who worked in the Met office. Some of the military personnel that we had, used to leave suddenly and you didn鈥檛 know where they were going. We only managed to keep in contact with two people that we had as lodgers during this time.

I remember my father held me up to watch the German bombers flying low over Dunstable, seemingly at the time, in their hundreds. It was night time and everybody was looking; you could even see the swastikas and the pilots. I asked my dad if we should be doing this? He told me not to worry because they were off to bomb Coventry or Birmingham. One evening as I was being held up by my father, we saw a glow in the distance 鈥� he told me that it was London burning.

I stared school in the early part of the war in 1941. Initially we attended half days only as they did not have enough teachers 鈥� half the school was taught in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. I quite liked that as my friends and I would go roaming the countryside 鈥� bearing in mind that Dunstable was a country town at the time. So we enjoyed our freedom and then all of a sudden we had to go full time 鈥� we didn鈥檛 like that at all! The school was called Burr Street. Miss B was Headmistress and I remember Mrs M; I think they dragged her out of retirement because she used to teach my father. There were very few male teachers, as many men were being called up.

At the school we were very conscious of the war and had to go wearing our gas masks in boxes or tins. Whenever there was an air raid and the siren would go, we would troop into the cloakrooms and put our masks on and sit there until the all-clear.

So many things were in short supply, anything you wrote down on a piece of paper had to start right at the top left corner of the page and finish at the bottom right; no margins and you used the back as well. Books that you could borrow were also in short supply. As a special treat, we used to get odd-bods coming round, I don鈥檛 quite know who they were; suddenly a chap would be in the room with some chocolate powder and we would have a spoonful of that. Someone would also come round with dolly mixtures and we would probably get one or two each!

Sweets were heavily rationed but I knew an elderly couple down the road that were members of the Priory; the man was a member of the Church England Men鈥檚 Society, of which my father was Secretary at the time. I used to go down and do little jobs for them and they would give me their sweet coupons!

Towards the D Day situation we had huge convoys coming through the town. Masses of British and American troops; some of them marching in columns and others in long lines of transport; tanks chewing up the road and airplanes on the back of trailers. Going all ways in fact, I think the idea was to confuse the enemy as to where they were going to some extent. Coming out of school, if one of these convoys were going past and they were American, we used to shout, 鈥淕ot any gum, chum?鈥� They would throw us packets of gum and maybe a packet of rations as well. When they decided not to, we were most hurt.

The blackout of course effected everybody. There were air-raid precaution wardens, ARPs, who if they saw a chink of light would come hammering on your door.
Also, I remember that sometimes during raids, you could see searchlights at the Northern end of the town in the Watling Street area. I don鈥檛 think they actually fired at anything though. You could hear gunfire and bombs, in Luton in particular. Eventually we used to take refuge behind the family鈥檚 piano. That was the government鈥檚 advice. The idea was to put it against a load-bearing wall with come cushions and hide behind it. So if the house was brought down, you had something to protect you! I had lessons on this piano and in fact I鈥檝e still got it! It used to belong to an uncle and aunt; they left the area and gave it to my parents.

During the war I joined the Cubs, and eventually the Priory Choir. We used to meet up with various lads in the area and walk down together. The Choirmaster Harold D, a hard taskmaster, lived two doors away from us, so if I missed choir practice, there would be a hammering on the door and I would have to account for it! As choirboys we used to sing in the mornings and evenings, we got a shilling for weddings and funerals. As a treat during the war we were taken to Whipsnade Zoo. We used to walk there, walk all around it, be given an ice cream and walk back 鈥� our day out!

The cinema was very popular. My parents took me to see Walt Disney鈥檚 Fantasia and Bambi 鈥� things like that. We also saw newsreels showing Germans troops and Hitler and so on.

Sometimes we went to visit relatives in Sussex and Henlow. This would involve several bus rides to get to there. We had to tell the authorities where we were going, for how long and get permission to go; partly to avoid general chaos and also if your house was bombed, the authorities needed to know if you were in there or not.

Food wise I remember powered egg and milk, having perhaps half an once of butter a week and the Co-op milkman coming round; supplies of milk didn鈥檛 seem to be too bad. My grandparents lived near a local dairy; they had their milk delivered in a churn, ladled directly into their own containers. Often the milk would still be warm, absolutely fresh! Bread and fruit were short. Rations for meat 鈥� there used to be queues at the butchers. I don鈥檛 know if you saw Dad鈥檚 Army, where people try to keep friendly with their butcher Corporal Jones, in order to get a few extra sausages, well that was definitely reminiscent of wartime! There were many small general stores about in Dunstable and as a child I was often sent with a list of groceries to collect, but the only time you saw an orange was at Christmas, when you had one at the toe of your stocking. At the end of the war ice creams started to appear; locally ice-cream vendors would come round on their special bikes shouting 鈥渋cy, icy!鈥�

Not only did we grow vegetables in the garden but my father also had an allotment in Worthington Road, which I used to help him with on Saturday mornings. I remember a chap that used to sit at the corner of Chiltern Road with an easel, painting pictures. I believe he was arrested as a possible spy because he was painting pictures of RAF personnel walking about.

I remember the celebrations at the end of the war, probably VE day. The church bells rang - we hadn鈥檛 heard them for a long time, in fact I hardly knew what they sounded like. People danced in the street, literally; I wondered where they had all come from. We had a street party in Wellington Road and all the children went. There was a conjurer; I remember this vividly as he wasn鈥檛 very good!

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