大象传媒

This story was subbmitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Swavesey Village College.

In 1940 my husband Arthur George Parker was called up for the war. He joined the R.A.F until 1944. My brother George Percival Pledger was called up for the Militia. He fought at Dunkirk and in the Middle East and was taken prisoner of war until the war ended. I was a young mother of two; their names were Judith Ann born in 1940 and Valerie Georgina born in 1943.

Life for a young mother with children in the war was hard and frightening; people were always ready to help each other, we were issued with identity cards, ration books and gas masks which had to be carried around everywhere. Babies had to be enclosed in a rather confined space, usually a box in event of gas. We were issued with clothing coupons, only the minimum of clothes were allowed, mothers had to knit and make children's clothes. We had to queue up for everything; one person queued up for meat while others queued for sugar and margarine once you ran out that was it. There was no eggs only dried egg. We used to use liquid paraffin to make pastry when we had run out of fats. We all had to make "blackout" curtains as not light must show to any enemy aircraft.

My father George Arthur Pledger did fire watching which meant he had to stay up late at night and look out for fires, everyone had to do something. I had two soldiers billeted with me; it wasn't easy cooking and washing for five people. Everything was done by hand as we had no washing machines back in them days, and everything had to be ironed, there was no plastic, drip dry etc. My father and I watched a German plane drop its bombs one time, they bombed a railway station killing a soldier and injuring others. It was not unusual seeing people throw themselves down when an enemy aircraft was overhead. Street shelters that looked like large stone bunkers were erected on most streets. I had to sleep fully clothed on the bed as the siren would go off all hours of the night. If this happened, kind neighbours would help me to get my children wrapped up, ready to go and spend hours in the shelters. After the siren was sounded there would be a dreadful hush as we waited for the zoom-zoom of the enemy aircraft. My sister went back to her flat one night to find that it had been damaged by enemy bombs that had dropped nearby. The American soldiers came over near the end of the war, including Clark Gable who was stationed at Duxford Aerodrome. Many British young girls married Americans and went back to the states with them after the war. London and Coventry suffered terribly from the bombs, children were evacuated from London to live in the country and Cambridge until the war was over. During the war I was in hospital recovering from major surgery and it was rather frightening to hear the enemy aircraft when you were unable to move from the position that you have been put in. My husband Arthur Parker was sent out all over the country to retrieve crashed aircraft to be taken apart and reused if possible. He was a flight mechanic (L.A.C Airframe) he inspected aircraft before it left Oakington, and was stationed for a time at 54th Maintenance regiment. My unmarried friends joined the Waafs, Land Army and Nursing services. My brother George went away at the age of 19 years, a boy came back a man; it was hard to believe it was the same person.

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